According to the “Atomic Bomb” slideshow, slide 26, around 200,000 people were brutally killed as a result of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This started when America disagreed with Japan’s cruel actions during the Rape of Nanking, which led them to impose a ban on trade with Japan. This triggered Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor by surprise on December 7th, 1941. America wanted revenge, which caused them to begin island-hopping, bombing Japan with non-atomic bombs, and cutting off Japan’s access to outside resources and supplies; however, Japan continued to fight back. Both sides had been at war against one another with high mortality rates for around 4 years with no end in sight. In order to get Japan to surrender quickly and end the war, …show more content…
As stated by Document B, “The Potsdam Ultimatum did not give any clear and specific warning about the kind of destructive weapon the US would use on Japan if they refused to surrender.” This shows that America is guilty of not giving Japan a proper warning to cause them to retreat without killing and injuring many people through the use of the bombs. In addition, Document B also states, “Had the Potsdam Ultimatum included our promise that the Emperor could remain on his throne, it is pretty clear that Japan would have surrendered at the time of the ultimatum.” This illustrates that because of how significant Japan’s Emperor was to their people if America had originally allowed Japan to keep Hirohito as part of a conditional surrender in the Potsdam Ultimatum they would have given in. By including a detailed warning and conditional surrender to Japan in the Potsdam Ultimatum, the use of the bombs would not have been essential. Finally, the use of these nuclear bombs can not be justified because of the trauma and destruction they cause. In Document F, a 13-year old Hiroshima survivor writes, “I found one of my classmates lying
A retired Major, Richard Gordon, was a POW in Japan and said, ?The dropping of the bomb saved the lives of all of us being held in Japan. There wasn?t one prisoner who wasn?t told they were dead if the Americans invaded Japan. We were looking forward to an invasion, but we knew we might not be around to see it.? Another survivor of the Bataan Death March, Grayford C. Payne, was quoted as saying, ?I had not been a prisoner for fifteen minutes before they bayoneted a fifteen-year-old Filipino kid right next to me.? A Japanese directive describes how the prisoners were to be killed: ?mass bombing, or poisonous smoke, poisons, decapitation?. In any case, it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.? An invasion was the most favored alternative of the allies to force a Japanese surrender, if the bomb was not used. The other alternatives were naval blockades, modification of unconditional surrender terms, conventional bombing, and waiting a little longer to see if the Soviets would enter into the war. The number of Americans and Japanese who would have died if such invasions had occurred would have been astronomically higher than the number who died at Hiroshima. Pentagon planners projected 132,000 American casualties for an invasion of Kyushu, and 90,000 or so for Honshu. Using Okinawa as a model, there would be one American casualty for every four Japanese casualties, and Japan?s
Based on a detailed investigation, including the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders, it is the Strategic Bombing Survey's opinion that certainly before December 31, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if the Soviet Union had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or prepared (Alperovitz. Pg. 81). Of course, President Truman had to make his choice based on information known to him at the time. No one knew how much longer the Japanese could continue their fight. Also American casualties were still averaging about 7,000 per week. Even after the atomic bombings some Americans were killed (Trueman, Chris. "The bombing of Hiroshima and
The U.S dropped two atomic bombs; one on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki. Around 200,000 people were killed by the bomb and its effects. Today children are still born with birth defects from the radiation and poisoning of these atomic bombs. Many people think these bombs were immoral and unnecessary, especially because
The first reason was to end the war by forcing Japan to surrender. The United States was about to invade Japan, but because the Japanese were
Redefine unconditional surrender to guarantee the Imperial institution; 4. Pursue Japan’s “peace feelers”; or 5. Rely upon conventional warfare for a longer period (Bernstein 1975, 50). First, the administration knew that Stalin and his Soviet troops were going to invade Japan to declare war if they did not surrender (Bernstein 1975, 48). This raised a lot of questions with people as to, as to why not wait and let them enter and take care of the Japanese?
The Japanese saw this as an incredible insult to their ruler, and therefore refused surrender (Lawton). The only reason why America could follow through with the term of “The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction” (“Potsdam Declaration”) was because it had made the terms of the Potsdam Declaration completely disgraceful and unacceptable for Japan. Clive A. Lawton argues “Many Japanese politicians would only agree to surrender if Emperor Hirohito remained on the throne”. Had the U.S. revised its treaty terms in order to keep Hirohito in power and leave at least some of the Japanese military intact, Japan would have likely surrendered quicker and the bombs would not be needed.
