On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This shocked everybody. Nobody knew that the US was developing a weapon this destructive and nobody knew about the Trinity test and how successful it was. After this bombing and the bombing three days later on Nagasaki, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the US and World War 2 ended. The attack on Hiroshima killed 70,000 people instantly and killed 70,000 more people over time because of radiation. It is estimated that over 200,000 people died total from the bomb called “Little Boy”. Although many people died because of this bomb, it prevented a lot of US and Japanese soldiers from dying in a full out invasion. Was dropping an atomic bomb on a whole city full of civilians justified?
The bombing of Hiroshima killed a lot of people, but there were some very good reasons that this bomb was used. First of all, it stopped the war almost immediately, which saved thousands of lives of soldiers. If the war kept going there is no telling how many soldiers would have died or how long the war would have lasted. Also, many people who study World War 2 say that Japan was not ready to surrender and that the war would have lasted a long time. Many American military planners believed that the Japanese would never surrender, and that the Japanese would fight to the very last man. If this was the case, using “Little Boy” against the city of Hiroshima, saved many more lives than it destroyed. Another reason why it was used is because President Truman could not figure out how to tell the American people why he let the war go on when he could end it right there. If Truman did not use the bomb, he would have faced a lot of criticism from the American people. Truman was put in a lose lose situation. He could either let a lot of soldiers die or let a lot of Japanese citizens die. He had to choose the lesser of the two evils. Another reason why Truman felt compelled to use this destructive weapon is because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor just to pick a fight with the US. Truman could not let this go unanswered. He could not just let Japan stab the US in the back and get away with it. Even though there are a lot of people who feel the bomb was necessary, there were a lot of people who feel very strongly that the bomb should not have been used. There is no such thing as complete support for a decision. For every decision made there is always people who support it and some people who criticize it. That goes for the decision of bombing Hiroshima too. A great amount of people believed that the bombing of Hiroshima was not necessary for a few reasons. The first reason is that the US had no idea how much longer the war would have lasted. With one really well executed invasion they could have taken over Japan and forced them to surrender with minimal amounts of life loss. Another reason why many people believe that the bombing of Hiroshima was not necessary is because Japan did not even know the US had a bomb this destructive. If the US told Japan about this bomb and what it could do they probably would have surrendered on the spot. If Japan still did not surrender after knowing about the bomb, the US could have done a demonstration to show how powerful the bomb really is. Another reason why the people think the US did not have to bomb Hiroshima is because there is a possibility that Japan would have surrendered with some conditions. After “Little Boy”, Japan surrendered unconditionally. If the US negotiated some conditions with Japan, their could have been less loss of life. That is a few of the reasons why people might think Truman is a little trigger happy. A survey was taken in 2015 that said 79% of the Japanese thought the bombing was not necessary, and they have good reason to think that. The bombing of Hiroshima was unnecessary in my opinion because there were other alternatives Truman could have taken. While all human life is precious, there is a difference between soldier casualties and citizen casualties. Soldiers signed up to fight for this country. They volunteered to go defend the US from Japan in World War 2. They understand that there is a risk that they could not make it back. The citizens of Japan who died because of the bombing of Hiroshima, did not sign up to fight the US. They did not volunteer to be involved in the war, but they were casualties, just like the soldiers who would have fought in an invasion. Truman should have tried to tell Japan about the bomb, do a demonstration, negotiate with Japan, and then if Japan was still not willing to surrender and an invasion was not feasible, then he should have used a weapon of mass destruction. It should be a worst case scenario, because if someone decides to use an atomic bomb, they bring the people who did not volunteer into the war.
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