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The Pros And Cons Of Atomic Bombs

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The United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 6th and August 9th of 1945, respectively. This event resulted in the death of an estimated 200,000 Japanese people, a lot of which were civilians, and it remains as one of the most controversial topics in world history. People are divided on the belief that it was necessary or that it was unnecessary, each with their own valid points to back up their reasoning, yet, the bombing of Japan had more pros than cons and therefore was most definitely a necessary action in World War II. Most view the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese as the reason for the bombing of Japan, there are a multitude of overlooked factors that were also partially the cause of the …show more content…

Ten thousand died on the Bataan Death March.” (The American Yawp). There were an estimated 75,000 soldiers in total that had to walk the Bataan Death March, a lot of which were American soldiers, a lot of which also died during the March. The Japanese had also battled the United States in other instances such as the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, both of which were gruesome and resulted in major losses. Also, by this time it was 1945, and the major war in Europe had ended, but Japan still continued to fight and showed no signs of stopping. The United States had tried various other ways to stop Japan before coming to the atomic bomb, as they had tried normal bombing raids over Japan as well as naval blockades, yet Japan refused to back down. The United States kept trying, especially with the Potsdam Declaration, “It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the likes of which has never been seen on this earth.” (Harry Truman Announcing the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima …show more content…

WWII had caused major casualties of United States citizens fighting in the war as well as the fact that a lot of funding went towards the war. Though this funding was necessary in creating a positive impact during the war, as when the iron curtain was created by the Soviet Union, many people had been cut off from vital supplies but the United States had stepped in to help. Franklin Roosevelt“in carrying out this Executive Order, including the furnishing of medical aid, hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities, and services.” (FDR, Executive Order No. 9066 (1942)). Also, the war had prompted an economic boom in the United States as people had mobilized for war, with plenty of new employment opportunities for both men and women as well as increased production of goods for war. While the war had also caused some inflation to occur and shortages of goods that were directed towards war efforts, it had also caused a period of prosperity in the United States that lasted for years. This period of prosperity caused many positive effects along with the G.I. bill (which focused on helping veterans), such as the fact that, “Roughly 40 percent of Americans owned homes in 1945, but that figure climbed to 60 percent a decade after the close of the war. Because the bill did away with down payment requirements, veterans could

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As the Japanese forces were considered the aggressors of the conflict by the Allies and Japanese veterans alike, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified. Their aggression previous to the bombing was demonstrated through the attack on Pearl Harbour, which led to America’s involvement in World War II. The attack was not one born out of vengeance and was not strategically logical, whereas there was a reason behind the bombing of Hiroshima, that reason being that the Japanese military would not agree to the clauses presented in the Potsdam Declaration. This declaration was given to the military officials as an invitation to surrender before the first bombing, providing ample time for them to make a decision to hopefully end the

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Afterwards, the United States declared war on Japan, and joined allies against the axis powers. The United States’ use of the atomic bombs is justified because it saved American lives; Japan was given fair warning, and their aggressions towards the U.S. The atomic bombs on Japan saved many American lives. Document 15 reads: The entire population of Japan is

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The doubts about the U.S. decision in 1945 have been discussed, analyzed, and there are still many controversies. In August 1945, the U.S. decided to use both of its two atomic bombs on Japan to end the war between them during WWII. The atomic bomb has killed about 200,000 people in the Japanese community and brought destruction to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even though the bomb had terminated the war by Japan surrendering, there were many who were against the action of using the bomb. The reason behind that perspective is that many innocent people have died, and Japan was near surrendering, so there was no need for a major event.

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The US decision to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 has generated much controversy over the years. Some argue that the bombing was necessary to end World War II, while others believed that more than 200,000 civilians died in vain. The use of this disastrous weapon caused a split in society which came down to the usage being necessary for the victory of the Allied Powers as well as stopping more Japanese crimes or a merciless crime that greatly injured an already kneeling, surrendering nation and caused mass innocent deaths. Due to previous Japanese actions, the dropping of the atomic bomb was justified and needed to be done to protect Americans and other countries oppressed by the Japanese.

