Was The Us Justified Dbq Essay

The United States entered WW2 after the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl harbor in 1941. To inspire the Japanese surrender in 1945 , and ultimately end the war, the US dropped the world's first two atomic bombs on the civilian population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since the surrender, there has been debate over whether the decision to use atomic weapons was justified and whether it was the only way to end the war. The use of this atomic weapon was not justified and it was not the only way to inspire surrender and allow the U.S to win the war.
There were plenty of alternative options that the U.S. had already begun to employ and these other alternatives would not have added much more time to the war. Despite the possibility of civilian

government stays adamant that there were no other options to prompt Japan to surrender, this is simply untrue. General H.H. Arnold, Commander of the American Air Force during WW2, revealed that their “[prevention of] the arrival of incoming cargo of critical items… had made it impossible for Japan to carry on a large-scale war…”(Source B). Here he explains that the US strategy to cut off supplies severely weakened Japan’s defenses. This shows that if the U.S. had kept steady with these non-violent tactics, the war could have been ended just as easily as with a weapon. In addition, the U.S. was planning a land invasion of Japan to induce their speedy surrender. Henry L. Stimson mentioned in his memoirs that they had extensively planned “an intensified sea and air blockade and greatly intensified strategic air bombing… to be followed… by an invasion of the main island of Honshu…”(Source A). This shows that the U.S. had detailed plans to blockade around Japan and invade the mainland using their island hopping strategy. All of this demonstrates that there were options for the U.S. that did not involve direct endangerment of civilians and could just have easily ended the

Nuclear physicist Leo Scillard thought that “[the U.S.] could win the war in another six months,”(Source F) without the use of atomic weapons. This shows how the U.S was not facing the prospect of a severely prolonged war. While many believed the atomic bomb was the quickest way to end the war, there was still a quick method that did not involve endangering as many civilians. Additionally, in July of 1945 Dwight D. Eisenhower recalled that “reports indicated the imminence of Japan’s collapse”(Source C). Meaning that Japan was already nearing collapse, before the U.S. had even decided to use atomic weapons. With evidence that Japan was nearing defeat and would likely surrender or be defeated in approaching months, the U.S. was not in a dire situation that required such destructive