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Paradoxical Accomplishment Of Atomic Bombs

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A Paradoxical Accomplishment and the Omission of the Soviets
The use of atomic weapons by the United States against the Japanese Empire during the Second World War has long been a subject of emotional discourse. Initially, the majority of Americans approved the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and believed that they were justified acts of warfare, as the bombings ended the war in the Pacific, thereby avoiding a bloody mainland invasion of Japan. Interestingly, decades after President Truman’s decision to drop the two atomic bombs, public opinion has slightly shifted. Some now believe that while the bombs drew the Second World War to a close, Japan’s leaders were willing to surrender to the United States months before and would have done …show more content…

The photos of the survivors, scars and all, instinctively lead many to believe that the devastation was off the charts. However, this type of carnage matched what the Japanese had experienced a few months earlier during the summer of 1945 when the United States Army Air Force carried out one of the deadliest bombing campaigns in history. In total, nearly two million people had their homes destroyed, almost a million wounded, and about 300,00 killed (Long). The most destructive attack in this campaign was carried out in March, on Japan’s capital, Tokyo, with over 100,000 people were killed (Kuznick and Stone 157). In comparison, the bombing of Hiroshima led to an estimated 140,000 deaths at the end of 1945, while the bombing of Nagasaki led to around 74,000 deaths (“Hiroshima and Nagasaki”). In addition, there was no full-fledged meeting by Japanese officials over this devastating incident (Cook). Two days after the Tokyo firebombings, former Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro argued that the Japanese people would, “Gradually get used to being bombed daily. In time their unity and resolve would grow stronger” (Wilson). This was the consensus within the higher ranking Japanese officials, causing one to wonder: if the Japanese Empire surrendered because a city was completely destroyed, why didn’t they surrender after the other hundred cities were destroyed? Moreover, if the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was no worse than the firebombings, and if Japanese officials blatantly decided that it was not a pressing issue, how can it be possible that the atomic bombs were the reason World War II

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