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Should We Have Dropped The Atomic Bomb On Hiroshima And Nagasaki

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Should We Have Used The Atomic Bomb On Hiroshima and Nagasaki Ever since August 6th, 1945 we have been questioning ourselves on the decision that Harry S. Truman made to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This resulted in the surrender of Japan and finished the Pacific Ocean Theater of World War ll. It is said that Truman wanted to end the war quickly without American casualties, for the Allies just defeated the Axis powers. Truman before ever using the atomic bombs said in response to a Georgia Senator, who suggested to use as many atomic bombs as possible, “I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare, but I can't bring myself to believe that because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in that …show more content…

Truman had other options than the atomic bomb and one of them is Operation Downfall a.k.a the invasion of Japan. Operation Downfall would have been a go if we never used the atomic bomb. Invading Japan would’ve been lunacy because America just finished defeating Nazi Germany and would have to know invade Japan with an exhausted military. Japan would also be a difficult country to invade due to their code of honor. “Japanese soldiers brought antique samurai swords into battle and made suicidal “banzai” attacks according to the Bushido principle of death before dishonor or defeat.” (history.com). This meant that most every soldier and citizen of Japan would have fought to their death. Militaryhistorynow.com stated “Both sides braced for heavy casualties. The U.S. military, expecting resistance by a “fanatically hostile population,” made preparations for between 1.7 and 4 million casualties with up to 800,000 dead. Between 5 and 10 million Japanese deaths were projected.” This being compared to the highest estimate of Japanese killed by the atomic bombs, which is 226,000 from blast and radiation, shows the ginormous gap between the number of those killed by the bomb and the number of those who could’ve been by the invasion. Although it still killed some people and citizens in the end it did save many lives on both …show more content…

surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March.” (history.com). The Japanese promised not to treat the American POWs poorly, but that wasn’t the case. They starved, were beaten, and killed by the Japanese or disease. These are the three best examples of Japan’s vilesy that support the atomic bombs being used as payback. A common rebuttal is that Truman should have chosen to use the atomic bombs in unpopulated areas to scare the Japanese into surrendering. As Richard Overy believes “...it was clearly not moral to use this weapon knowing that it would kill civilians and destroy the urban milieu.” While this would be a good idea if it were have to work since there would be little to no casualties, but Japan would not of surrendered. Evidence for this is after the first bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima, a populated city with around 350,000, but that still didn't urge the Japanese military to surrender or deter them. America decided to drop another one on Nagasaki a few days later, which also is fairly populated at around 240,000. Even After the second bomb on Nagasaki, Japan still wasn’t

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Truman’s Decision President Truman was justified in his decision to drop the atomic bombs in Japan. Truman faced many pros and cons of his decision, however, the pros outweighed the cons. There were very few alternatives to the extreme, the casualties in the Pacific were growing and the rate the war it would save lives. Although, there were many lives lost Truman made the right decision for his country.

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But he had no compelling reason to do so. The bomb provided a promising way to bring about a prompt Japanese surrender without the disadvantages of other alternatives, and in Truman’s mind, its use did not require a lengthy consideration” (Walker pg. 96). After the bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people decided that the bombs were actually required. The people thought that if the bombs weren’t dropped, thousands of American lives would have died while America invaded Japan. The problem with this logic is that many people died in those bombings.

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President Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons on Japan was justified because it put an end to a horrific war, saved millions, and sprung the United States armed forces. The first piece of evidence supporting the claim is how the decision made by President Truman to use atomic weapons on Japan was rightfully justified because of the Japanese war mentality. President Truman's decision was justified because the fighting in the Pacific showed that the Japanese would do anything they could to win the war, they had men purposefully ceasing themselves for the country, and held brutal camps for American prisoners of war as we learned in class, and would do anything to win the war. One piece of evidence supporting the claim “against those who have

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Why would killing so many people ever be justified? First off the Japanese were nearly done before the bombing , so the bomb wasn’t necessary. “The JApanese were already defeated and ready to surrender...” (Document 6). This quote shows that the bomb was not necessary and was just the United States showing off a new weapon they had.

