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Was The Atomic Bomb Justified Dbq Research Paper

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The atomic bomb is a weapon of mass destruction that was tested successfully on July 16, 1945. Nuclear weapons caused many doors to be opened in the weaponry industry that could cause many international incidents or even a nuclear war. On August 6th and 9th of 1945, the 33rd president, Harry Truman, ordered two atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan as an effort to weaken the country to lead to its surrender, and the operation was successful. While the attack led to the Allied powers winning the war, debates started popping up all over the country and even the world questioning if the atomic bombing was necessary. Based on my interpretation of the evidence provided to me, I believe that the use of the atomic bomb was not justified because of the …show more content…

First, in an excerpt from Protection of Civilian Populations Against Bombing from the Air in Case of War, the League of Nations stated that all intentional bombings on civilians are illegal. “Recognizes the following principles as a necessary basis for any subsequent regulations: 1. The intentional bombing of civilian populations is illegal;” (Document 1) The League of Nations clearly stated that civilian bombings that are intentional are illegal and the United States broke that rule and still got away with a war crime. The quote alone made President Truman’s decision to bomb Japan wrong and unjustifiable because he committed two war crimes within a couple of days. Moving onto the next quote, the League of Nations made another mention of how the military base was the intended target of the bombing but was also near a civilian neighborhood that ultimately suffered the same destruction as the military base the military intended to hit. “Any attack on legitimate military objectives must be carried out in such a way that civilian populations in the neighborhood are not bombed through negligence;” (Document 1) The League of Nations declared that any bombing that appeared to endanger civilians or other non-military targets beyond the intended military base was illegal. The quote proved that accident or …show more content…

In 1963, President Truman wrote a letter to Irv Kupcinet explaining his reasoning behind dropping the atomic bombs. “...Altogether, there were between 3,000 and 6,000 youngsters killed at that time without any declaration of war. It was plain murder” (Document 6). Truman states how some people in a military base were killed before war as an intimidation factor to make the United States set into a panic. The quote stated above does not justify his decision to drop the atomic bomb because the nuclear weapon had much more power and force than the smaller bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor. Moving on, conditions were tougher to survive in Hiroshima and Nagasaki than in any other bomb strike in history. Eyewitnesses from the novel Hiroshima recalled the deadly and scary sight and described the horrible conditions. “They looked like so many codfish spread out for drying. What a pitiful sight it was to see them lying there in the hot sun. Even I could tell they were all going to die.” (Document 5) The author describes the wasteland and the victims as “codfish” because they look like dead fish moving around about to suffer a terrible fate. The quote proves my point that the president's decision to call in an atomic bomb was not justified because the number of people who died in other bombings in the United States does not

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More people died during the bombings than they would have if America invaded Japan. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost two-hundred thousand people were injured or killed. There are still people suffering the effects of the atomic bombs today. Many people that lived near the impact sites and survived have been entered into a radiation study.

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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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Highly, debatable topic President Truman’s decision on dropping atomic bomb on Japan during World war II. Many questions arise when this topic is raised like the world was introduced to the nuclear bombs, it was racist to drop bombs in japan, was Truman’s main target Asian or was it for the political reestablishment between Soviet Union, as German was America’s first attack why he did not drop atom bomb on them and so on. As it has already become more than seventy years it is still amongst the debated ones. It was best decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan by President Truman considering different factors like ending the war as soon as possible, responding to the pearl harbor, to impress the Soviet, lack of having incentives not to use bomb and justify the cost of Manhattan project.

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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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Truman was the president of the United States at the time, so its obvious why he choose to drop the bomb. It would save more American lives this way. “It would have been morally wrong if we’d have had that weapon and did not use it and let a million more people die” (Doc L). If he didn’t drop it, about 400,000 to 800,000 American lives would have been lost (OI). If Japan couldn’t make war, there wouldn’t be war.

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1056 Words | 5 Pages

You see a blast six miles away as bright as the sun, then the ground shakes tremendously. You just saw an atom bomb go off over Hiroshima, Japan. Prior to this day President Truman gave orders to drop the atomic bomb to try ending world two. Truman was justified to drop the atomic bomb to end the war because it was planned strategically, he had good political reasoning, and he had good moral points as to why it was okay in dropping the bomb.

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852 Words | 4 Pages

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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The atomic bomb made this justified because this made the long lasting war end and people knew they were going to survive and see their loved ones again. Soldiers have been exhausted physically and mentally thought the war and

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So, the use of the bombs was unjust because innocent people, who had no part in the war,

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3,800 people developed lung cancer because of the bomb. These innocent people were suffering because of something that they couldn’t control––war. Clearly, the US was not justified in dropping the bombs because the US didn’t know how the bomb would affect people and the effects ended up being

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John Hersey may have just been reporting about a nonfiction story in a fiction novel. But he also left us many clues to his real meaning and thoughts about the events that took place in Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The book Hiroshima tells the unique stories of 6 survivors who are of the few lucky people to escape from death during the first atomic bombing in Hiroshima. In these stories you will find many small quote-worthy statements made by the author that tell his real thoughts as well as the people he’s writing about. John Hersey, wrote a novel about a real life event that goes against the Human Right of mistreatment during war and addresses the humanity of using an atomic bomb in war.

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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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To begin, the atomic bomb was exceptionally lethal. It contained 15,000 tons of TNT & killed over 100,000 people. According to HistoryCrunch.com "The bombing instantly killed 70,000 to 80,000 Japanese in the city & tens of thousands more to radiation exposure. " This conveys how much damage it caused & how many people it killed, and marred the quality of life for others. It was an absolute tragedy for this to happen & for this many to die like this.

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1374 Words | 6 Pages

The atomic bomb just added to the tragic situation. Third, it was a violent and inhumane way to end a bad war. There was so much suffering, horror, death, and destruction throughout the course of the war. The droppings of the atomic bombs fed into those things. All in all, I think that the atomic bomb should never have been used, or even invented.

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The main utilization of an atomic bomb in fighting occurred on August 6, 1945. The bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the U.S. bomber Enola Gay, promptly crushing four square miles amidst the populace focus. Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was morally justified. The United States was soldiering on towards the end of a dim time of mankind's history that had seen the absolute most unreasonable clash ever, and they received a position that appeared to confine the measure of casualties in the war, by altogether shortening it with the utilization of atomic weapons.

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