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World War 2 Dbq Essay

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World War 2 had begun its descent to the end, leaving the United States and Japan to battle for the final victory. In order to defeat Japan and be named the winner, the U.S. began constructing The Manhattan project; a top-secret government mission to create the atomic bomb. The bomb powerful enough to destroy an entire city was completed with the intention of ending the war as quickly and peacefully as possible. The bomb threat was set to plan B when the U.S. invaded Japan. While U.S. incendiary bombs had burned 67 Japanese cities, Japanese soldiers stayed strong and loyal to their country. Showing no signs of weakness until the U.S. had cracked its diplomatic code, uncovering its plea to the soviet union to negotiate a surrender. Japan's obvious …show more content…

The United States invasion of Japan led to numerous casualties and severe damage yet Japan stood its ground, proving it would fight to the death. At times violence is the answer; Japan had no intention of surrendering, no matter the consequence. U.S. Secretary of war, Henry Stimson, confirms that “only the complete destruction of her military power could open the way to lasting peace”.(Document B) Each day brought great suffering, and the only logical solution to dealing with millions of suicidal soldiers was to kill off the problem. After the Japanese repeatedly refused to surrender the United States was forced to put its nuclear warfare to use and bomb both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, doing what they believed was their only …show more content…

did not always know it all. The solution to war lay under the noses of former Japanese leaders. The United States was unaware of Japan's plan to eventually surrender, proving they did not plan to fight to the end but planned to keep up the illusion. Unfortunately, after the invasion seemed to have no effect, the U.S. strayed from typical warfare and brought out its deadliest weapon. After two nuclear attacks, Japan was not in any shape to go against both the Soviets and Americans and was forced to surrender earlier than planned. Unaware of Japan's plan, the U.S. justified their attacks by using the bombs “against those who attacked us without warning at pearl harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war”.(Document F) Having used nuclear warfare to shorten the agony of war and save themselves from utter

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After Pearl Harbor, Japan won many battles, but their success would end after the Battle of Midway when Japan had been destroyed beyond repair. So, as the United States kept fighting smaller islands to get to Japan's main island, it got very hard so they decided to use their secret weapon, the atomic bomb. A project, known as the Manhattan project, was creating a bomb so powerful it could wipe out cities. So, the United States used the “ Fat Man “ on Nagasaki, and the “ Little Boy “ on Hiroshima. The atomic bomb was a success and killed about 145,000 people in both cities.

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After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, America decided they had to take drastic measures and bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war. One argument about the bomb was that it was necessary to use it in order to end the war. Some Americans believed this because Japan had shown that they would

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Secondly, Japanese people were willing to do anything to win the war like kamikaze attacks (Doc. C). “In these kamikaze attacks, more than 3,000 ruthless Japanese pilots were killed, and there were more than 7,000 casualties among American, Australian, and British personnel (OI/http://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/first-kamikaze-strikes). This quote shows just how much japan was willing to do.

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Consistently, Japan tortured and beat American prisoners of war, and blatantly ignored the international laws of warfare. Not only were the bombs used to punish Japan, they were also used to save American lives. The bombs “shorten[ed] the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans” (Truman).

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World War II has been going on for 10 years and for the war to be over Japan or the Allied Powers would have to surrender. The United States and the Soviet Union were super powers with tension that stayed beneath the surface for the duration of the war. The two were in a race to invent and use the first atomic war head. After ten years of war the conditions of Japan were poor and not likely to withstand much more conflict. Yet on December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed an American naval base in Hawaii.

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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.

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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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The doubts about the U.S. decision in 1945 have been discussed, analyzed, and there are still many controversies. In August 1945, the U.S. decided to use both of its two atomic bombs on Japan to end the war between them during WWII. The atomic bomb has killed about 200,000 people in the Japanese community and brought destruction to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even though the bomb had terminated the war by Japan surrendering, there were many who were against the action of using the bomb. The reason behind that perspective is that many innocent people have died, and Japan was near surrendering, so there was no need for a major event.

