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'Thank God For The Atomic Bomb' By Pau Paul Fussell

1348 Words6 Pages

The Atomic Bomb Saved Lives
The United States use of the Atomic Bomb in 1945 quickly ended the war in the Pacific, Japan. Many Americans in the military towards the end of WWII credit the Atomic Bomb with having saved their lives. The bomb’s use prevented the planned invasion into Japan from happening. Those of who opposed the use of the bomb never saw a day in combat and did not realize what an invasion into Japan would have meant for the men set to invade. Paul Fussell wrote “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” on the forty-second anniversary of the Atomic Bomb’s use supporting their use in ending the war. The use of the Atomic bomb by The United States was necessary for ending WWII in the Pacific; their use is responsible for sparing thousands of American lives at the end of WWII and many who opposed their use had never seen combat. …show more content…

He was wounded while fighting in France, and although forty percent disabled1 was set to be apart of the invasion into Japan. Forty-two years later when Fussell wrote “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” he was working at the University of Pennsylvania as an English professor. Fussell is best known for his realist writing about WWI and WWII. In “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” Fussell addresses “something suggested by the long debate about the ethics, if any, of that ghastly affair. Namely, the importance of experience, sheer, vulgar experience, in influencing, if not determining, one's views about that use of the atom bomb” . Fussell had witnessed first hand how being in combat and experiencing the sheer violence and mutilation of war can have an effect on one's views about issues such as the Atomic Bomb. He writes in defense for the use of the “Atom Bomb” and how one's experiences shape one’s

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