¶ … United States' decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in WWII was motivated by a desire for a decisive victory, an unnecessary act against a country that was would have surrendered without the use of the bomb, and a disturbing use of force that created worldwide fear and horror about the use of nuclear weapons. The bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the United States were justified by the American government as a reasonable means to bring a quick end to a bloody and long war that had engulfed the world for years. However, critics have argued that dropping the bombs was a completely unnecessary act, as a beleaguered Japan would have surrendered to the United States within days, even if the bombs had never been dropped. Further, critics argued that the United States' decision was ultimately motivated by a political desire to assert itself as a military and political power. Further, the bombing is now often seen as one of the cornerstone events that led to worldwide hysteria and fear about the effects of nuclear weapons that developed in the time of the Cold War between the United States and the U.S.S.R. Ultimately, given these important considerations, the United States should not...
The bomb that the United States dropped on the city of Hiroshima killed 200,000 people and destroyed the city. In quick succession, a second bomb in Nagasaki resulted in the deaths of 79,000 people. Five days after the bombings, Japan surrendered to the United States of America. Seemingly, the close association of the bombings at Nagasaki and Hiroshima with the surrender of Japan suggests that the U.S. act resulted in the Japanese surrender.Hiroshima Bombing The Manhattan Project When I was asked to work on the Manhattan project during the late 1930's, I was delighted to be included in work of such magnitude. Not only would I work with the most prominent scientists in the world; I would also make a substantial contribution to the United States Government and its effort to keep the country safe. Recently however I have begun experiencing considerable ambivalence regarding the
bombing of Hiroshima raises some significant ethical issues. From a military perspective, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki served as the catalyst for bringing about Japanese surrender, thereby ending the war in the Pacific. However, these attacks on civilian targets were among the most horrific in the history of wartime. Such attacks would be outlawed today under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which was enacted in 1949 partly as a
Dropping the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki During World War II, a mid-20th-century conflict that involved several nations, the United States military dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Wikipedia, 2005). The first atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima on August 5, 1945; the second was detonated over Nagasaki four days later. The bombs killed more than 120,000 people immediately and about twice as many over
" The difference in the Manhattan Project and other companies that were very similar in function was due to the need to become quickly successful and investments of "hundreds of millions of dollars in unproven and hitherto unknown processes and did so entirely in secret. Speed and secrecy were the watchwords of the Manhattan Project." Gosling states that the "one overwhelming advantage" of the project's inherent characteristics because it became
Biggest Decision" (Hiroshima) "The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb" presents a number of nuanced reasons as to why President Truman ultimately gave the order for the atomic bombs dropped onto the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Robert James Maddox offers a number of persuasive reasons as to how Truman's decision was justified, mostly dealing with an examination of
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's executive order to contain Japanese-Americans in internment camps could have created mistrust in the Japanese and their descendants in the U.S. Such racial antagonism could have made many Americans feel justified to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Earlier Presidential Statement and Other Motivations The decision to bomb Japan's cities may not be deduced from documents during President Truman's presidency or blamed entirely on President Truman. A
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