The Unjustified Use of Atomic Bombs on Japan

Truman had to make the fatal decision on whether the bomb was to be dropped on Japan. With the idea of going to war, Truman had to think about the lives of the thousand American soldiers. The American soldiers had begun using the method of island hopping, because the bomb was not available. The idea of dropping a bomb was that the war itself could possibly end in its earliest points. The dropping of the atomic bomb could also justify the money spent on the Manhattan Project (Donohue 1).

‘Were the dropping of atomic bombs in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a justified way to end World War Two?’. The answer is no, the bombings were not justified as Japan was already militarily and economically devastated, the explosion slaughtered thousands of guiltless civilians and President Truman seemed to have other political and experimental intentions rather than bringing an immediate end to World War Two. The bombings were not necessary as both Japan’s military and economy had been defeated and weakened. Even before the bombings, the United States had continuously attempted to destroy many Japanese cities with their intense fire bombings. For example, the night of March 9th, 300 American bombers attacked Tokyo, killing 100,000 residents (Weber, “Was Hiroshima Necessary?”).

With multiple chances from the United States to surrender in the war and rejecting each one, the Japanese set themselves up for disaster. On August 6, 1945 the course of history was changed. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima, and three days later, August 9, 1945, on Nagasaki that ended World War II. Japan had already been a defeated nation from conventional bombs and World War II. Many innocent lives were lost, psychological scars were left on the lives of the bomb survivors, and thus many lives were changed forever.

Works Cited "The Aftermath of the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.

These militants included special pilots that were trained during World War 2. These pilots were called Kamikaze pilots and they used their plane as a make-shift missile and crashed them into enemy ships. This would severely wreck the ship or even render it incapable to operate. Many times in the war, Hiroshima citizens would see off militants with cries of “Banzai”, which means “ten thousand years of life.” It was thought that these cries were heard over one thousand times during the war. Life went on like this until America finally had enough and dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima.

In September of 1951, Japan signed the Treaty of San Francisco which officially ended the tensions between itself and the United States. However before then, in August of 1945, the United States built two atomic bombs called Little Boy and Fat Man; but, they did not truly know the horrific and disastrous effects that these weapons were capable of (“The Avalon Project”). On August 6th and 9th 1945, the United States dropped these two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Little Boy and Fat Man detonated approximately 500-600 feet above the ground and caused a massive impact on Japan that are almost too horrific to describe (“The Avalon Project”). The outcome of the bombing had forced Japan to surrender the war in order to save the rest of their country from more bombings.

Decision To Use The Atomic Bomb (2009): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Thompson, Nick.

With the assistance of J. Robert Oppenheimer and lack of public’s knowledge of this so-called monstrous weapon, Truman decided to introduce the atomic bomb which was the key to ending war. However, even fearful weapons such as the atomic bomb have its own consequences. The consequences that Japan suffered from the loss of many innocent citizens, created public controversy in the United States, and tension between countries rose. When the atomic bomb was dropped, the destructive weapon disintegrated and claimed innocent lives in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. On August 6th, 1945 in Hiroshima, around 83,000 people were deceased in an instant and tens of thousands of more died in the following year due to wounds and radiation poisoning.

Plan of Investigation During the time period when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office, it was during WWII. Japan attacked the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941 and was known as Pearl Harbor. When that happened, Roosevelt did not hesitate to ask Congress to officially declare war on Japan. During the war, there was a proposal of an atomic bomb landing over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finalize the war. To this day there is still controversy that if that atomic bomb was actually necessary to end the war, because of the number of innocent casualties suffered from the Japanese.

The Learning Network Nov 1 1952 First Hydrogen Bomb Test Comments. New York Times, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 May 2014. "Types of Nuclear Bombs."