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The Pros And Cons Of The Atomic Bomb

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Theodore Roosevelt once said, “I believe the more you know about our past, the better you are prepared for the future.” Never has this quote been more relevant than in the debate of the questionable decision made by President Truman to drop the Atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For years this decision has been debated, backed by insurmountable amounts of evidence on both sides of the argument. Was there another way to break the will of the Japanese? Was there any way to avoid death and destruction? Did this action taint America's legacy? These are all questions that both sides believe they have the right answers to.
One of the many points argued against the dropping of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” are that there were …show more content…

On a day that will live in infamy in
1941 at Pearl Harbor, over twenty-four hundred military personnel along with around one-hundred civilians were killed in the Japanese surprise attack. This attack crippled the
American force greatly. At least for a while, the American force were too few and not strong enough to retaliate. Once they regained their strength, the American force began the Pacific campaign. Soon after Pearl Harbor the Japanese Empire began their conquest on the islands of the Pacific such as Guam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore. After suffering defeat after defeat, the Allied forces finally had the advantage after forcing the Japanese to retreat at the
Battle of Midway. Though they had been pushed back, the Japanese mentality was to never surrender. It was seen as dishonourable, so it would have been near impossible for the Allied forces to get the Japanese to surrender. Our nation's leaders thought that the most viable option was to drop the Atomic bombs that had been developed during the top secret Manhattan Project.
For those that believe this was the right decision, the time for this attack should have …show more content…

Though the dropping of the bombs seemed to be the best decision for saving American lives and shortening the world, did this extremely controversial decision taint the great American legacy?
America has been self proclaimed the best country in the world. Even the generation that fought in the second world war was known as the “Greatest Generation”. We have built a persona that we are always there to help whenever it is needed. So did this action taint the amazing legacy that our soldiers have fought to create for the United States? John F. Kennedy once said, “A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.” Or in this case an entire country does what they must. There seems that there was no completely correct way to approach this decision.
Within the space of August 6th and 9th of 1945, the United States was accountable for
120,000 Japanese civilian deaths. This decision pushed the Japanese nation over the edge, finally forcing them to surrender to the American forces. No matter what side someone is on in the argument over Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs, one must consider that no

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Name: Course Instructor: Class: Date: Critical Book Review: Prompt and Utter Destruction Introduction Within weeks, word on the US dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki began to spread that the main reason behind the bombs was to save the lives of Americans (Bernard). It was put that hundreds of thousands of American military causalities were saved through the bombings.

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As stated in document A, President Truman believed that it was his duty as president to use every weapon available to save American lives. By making the decision to employ atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it successfully brought an end to World War II. Now, while these bombs did ultimately spare thousands of American lives, it did also put an end to about 200,000 lives as shown in document E. Document A stated that Admiral William Leahy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed using the bomb because it killed civilians indiscriminately. He believed that an economic blockade and conventional bombing would convince Japan to surrender. As an opposite end of the spectrum though Truman’s advisor, James Byrnes thought that the use of “the A-bombs would not only cause Japan to surrender, but also impress the Soviet Union, and hopefully stop its expansion” (Doc C).

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In order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans" (Doc F). This argument for dropping the atomic bomb is strong because there is actually

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President Roosevelt used pathos in his speech to elicit emotional responses by Congress and the American people. He showed obvious emotions of anger and sadness, but appealed to the pride of the nation to galvanize the people to take part in the massive and long-term effort to respond to the attack and ultimately defeat the Nation of Japan. He was not going to let Japan get away with what they had done to our great nation. Attacking Pearl Harbor, led the United States immediately into war with Japan through the declaration of war by Congress only moments after the conclusion of the speech and only a few days later into the larger conflict, World War II, with a declaration of war with Japan’s ally, Germany. Roosevelt showed passion,

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The Battle of Midway was a naval battle fought between the U.S and Japan. It was fought between the 4th and 7th of June, 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor. This battle ended all further threats from Japan to the Pacific. It was Japan’s first naval defeat since the 1863 Battle of Shimonoseki Straits. The Battle of Midway was significant because the United States was able to crack Japans code, ambush Japan, and win the first allied victory in the Pacific Wars.

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The Japanese were practically defeated with limited resources (Alperovitz, 6); so the war would have ended quickly without a bomb (Walker, 7). Especially if the Soviets attacked, as Japanese leaders feared Soviet power (Alperovitz, 7). While some military leaders were against any use of the bombs, it was a necessary decision to spare many more casualties for Americans and the

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The first five weeks on Iwo Jima the United States suffered 26,000 casualties (Grant 154). Most people think that only the US Marines fought in Iwo Jima, but that is not true. The Marines, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard fought in Iwo Jima (Willie 19). The long and bloody battle was fought by the United States and Japan. The Battle for Iwo Jima was a turning point for the United States in World War II.

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In the twentieth century, the United States dropped two atomic bombs, which were the most powerful weapons at that time, on Japan. It happened on August 6 and August 9, 1945. The atomic bombs killed 226,000 Japanese and ended the war. However, America should not have dropped the atomic bombs for two reasons. First, it was not necessary to drop the bomb to win the war militarily or to get the Japanese to surrender.

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However, the Japanese were committed to fight to the bitter end of the war and see it all the way through, regardless of the fact that the United States demanded unconditional surrender from the small country of islands. This further emphasizes that since the Japanese were not simply going to give up, Truman came to the conclusion that in order to save millions of lives, he had to take thousands. President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to warn the world about the new found power of the United States, force an unconditional surrender of the Japanese, and save millions of lives. With the controversy over whether or not Truman should have dropped the bomb, some consider the decision irrational and unnecessary.

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President Truman was treating people even worst by putting them through the torture of the bomb and the resulting effects of the bomb. Time became a major factor into the decision, and dropping the bomb was a result of that fear. On the other side of the argument, the Japanese did bomb Pearl Harbor which was the catalyst that got America involved in the first place. We as a country should not need to compromise with the nation who started the battle.

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Thousands of Japanese military personal and civilians were killed the dropping of the atomic bomb. This was a very important turn the war because the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced the Japanese to surrender rand withdraws from the war. The American government did the right thing when they bombed Japan. America wanted to end the war with Japan and they believed that an economic blockade and conventional bombing would force the Japanese to surrender and pull out of World War II .President stated that the bomb was a military weapon and that he never had any doubts that it should be used as such.

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