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New legislatures passed during World War II helped end the Great Depression. David Emory Shi explains how the Economy Act, “allowed the president to cut government workers’ salaries, reduce payments to military veterans for non-service-connected

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They were so desperate that they were sending kamikaze to U.S. ships in the Pacific (Doc. C). This action showed America just how desperate the Japanese truly were, meaning that they were already winning the war (Doc. C). According to the Air Force Strategy Bombing Survey, “certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945 (well before the date of the [proposed] invasion) Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped” (Doc. K). This means that the Survey agreed that the war would have ended even without the bombing. Furthermore, Dwight Eisenhower stated, “I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act.... first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and second because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.

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Because of this increase in money production, the countries were brought into periods of inflation. This hurt the economy of the United States because the United States could not perform affairs with the allied countries because of their debts. During the war, the United States spent a lot of money because of the necessity of new weapons and machinery in fighting. Since the major industries that were needed during the war were now insufficient, many Americans were now out of jobs. These debts and unemployment rates brought about the stock market crash of 1929.

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Federal spending increased from $9.4 billion in 1939 to $95.2 billion in 1945, and the gross national product more than doubled in that time. Massive wartime spending ended the Great Depression. In the 1930s most economists believed that the economy would fix itself if the government did not interfere. English economist John Maynard Keynes, on the other hand, argued that deficit spending - government spending of borrowed money - should be used to get a depressed economy moving again. Deficit spending during World War II instantly turned the economy around.

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This totally wiped out the nation's economy. There were people starving, people dying from disease that spread easier since there was such a decline in the ability of a person to provide for themselves. When the war started it put an end to The Depression ("The 1940s, and the Economy: Overview”). There was a mass production in goods and new jobs became available. Since the Great Depression occured the government started to regulate things like banks, the stock market and really anything involving capital.

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The US was suffering from many casualties in their island hopping military strategy, and the naval blockade of Japan was causing hundreds of thousands of deaths due to malnutrition, famine, and dehydration. The US already had a high amount of deaths from invading Iwo Jima and Okinawa in February and April 1945. It is under debate, but if they followed through with the proposed two stage invasion, Operation Olympic and Coronet, the US casualties could range from 125,000 to over 400,000 to the War Department's estimate of millions. While the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had highest-end estimates of 140,000 and 74,000 victims (Tomonaga). As well as the invasions, incendiary bombs were previously dropped on Japan, but did not stop Japanese attacks.

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After all, Japan knew better than to retaliate against the United States after the attack on Hiroshima because they knew the United States would come after them again, seeking an act of worse revenge. The United States did the right thing on August 6, 1945, by bombing Hiroshima because Japan had first bombed Pearl Harbor. America's decision to drop the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the latter years of World War II was justified because, America had to deal with a suprise attack as well, the bombing saved more lives than it took, and it showed our strength to those who doubted us.

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Soldiers had fought hard for America in WWII, had seen things that could not be unseen and now they were finally coming home with a victory. When they came back, the men that went to war needed jobs, housing, and some even still needed education. Being a soldier was their job full-time prior to the victory and now it was time to come back to work, however, many of the jobs were created from the war to help the war effort. This left some unemployed and the GI Bill supplied the veterans of the second World War with unemployment insurance. Although, researchers Larsen, McCarthy, Moulton, Page, and Patel (2015) describe one of the main purposes of the GI Bill as to provide the returning veterans with a paid education including books, supplies, and counseling that the veterans needed to complete and education.

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The Japanese army was fully determined to fight to death. The Japanese had mobilised a large number of troops and civilians to defend the home islands and they organised a national volunteer force that was known as the “Volunteer Fighting Corps”. It was estimated that a land invasion of Japan could have resulted in the deaths of between 500,000 to 1,000,000 Japanese civilians and soldiers. Additionally,the potential loss of lives from a land invasion of Japan would have also extended the war.

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The reason is, as the problem of the Great Depression was oversupply, the war helped to solve that through the war funds. After the World War II, the economy of the U.S. could revive and become

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because it was a drastic increase in spending, one that the Americans could not reciprocate with the selling of products so that they would not be in debt afterwards. So this is a negative affect because the war put the U.S. into debt which would affect everyone in the country in a negative way. The number of jobs for Americans increased during WW1 but once it all ended, and all the soldiers came back from the war, the number of jobs decreased and many people lost jobs because soldiers who had jobs before the war wanted them back. At the same time, people that filled the need for factories while the soldiers were gone still needed jobs, but there were no jobs for anyone. This phenomenon can be explained in Caitlin Sandman’s article on the effects of WW1 on America; it says, “As the war ended, and the soldiers started to return home, the industry production began to slow, and there was less need for workers in factories.

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