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Importance of history subject
Chapter 16 world war 2 world history
Importance of History
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After the defeat of Germany, the allies turned their attention on crushing Japan. On August 6, 1945, 8:16 A.M, Enola Gay completed its mission and dropped the 9000lb “little boy” on Hiroshima. 78,000 killed instantly and many more were to die within 5 years. All together, 250,000 citizens of Hiroshima were killed. Another bomb named “fat man” was dropped on Nagasaki 3 days later, killing 40,000 people. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the quickest way to end the war with the fewest casualties. The boom cost $2000 millions to build and it was a military weapon for war, it should be used to fulfill its purpose- to end the war. The allies may have lost the war if U.S did not use the atomic bomb, the consequences may be even worse. In spite of the lives lost during the bombing, it had taught humans a great deal about atomic bombs and it had advanced mankind. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified and necessary for World War II.
In Japan there were more than 2 million combat troops and 9000 aircrafts ready to fight till the very end. Japan was famous for their resistance and pride and the war may take a lot of energy and time to end. If the allies did not use the atomic bombs, peace may come with a heavy price with possibly 500,000 American causalities, as well as that many for Japanese soldiers and maybe half of that number for British. Prime Minister Churchill knew of Japanese pride and said, “I had my mind the spectacle of Okinawa Island, where many thousands of Japanese, rather than surrender, had drawn up in line and destroyed themselves by hand-grenades…Now that nightmare picture had vanished. In its place was the vision… of the end of the whole war in one or two violent shocks.” The allies had warned t...
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... learned from the Atomic bombs are now beneficial to the world today.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified and necessary for World War II. The use of Atomic bombs was the quickest way to end the war with the fewest casualties. The bombs were weapons of war made by U.S; Americans efficiently used their weapons to end the war in the best way possible. The consequences are unthinkable if the Allies lost the war, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to avoid a future that is dominated by Japan. Mankind learned very important lessons from the atomic bombs in WWII and it prevented any future attempts of another World War. The discovery was also very beneficial to mankind. The lives lost due to the bombing were worth it, they traded peace in the future, a world that is aware of the Atomic Bombs’ dangers and millions of lives were saved.
The United States was justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for many reasons. First of all, just to start out, the bombings had nothing to do with Japan, it was about the Cold War and the real reason America used these weapons was to show Russia that the US possessed them. Second, the war in the Pacific had been raging for almost four years. The two battles immediately preceding the bomb decision were Iwo Jima and Okinawa, two battles where the Japanese fought to the death and the cost in American casualties was horrific. It was predicted that the invasion of the Japanese mainland at the Island of Kyushu -- scheduled for November of 1945 -- would be even worse.
Instead it would be more accurate to agree that the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki a war crime, however, the use of it was necessary and justifiable. The atomic bomb has caused many lives in Japan of those who were not directly involved in the war and in had long lastly medical effects due to being exposed to nuclear material. In addition, it was justifiable and necessary that the United States acted due to the face that it was known for the Japanese to take drastic measures. It is important to consider how rash the Japanese were their “kamikaze pilots ' willingness to die for the motherland” (Beshears, 2005). Thus, the allies had legit reasoning to believe that the Japanese would not go down without a fight. Hence, making the use of the nuclear bomb necessary, since the entire world had already seen how cruel the Japanese were with brutal war crimes that happen throughout the war and spread terror. Also it is important to mention the attack on Pearl Harbor which at the time the United States was no involved in the war at the time. The United States needed to make Japan surrender so that nothing like that would happen again to them or the rest of the Allies. The use of the atomic bomb aided the Allies in getting one step closer to ending the war, however, the use of the bomb had a lot of after effects. Hence, “the four-ton uranium bomb wreaked unprecedented havoc
Atomic Bomb The use of the atomic bombs on Japan was necessary for the revenge of the Americans. These bombs took years to make due to a problematic equation. The impact of the bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people and the radiation is still killing people today. People today still wonder why the bombs were dropped. If these bombs weren’t dropped on the Japanese the history of the world would have been changed forever. The Atomic bomb took 6 years to develop (1939-1945) for scientists to work on a equation to make the U-235 into a bomb. The most complicated process in this was trying to produce enough uranium to sustain a chain reaction. The bombs used on the cities cost about $2 billion to develop, this also making the U.S. wanting to use them against Japan. “Hiroshima was a major military target and we have spent 2 billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history- and won.” (3) The bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighted 4.5 tons and the bomb used on Nagasaki weighted 10 kilotons. On July 16, 1945, the first ever atomic bomb was tested in the Jamez Mountains in Northern New Mexico, code named “Gadget.” The single weapon ultimately dropped on Hiroshima, nicknamed “Little Boy,” produced the amount of approximately twenty- thousand tons of TNT, which is roughly seven times greater than all of the bombs dropped by all the allies on all of Germany in 1942. The first Japanese City bomb was Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. An American B-29 bomber, named Enola Gay, flown by the pilot Paul W. Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” uranium atomic bomb. Three days later a second bomb named ”Fat Boy,” made of plutonium was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. After being released, it took approximately one minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion, which was about 2,000 feet. The impact of the bombs on the cities and people was massive. Black rain containing large amounts of nuclear fallout fell as much as 30km from the original blast site. A mushroom cloud rose to twenty thousand feet in the air, and sixty percent of the city was destroyed. The shock wave and its reverse effect reached speeds close to those of the speed of sound. The wind generated by the bombs destroyed most of the houses and buildings within a 1.
