“s on Hiroshima andNagasaki?”Whether or not the Allies needed to drop the two atomic bombs on Japan hasbeen argued about since 1945. Some people agree with the dropping, and somepeople disagree with the dropping.
But the facts that were taken out ofthe two droppings were unbelievable, and no one had ever seen anything likethis so no one anticipated such destruction, but the Americans definitelynew what they were going to cause. When they dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima it was not at first realizedthe carnage and loss of lives it had caused. The first Atomic bomb wasdropped on the 6th of August 1945, the one bomb it self cost the UnitedStates 2 billion dollars and approximately 130,000 Japanese were killed asa result of first bomb. The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki,and it was an even bigger, though it only killed approximately 70,000people.
So all up over 200,000 Japanese were killed just from two bombs,but were the United States justified in the dropping of the two atomicbombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?Many reasons were stated from the United States for the dropping of thebomb, though I believe that they did not justify the loss of life caused. Some reasons were that the Allied leaders thought that an invasion of theJapanese mainland would be needed to ensure Japan’s unconditionalsurrender. They thought that such an invasion might result in as many as amillion Allied casualties, and if an invasion was made, the Japanese werecertain to kill thousands of Allied prisoners of war. Also Japan wasalready defeated and trying to negotiate peace and the intervention ofRussia in the war might, alone, have caused the Japanese to surrender. Another Reason was that a demonstration to reveal the power of the bombcould have been tried on an uninhabited Japanese island.
Though Alliedleaders thought that this would not have impressed the Japanese enough tobring about a total unconditional surrender, which is exactly what theAmericans wanted. They also argued that the Japanese would move prisonersof war into target cities if they knew that such attacks were possible. One more reason was that the atomic bombs were weapons, and alliedcommanders wanted to test the effects of such weapons on a proper target. The use of the bombs could also act as a warning to Russia, who was seen asa potential enemy of America and Western Europe after the war was over. Out of these reasons from the Americans, I believe that there is one thatdefinitely stands out, and that is the one that they wanted to save alltheir troops, for total utter destruction of other cities. These decisionskilled thousands and thousands of harmless women and children.
I alsobelieve that one of the main reasons for the dropping of the bombs wasrevenge, which was built up from when this battle started, and that was thesurprise attack on pearl harbour. So much hatred had resulted from the warand the dropping of the two bombs was just finishing off the revenge thatthey promised to American citizens. On the other hand, I do believe that the two bombs were over exaggerated alittle bit because when you look back at some single battles of World War2, the same amount of people were killed. An example of this was on March10th 1945 when the Allies air raided Tokyo with B-29’s. In one night89,000 people were killed and 1,000,000 people were made homeless.
Asecond example was the battle of Okinawa, this was the bloodiest battle ofWorld War 2 and approximately 106,000 people were killed, most of them wereJapanese. Alternatives for dropping the bombs were never really looked at. Althoughone alternative be that Japan be issued a warning about the weapon andoffered surrender terms that allowed the taking in of the Emperor. This socalled alternative was not so much to stop the droppings of the bombs, butmore as something to keep conversation off the point of invasion of Japan.Americans new that if they did invade Japan, it would be an extremely ongoing task because the Japanese were known for all fighting till theirdeath, and if there emperor was under fire at all, that would infuriate theJapanese even more as it was a huge sign of disrespect.The Japanese by now were at their weakest point throughout the whole .
