Why It Was Justified to Drop the Bomb



 Riley Brown

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

 Justification of the Atom Bomb Dropped on Japan



Iwo Jima
Mortar Team

           

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified because in the end, it saved lives on both sides, ended the war sooner, and kept the Russians from taking over Japan. It saved many lives on both sides because we did not have to launch a full scale invasion of Japan. Huge casualties were estimated on both sides if we had.

            The Potsdam Proclamation that the United Nations agreed upon forced the Japanese to surrender unconditionally or face total destruction (Omaha World Herald | November, 1987 | Davis). The Atomic bomb kept the Japanese from facing total destruction even though it did completely destroy two of their cities. The campaign that would have happened in Japan if we had not dropped the bombs would have been the one of, if not the bloodiest theater. The estimations of casualties were about one million for Allied troops and in the millions for the Japanese. In Japan, the government was training its civilians to fight. The United States would have had to have fought every person, military and civilian, in Japan for total victory. The Japanese were fighting until nearly the last man was dead. Okinawa and Iwo Jima proved that. Fighting on the Japanese homeland changes things, they would fight until every last one of them was dead.

            Russia was a huge threat. If they had taken Japan the Unites States would have been in trouble. The USSR actually captured a few islands in northern Japan. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki kept them from advancing any further. Stalin had broken the neutrality pact that existed between the USSR and Japan in the occupation of areas of East Asia previously taken by Japan. The Soviet Union kept fighting to take Japanese territory even after we dropped the bomb. The bomb was an influencing power over why the Russians decided to stop.

            The bombings showed the United States as a world superpower. We have a weapon with major capabilities and used it to almost show our power off to the world. Let them know that we are not to be messed with. Of all the options available, the smallest total loss of life would be to use the Atom bomb (Meeks, 2011). Truman and all the people up top believed that.