After Truman decided to bomb Japan, they had to plan it out. They first had to decide where to release the bomb. They ended up choosing Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan as their two locations. Hiroshima was a significant military city in the war. It confined two army headquarters and was Japan’s communication center (World War 2 Atomic Bomb 1). Hiroshima was also a huge industrial city and had not been bombed before so it would let Japan see the wrath of the United States (Koeller 1). The planning and actual event of the bombing went great. On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 in the morning the bomb was dropped. The bomb that landed in Hiroshima was called the “Little Boy” (World War 2 Atomic Bomb 2). The bomb ended up killing about 170,000 people. 70,000 people died the first day and 100,000 people died in the next few months due to the radioactivity of the bomb and burns fro...
The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were ethical decisions made by President Harry Truman and the United States government. By the time of the atom bomb was ready, the U.S. had been engaged in military conflict for over four years and lost over 400,000 soldiers. Truman claimed, "We would have the opportunity to bring the world into a pattern in which the peace of the world and our civilization can be saved" (Winkler 18). The bomb was aimed at ending the war immediately and avoiding prolonged battle in the Pacific Theater and the inevitable invasion of Japan. President Truman hoped that by showing the Japanese the devastating weapon the U.S. possessed, that the war could be brought ...
Firstly, the bombings were unjustified because of the locations where the bombs were dropped. Neither cities were military or naval bases. Hiroshima was “… on a river delta and had been a fishing settlement for centuries” (Lawton) while Nagasaki was a shipbuilding city. Furthermore, Nagasaki had been bombed five times in the twelve months previous to the assault by the U.S. (“The Bombing of Nagasaki”). Both cities were also highly populated leading to high casualty levels. Before the attacks, Hiroshima had a population of 255,000 people and Nagasaki was home to 195,000 people. When these cities were attacked, 70,000 out of those 255,000 died in Hiroshima and 42,000 out of 195,000 perished in Nagasaki. This means that the bombings whipped out 27% of Hiroshima and 22% of the Nagasaki population (Total Casualties).
“My God, what have we done?” were the words that the co-pilot of Enola Gay wrote in his logbook after helping drop two bombs, one in Hiroshima and one in Nagasaki, that killed an estimated two-hundred thousand individuals. The bombings were completely unnecessary. Japan was already defeated because they lacked the necessary materials to continue a world war. The Japanese were prepared to surrender. There was no military necessity to drop the atomic bombs nor is there any factual information stating that the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped to “save the lives of one million American soldiers.” The United States bombed Japan in August of 1945. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were uncalled for and could have been avoided.
In my opinion, the decision to use the atomic bomb was harsh and rash, but necessary to end the war and protect American lives and interests. Sometimes harsh decisions need to be made in order to serve the greater good. It was somewhat unjust to the Japanese civilians but in the end saved many military lives that would have been wasted if the war dragged on for who knows how many more years. This is why, in the end, I feel it was the best way to put the storm of World War 2 to rest.
