The Pros And Cons Of Stopping The Atomic Bomb

When I was a little girl, I remember sitting on the couch with my grandfather, who happened to be a World War II veteran. I always asked Grandpa to tell me stories from when he was in the army and about all the cool places he got to visit. One day, while sitting around the table with my mom, dad, aunts, and grandfather, I learned about a decision that saved millions of lives, even my own grandfather’s life. That day I was introduced to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that conversation with my grandfather and family, I quickly choose where I stood in the great debate. The United States made the correct choice to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, Operation Centerboard took place, dropping

The operation was split into two parts, Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet . Operation Olympic was set to take place in November 1945 (“Operation” 3). It would be comprised of fourteen army divisions, forty destroyers, twenty four battleships, four air force divisions, forty two aircraft carriers, and the entirety of the Pacific division of the British Royal Navy and would invade thirty five beaches along Kyushu, Japan (“Bombings” 4). Operation Coronet would strike in March 1946 in Honshu, with intention to capture Tokyo. Coronet would comprise of a whopping twenty five army divisions and troops from Britain, Canada, Australia, and all over Europe (“Operation” 5). Japan’s plan to combat Operation Downfall was known as Ketsugo, which means decisive in Japanese. The emperor planned to deploy six carriers. Four cruisers, one battleship, three hundred and sixty submarines, four hundred manned torpedoes, and eight hundred suicide speedboats. Sixty five small divisions of troops would be formed, but there was only enough weapons and ammunition to supply to thrity divisions (“Operation” 6). It is easy to see that Japan’s defense is dwarfed compared to the Allies’

They sealed their fate on July 26, 1945, when the Allies issued a final ultimatum, the Potsdam Proclamation. The declaration stated that all citizens of Japan would be safe, no one would enslaved and all citizens would be granted the freedoms of speech, religion,, thought, and be able to produce whatever goods they wanted. Japan still refused to surrender. In response, U.S. planes dropped around sixty three million leaflets into thirty five Japanese cities warning them that they were a bombing target and needed to evacuate. However, Japan warned their citizens that anyone caught with the leaflets would be arrested (“The Decision” 3). Therefore, I believe that Japan had plenty of warning of future catastrophic events, butt hey choose to be ignorant and put their citizens’ lives in