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The United States decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was barely motivated by the idea that it would intimidate the Soviet Union. Dropping the atomic bomb was designed to demoralize the Japanese and demonstrate to them that if they did not surrender, th . In Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson’s memoirs in document A, he writes, “The total strength of the Japanese army was estimated at about 5,000,000... I was informed that such operation (the invasion of Japan) might be expected to cost over a million casualties, to American forces alone” (Doc A). Stimson’s memoirs were written with the intention of being published and he knew he had to defend the government’s decision to drop the bomb and is writing from the point of view of someone

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Japan was weakening, “The food situation gradually becoming worse and worse…” Stated in source H. America had many industrial resources to use against Japan and so Japan had essentially been defeated. Japan pushed only for the sake of their countries honour as the shame of unconditional surrender goes against their code of honour. Furthermore a warning was given to Japan with America promising to drop the atomic bomb, however there was no evidence and so it could have easily been deemed a bluff. An American nuclear scientist stated, “A demonstration of the bomb best be made… Japan could then be asked to surrender.” This source seems somewhat reliable as it is from one of the American scientists and they would know the strength of the bomb.

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The deployment of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by President Truman during WWII is a contentious issue still debated today. With an aim to achieve victory over Japan without any further loss of life or military resources, some say that his decision was logical and ultimately successful in accomplishing national goals. However, others regard this act as immoral claiming that such violence could never be justifiable under any circumstance. In support of dropping the atomic bomb, proponents asserted that it was crucial to quickly end the war and avoid further loss of American lives. According to Document 3, Secretary Stimson believed that deploying the bomb was crucial to quickly end the conflict and avoid a land invasion of Japan, which would have caused more American lives to be lost.

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1761 Words | 8 Pages

The United States knew that Japan was suffering and nearing its end in the war. In a conference in Potsdam, Truman and Germany demanded that Japan agree to an unconditional surrender but no negotiations were made. After the bombings on the 6th and 9th of August and the Soviets engaging in war with Japan on the 9th, they surrendered unconditionally. Despite having previous knowledge that Japan was looking to negotiate surrender, Truman still authorized the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, costing hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. Document C, a study conducted by the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, aimed to understand the effect of allied bombing in WWII, especially the effects of the bombing of

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In their article, Document 4, Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper, Nippon Times, revealed that the United States had caused unnecessary deaths, basically going against an international war law. Nippon Times states in their article in 1945, “What meaning is there in any international law, in any rule of human conduct, in any concept of right and wrong, if the very foundations of morality are to be overthrown as the use of this instrument of total destruction threatens to do?¨ The essence of Nippon Times argument is that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is against the International War Laws that state the unnecessary suffering of people in a conflicted war. The United States, according to Japan, broke a law of war that should be respected and followed as it helps to maintain some humanity in armed conflicts, saving lives and reducing suffering. This example shows that the dropping of the atomic bomb wasn't a military necessity. Additionally in Document 4, Nippon Times responds by claiming “… if the very foundations of morality are to be overthrown as the use of this instrument of total destruction threatens to do?” which implies that the U.S. planned to threaten Japan to bomb them.

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In fact, Ralph A. Bard, Undersecretary of the Navy wrote to Secretary of War Stimson in a June 27, 1945 memorandum. “I define this decision as an emotional and reckless decision, Japanese government may be searching for some opportunity which they could use as a medium of surrender” (Bard). In fact, the Japanese government expressed desire to end the war, and would have accepted conditional surrender before the mainland invasion in November. The reason for dropping the bomb was forcing Japan to surrender unconditionally. In America’s opinion, Japan had lost the war; they did not have any capital to negotiate with.

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And America caused many Japanese deaths. In the end we had to drop the world's most dangerous weapon in order to stop American soldiers from dying at the expense of Japanese soldiers. In document

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