The Pros And Cons Of The Bombing Of Hiroshima

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On August 6, 1945 a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima Japan by the Enola Gay: an American B-29 super-fortress bomber. President Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop this atom bomb on that fateful day, proceeding to be one of the most controversial decitions in history. Having killed a little under 66,000 people as a result of the bomb dropping, there is no possibility that this decision would not have been controversial. Despite all of the atrocity that has come out of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima Japan, I believe that it was a necessary evil to drop the bomb. Japan’s leaders and especially its military leaders clung fiercely to the notions of Ketsu-Go (decisive battle) and without the bombs there was no starting point to begin to break down those powerful beliefs. Even after the use of the atomic bombs against both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military still wanted to pursue the desperate option of fighting until the last man fell. The atomic bombs forced Emperor Hirohito to understand clearly, and in a way his military leaders refused to comprehend, that the defense of the homeland was hopeless. It took the …show more content…

The most likely alternate scenario that President Truman would have chosen to ending the war was an outright invasion of Japan. According to the Secretary of War in office at the time, it was “estimated that the invasion of Japan would cost 1.7 to four million American casualties… and five to ten million Japanese deaths” (Henry Stimson). Hard as it may be to accept, Japanese losses would have been far greater without the bombs. President Truman's decision to use the bomb on Hiroshima Japan should be viewed as him choosing the least awful of the options available to him, and the most awful decision being an