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Truman’s decision to bomb Japan was right for many reasons. One piece of evidence that shows Truman made the right decision is when Japan captured our American troops and kept them as prisoners, they beat and starved them and even went as far as executing them, he talks about this in his radio report to the American people. " against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war" (DocF). A second piece of evidence that shows Truman made the right decision is he was just trying to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. He talks about both of these pieces of evidence in his radio to the American people. "

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Justification of the Atomic Bomb Did Truman have enough justified reasons in dropping the Atomic bomb to end the war? On April 12 President Roosevelt died, vice president Truman had to take office and was suddenly forced to gain total victory over Japan. He had two options, the first one was to invade Japan with the planned Operation Downfall, he found out about his second option 12 days after he became president, after this weapon was explained in detail Truman immediately began to see the diplomatic implications of the bomb. To end the war the Atomic Bomb over Japan was totally necessary. “In conclusion, I would like to explain why Japanese soldiers do not surrender.

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The dropping of the bombs were necessary and fair due to the refusal of the Japanese to surrender, the millions of lives saved by a quick end to the war, and the warnings given to the Japanese. To begin, the Japanese soldiers have it ingrained in their brains that it is dishonorable to surrender. The author of Drop the Bomb as agreed by saying that “the Japanese have demonstrated a willingness to fight to the death”. During the war there were many times for the Japanese to surrender, but it was never done. With this in mind, they would have continued to drag out the war, which shows that dropping the bombs sped up the war which lessened the casualties.

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I have been convinced that we saved more lives than we took. It would have been morally wrong if we’d have had that weapon and not used it and let a million more people die.” (Document L). You said after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that the U.S. dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, right? The U.S. only dropped Fat Man (Nagasaki) and Little Boy (Hiroshima) to get payback for Japan dropping the bomb on Pearl Harbor.

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Not only did the bomb kill thousands of people, houses and buildings got burned down, causing so many to be poor and homeless. Before the U.S. dropped the bomb on the Japanese, Japanese was already losing in the war and was ready to surrender. In the document 2 it states, “The use of the barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender…” This text proves that the Japanese was already about to surrender.

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When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima no one really knew what the overall outcome would be as this was the first attack of this sort ever used. The eventual reported outcome of loss of life was in excess of 135,000. There were tens of thousands more wounded and a portion of Japan left uninhabitable. Ultimately, the US use of nuclear weapons against Japan was revered to be more as a showing of the US advancements in the Arms Race than it was to bring about a cessation to the war and save US troops from having to continue ground assaults in the Pacific Theatre. This was the justification Truman used to justify his decision to himself, congress and the American people.

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In Document 2, Admiral Leahy says, “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.” Some Americans felt as though the weapon should not have been used because the Japanese were ready to give in. COME BACK Not only were the Japanese ready to surrender but it was morally wrong to bomb multiple cities without realizing what the outcomes may be.

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Again, the Japanese had no knowledge of the bombs, causing even more devastating casualties. People have argued over the years if the atomic bombing was justified or not, and multiple points can be made on both arguments, yet I take it that the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not justified. Keep in

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In addition to the American Casualties, the bomb saved Japanese Lives. Although it is ironic, it is true the Japanese military had planned to used every citizen to

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Although the two atomic bombs killed thousands of innocent civilians the decision to drop the atomic bombs was a military necessity because it saved American troops, it helped shorten the war, and the Japanese were given fair warning and could have surrendered. The bombs “the Little Boy” and “the Fat Man” saved thousands of American troops. Japanese troops were known for fighting till the death which would have caused the war to go on longer and America would have suffered more casualties. “U.S. Army Chief of staff George Marshall thought the Americans would suffer 31,000 casualties in the first 30 days, while Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, put them between 31,000 and 41,000” (Atomic Bomb, 2023).

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149 Words | 1 Pages

I believe President Truman was correct to use the bombs on Japan because there was only one other option, invasion. If the US

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