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Arguments For Dropping The Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Arguments For Dropping The Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Arguments For the Use of the Atomic Bomb
Advisors to United States President Harry Trumanestimated the use of the weapon of mass destructionwould prevent the loss of half a million Americanlives.
After Okinawa, Japan would be the next stop for the Allied forces.If an invasion of the Japanese homeland was to be their plan ofaction to ending the war in the Pacific Theater, inferences couldbe made to support against it.
The Japanese would fightdesperately to defendthemselves.
An invasion of this scale and magnitudewould result in heavy casualties of half amillion lives.
Most of his advisors also felt that the quickestpossible to the war could be achieved throughthe use of the atomic bomb.
The Japanese were standing on their last legbefore the bombs were dropped on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki.
They wanted to halt the Allied advance bydestroying the entire American fleet, thereforepreventing the Allies from resupplying their groundtroops
The plan required risking the entire Japanesefleet. They took the gamble and lost disastrously eliminating their fleet as a fighting force in thewar.
Despite Japan's enormous disadvantage,Truman knew they would fight to the last man,forcing the Allies to continue sacrificing theirpeople.
Truman wished to see the Pacfic Theater come to a closecome as soon as possible. He infered that a massive,sudden attack to the Japanese homeland would bring theirsurrender.
He stated the atomic bomb had tobe used to shorten the agony of thewar.
The Japanese have been unrelenting andincredibly cruel through the course of WorldWar II.
They have starved, beaten, andexecuted American prisoners ofwar.
They attacked the United States without warning atPearl Harbor, killing thousands of Americans anddragging them out of isolation and into globalconflict.
They had abandoned all pretenseof obeying international laws ofwarfare.
Japan failed to comply withPresident Trumans warning.
After the bombs first test explosion near Alamogordo, NewMexico, President Truman told the Japanese that, unless theysurrendered immediately, they could expect a "rain of ruin fromthe air".
Due to their failure to respond to the warning, it can be inferredthat either the Japanese weren't afraid of the attack, believedthe United States was blufing, or were preparing for acounterattack.
Arguments Against the Use of the Atomic Bomb
It isn't morally right/ Killed morecivilians than necessary.
The killing of thousands of innocent men, women, andchildren whos deaths won't aid the struggle of theAllied powers to end the war goes against any moraldecision.
Even though President Truman stated that the atomic bomb wasdropped on Hiroshima (a military base) to avoid the killing ofcivilians, the 80,000+ deaths that resulted were almost allcivilians.
These victims represented nothreat tot he United States.
If the United States decided against the use of the atomicbomb, then the resulted deaths from an invasion of theJapanese homeland would be those directly invloved in thewar
American leaders knew that Japan would havesurrendered even if the atomic bomb had notbeen dropped.
Japan's code was broken andJapan's messages were beingintercepted.
It was known the Japanese had instructed theirambassador in Moscow to work on peacenegotiations with the Allies.
Japanese leaders began talking ofsurrender a year before the atomic bombwas dropped.
In June 1945, the Emperor himself had begun tosuggest that alternatives to fighting to the end beconsidered.
Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo:"Unconditional surrender is the only obstacleto peace..."
The bombs use sparked adiplomatic war with Russia.
The Russians had secretly agreed they wouldcome into the war 90 days after the end of theEuropean war.
Turned out to be on May 8th, so on August 8th, the Russiansshould've declared war on Japan. However, the atomic bombhad been dropped on Hiroshima, followed by Nagasaki the nextday.
The Japanese surrendered to the United States,no to Russia. The United States would take parton the occupation of postwar Japan.
The United States tried to spread theirsphere of influence on Japan beforeRussia.
Because of the atomic bomb, we beat the Russiansto it. This resulted in tension between the twocountries and ultimately lead to the outbreak of theCold War.
