Saving Lives Buy Using the Atomic Bomb on Japan

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During the crucial days and weeks in the summer of 1945, American officials from President Harry S. Truman on down, sought out a strategy to save as many U.S. soldiers and sailors lives as possible. As one may well imagine, these officials were willing to use almost any measure to end what had become a fight to the finish against the forces of Imperial Japan. The Germans forced America into manufacturing an atomic bomb that would change the history of the art of war. Many factors played a part in the decision making process to use this new form of mass destruction. Empathy combined with foresight allows you to forecast how others are likely to react or behave in different situations. From America’s standpoint, this crucial development helped save thousands of American lives. Despite the fact that thousands of human beings still died.

In the later part of 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a persuasive letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about concerns that he had that would affect mankind for the rest of eternity. Einstein, and several of his colleagues explained to President Roosevelt that the Nazis of Germany were trying to purify U-235, also known as the separation of Uranium. If the Nazis succeeded, they would be able to produce a weapon of mass destruction. America wanted to make sure that they kept their world dominance by producing this type of weapon first. To ensure that this goal was carried out, the Americans and British rapidly underwent the top secret Manhattan Project, also known as Tube Alloys in Great Britain. Simply put, the Manhattan Project or Tube Alloys was committed to expedient research and production that would produce a viable atomic bomb. From the time of its conception, to the actual employment of the weapon, the total spent was well over two billion tax paying dollars. The Project involved two different styles of atomic bombs. One bomb was filled with Uranium and the other with Plutonium. The majority of concern from physicists working on the Manhattan Project was that their involvement might slaughter thousands of Japanese, including many innocent civilians. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful. “The formulas for refining Uranium and putting together a working bomb ...

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... on August 14 1945. “The use of the atomic bomb saved hundreds of thousands-perhaps several millions- of lives, both American and Japanese; that without its use the war would have continued for many months; that no one of good conscience knowing, as Secretary Stimson and the Chiefs of Staffs did, what was probably ahead and what the atomic bomb might accomplish could have made any different decision. The moral is “a weapon of war is a destructive weapon. That's the reason none of us want war and all of us are against war, but when you have the weapon that will win the war, you'd be foolish if you didn't use it...” (Truman Library).

Works Cited

Long, Doug. “Hiroshima: Was it Necessary?” 28 Jan. 2002 Doug-Long. Online. Earthlink. 17 Feb. 2002.

Barlett, E. “Flames over Tokyo.” 1991 The Non-atomic bombings of Japan. Online. Earthlink. 17 Feb. 2002.

“Foreign Policy.” 13 Jan. 01 Mtholyoke. Online. Earthlink. 17 Feb. 2002.

Boyer, Paul. “By the Bomb’s Early Light.” 1985 Reuters. Online. Earthlink. 17 Feb. 2002.

“Manhattan Project.” nd. Nada. Online. Earthlink. 17 Feb. 2002.

Ferrell, Richard. “Truman and the Bomb.” nd. Truman Library. Online. 17 Feb. 2002.

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