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The Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima

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Was it worth it? August 6, 1945 defines a pivotal moment in world history. At 8:15am, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture. Hiroshima is known throughout the world as the first (and only) city decimated by a nuclear weapon in wartime. The bombing of Hiroshima has been one of the most horrific events ever to have taken place in in the world. The damage it caused, along with the implications that followed, explain why it is so well known, even today. The effects of Hiroshima continue to shape the way we think about wars and bombings. It was also one of the most important turning points in World War II because it caused the Japanese to …show more content…

Therefore, some agreed that use of the atomic bomb was actually illegal. A third argument against Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb was that there were in fact alternatives. Despite the fact that supporters argued that atomic bomb was the only option, it wasn’t. One alternative to bomb, they claim, was the use of a demonstration (Barnes). “If representatives of the Japanese government, military, or scientific community could have seen the bomb, it might have been enough to convince them of the foolishness of continued resistance” (Barnes, 4). In this scenario, opponents of the bomb believed that a demonstration would have been enough of a scare tactic to force Japan to surrender. Hiroshima. In August 1945, the world entered the atomic age. American airplanes had dropped single atomic bombs on the Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9. On the day of August 6, 1945, an American plane dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Residents saw “a strong flash of light” and then a large mass of destruction. The bomb immediately annihilated more than seventy-thousand people. Throughout the months that followed, a large number of deaths were added to that amount due to radiation sickness, a deadly after-effect from exposure to

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