The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 was a definite turning point in the Pacific War of World War II. Earlier that year, Germany had been defeated and the world then turned its attention to the Pacific war. Most history books state the argument that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was necessary to stop the war in order to save thousands of lives of American troops that were planning to invade Japan. "Had the bombs not been employed (so the "wisdom" goes), an enormous number of American troops would have perished in an inevitable amphibious operation against the Japanese mainland."(McManus 1) This paper will demonstrate that Japan was willing to
Roughly 140,000 Japanese citizens died on August 6, 1945. Then the Americans decided to drop another Atomic Bomb three days later on Nagasaki, which killed 80,000 people. All of this happened because of the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and
During World War II, Japan refused to surrender to the Allied Powers due to the fact that the fate of their leader, Michinomiya Hirohito, was uncertain. The United States wanted to end the war quickly and prevent lives being taken because of an invasion of Japan. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb with the Manhattan Project. President Truman’s order to drop the atomic bomb on Japan ended the war. However, using the atomic bomb resulted in conflicts such as the Cold War, and present day problems such as the Iran Deal and North Korea.
“In 1957, with the arms race in full swing, the Department of Defense had decided it was just a matter of time before an airplane transporting an atomic bomb would crash on American soil, unleashing a radioactive disaster the likes of which the world had never seem.” On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing 20,000 soldiers and 70,000 – 126,000 civilians. On August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 39,000 – 80,000. A total of 129,000 – 226,000 people were killed in combining both bomb droppings. Dropping both atomic bombs on Japan was necessary to end the war because the military needed to end the war, the Japanese were given fair warnings
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 69 years ago the United States of America decided to drop two atomic bombs in Japan. One hitting the city Hiroshima killing 90,000-166,000 people and the second bomb hitting the city Nagasaki killing 39,000-80,000. The bombings brought the world war II to an end but left an huge after effect on Japan. Not only did the bombing kill many Japanese Soldiers and Civilians but it also destroyed a huge amount of Japans environment .This caused a huge change in Japanese culture. Citizens today are still mourned by the horrific atomic bomb attack .
reasons? Or was the major goal to force Japan to surrender and bring the war to an early end?
The atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan killed many innocent people. About 140,000 people died because of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. About 80,000 more died from the 2nd atomic bomb
America had a bad experience with letting a condition slide during World War 1, which was a mistake and led to the next World War. The U.S. did not want to risk more war and denied Japan of their condition. They also believed that if they allowed Japan to keep their emperor, it would encourage Japan to be more resistant against the U.S. to see what they could get away with. We also didn’t want to show any signs of weakness by straining our strict policy of not accepting anything less than “unconditional surrender.” Historian B claims that Japan actually wanted more than just their emperor, which shows that the bombs were necessary to keep out further war. The quick dropping of the bombs wasn’t to keep Russia out of war considering the U.S. did not know the exact date of Russian entry. Officers were instructed to drop the bombs when weather was appropriate and the quicker to end the war, the better. The bomb was also not used to scare the Russia considering the Russians were too resistant to U.S. policies in Europe. The use of the bomb being dropped on empty land would have been a waste of a bomb and time. It took two bombings on Japan to bring the surrender shows that the bombing of empty land would not have been effective. The committee also recommended it be used on military targets. Importantly, the U.S. warned Japan that the use of an atomic bomb would be ordered against them unless they accepted
In August of 1945 the U.S used a massive atomic bomb against the people of Hiroshima, Japan. The atomic bomb that was used was identical to the equivalent of 20,000 rounds of TNT (Rosenburg, 2015). As you can imagine the bomb caused massive destruction and ended with the deaths of many people. It wiped out the city of Hiroshima, flattening it and ruining many of the things that once resided there. At that time, the Japanese were trying to cope with the loss of many family members and the loss of their beautiful city. All felt lost especially when the U.S. came back with another bomb that this time struck on the city of Nagasaki. The reason for the atomic bomb was to hopefully end the war between the U.S. and the Japanese. Soon after