During World War ll, Japan was on the brink of collapse. The Atomic Bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United State were unnecessary to end the war. The allied forces which were Great Britain, Soviet Union, France, United States and China, would conduct countless air raids and fire bombings on Japan. Japan’s military and civil defenses were inadequate to defend themselves and had no chance. For months Japans cities suffered attacks of bombs and fire raining down on them by the allied forces. The country was weak, starving and had no strength to fight back. On August 6 and 9, 1945, Nagasaki and Hiroshima would be the first cities to ever experience an atomic blast. Hiroshima and Nagasaki became literally test dummies for the atomic bomb. Japan had attempted to settle a peace treaty with the United States, but they refused and were determined for a unconditional surrender. Instead, the United States should have made an effort to make a peace treaty, not force them into surrender with the ultimate destruction weapon. The reason for this unconditional surrender was to prove America’s superiority over the Japanese. America used propaganda to convince Americans and demoralize the japanese people rather than their army. The use of the atomic bombs was caused by a strong racism motivating factor.
“Remember Pearl Harbor—Keep ‘em Dying,” were words spat from soldiers’ mouths in the United States military during World War II. Anger filled millions of citizens in the United States after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Were these unresolved feelings between Japan and the United States the cause of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Did the United States have a concealed passion to show their strength and scientific advancement? Was the United States terrified of another invasion taking place on their soil? Why were the atomic bombs created and used in the first place? The actions of the United States were derived from the initial attack by Japan, which was due to Japan’s unwillingness to surrender. The atomic bombs were initially created because Germany was believed to be in the process of creating their own nuclear weapons. Many people in the world today believe the bombings of Japan were not necessary; that the bombings were the United States’ way of depleting the Japanese culture. These theories are completely incorrect. The truth behind this unresolved conflict is the bombing of Hiroshima was necessary, where as the bombing of Nagasaki was unnecessary. These actions all occurred because of Japan’s refusal to surrender, the United States’ want to save American lives, and the Allies’ want for the war to finish.
To fully examine the factors that led to the United States dropping an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, one can look at the event as a result of two major decisions. The first decision concerned the use of newly developed nuclear weapons in lieu of other military techniques to secure a timely Japanese surrender. The second decision was to use several of these weapons instead of only one. Although the Truman administration displayed little hesitation or ambivalence over the decision to use atomic weapons (Walker, 51), it is important to examine what factors contributed to these swift actions. It was believed that dropping an atomic bomb on Nagasaki would resolve a number of problems in a simpler fashion than prolonging the conventional warfare until Japan finally ceded defeat.
“Little Boy,” the bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 70,000 people with an additional 66,000 injured (30-39). “Fat Man,” the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, also carried its “share of America’s duty” by killing 40,000 people and injuring another 25,000 (30-39). The bombs also killed an estimated 230,000 more people from the after effects of the two explosions (30). The two bombings had opened the world’s eyes to the destructive power that could be unleashed by man. The bombs had raised hell on earth for those few minutes and produced a tremendous amount of casualties.
August 6th, 1945, 70,0000 lives were ended in a matter of seconds. The United States had dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Today many argue whether or not the U.S. should have taken such a drastic measure. Was it entirely necessary that we drop such a devastating weapon? To answer that first we must look at was going on in the world at the time of the conflict. The U.S. had been fighting a massive war since 1941. Moral was most likely low, and resources were at the same level as moral. Still both sides continued to fight and both were determined to win. Obviously the best thing that could have possibly happened would have been to bring the war to a quick end with a minimum of allied casualties. Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb was entirely warranted and was in the best interest of Americans and the world. Three factors should be considered to fully realize this. First, what would have happened should we have not dropped the bomb? Would WWII have ended shortly afterwards without nuclear arms-not likely. Secondly we must consider the Japanese people’s extreme dedication to their country and emperor, willing to give up their own lives without thinking to stop the enemy. Lastly the morality of nuclear bombing must be explored. While many may argue against the use of such a seemingly cruel form of attack was unnecessary, it is obvious that the atomic bomb was the only means to an end of WWII.
The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The long lasting effects of the atomic bomb dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified by the United States. The United States had no other choice, or the war would just go on, which would be unfavorable for both the United States and Japan. The first reason why the US’s choice to use Atomic Bombs was justified is that it saved many soldiers’ lives. If the war had continued, many more lives on both the United States and Japan’s side would have been lost.
One of, if not the most influential part, of allowing the bombs to drop is because of the mentality of the Japanese military and the pull they had in politics. As Maddox stated, “[t]he army, not the Foreign Office controlled the situation” (Maddox, pg. 286). Although Japan had an influential leader in regards to their emperor, the military wanted to and would have engag...