America was justified for dropping the bomb on Japan during World War Two because they didn’t want to lose any more American lives. These American lives are major values to their loved ones. In this document it shows a poster saying “Avenge Pearl Harbor”(document A) by that meaning how the japanese attacked Pearl Harbor by kamikaze basically bombing the boats and tankers by crashing into them with the enemy plane. Since Japan bombed the tankers, United States are going to get them back with a bigger surprise that will cause utter destruction and finally put an end to the war.
Many will see it as a good thing and others as a bad thing but this was a choice by the United States’s to avenge those who died during Pearl Harbor. This Propaganda Poster(Document A) symbolizes how there were explosions on the boats and the United States says they will get them back by bombing them with an Atomic bomb. America was justified according to the symbolism of the poster because they are avenging the sacrificed American lives.
In a memoir written in 1955, President Harry S. Truman stated that he “mentioned to Stalin that they had a new weapon of unusual destructive force” to which Stalin responded by simply saying that they should make “good use of it against the Japanese” (Document F). In other words, Truman did show off the bomb, but mainly to Russia, a country which would be almost completely unaffected if the bombs were to be dropped on Japan. The Japanese were seen as patriotic and fanatics because of the extreme methods that they would go through to achieve success such as choosing to die or commit suicide by use of kamikaze pilots rather than surrendering.
With such extremists on the opposing side of the war, even if the United States and the Allies seemed to have more power at the time, there would be no actual way of determining if the United Sates and the Allies could successfully defeat Japan. Taking this into consideration, the use of the atomic bomb would be a necessary choice for success in Japan, to not only ensure the success of the Allies but to discipline the Japanese. The areas were so uninhabitable. The atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima was described as, “Buildings… set ablaze. A thick cloud of smoke mushroomed into the sky… eight of forty thousand feet. The shock wave that followed immediately upon the explosion was felt well over a smile away… ” (Document F).
Told by a survivor that had lived that moment in time. They also suffered and “almost everyone who managed to survive both the heat and the blast were doomed to eventual death from the effects of radiation. ” (Document E). The radiation that was left behind from the atomic bomb had filled the atmosphere and environment. During the time period of World War Two there were two types of major political ideologies that existed, Democracy and Communism.
The United States saw Russia’s interest in Japan and feared that if a majority of countries became Communist there would eventually be more Communist countries than there were Democratic countries in the world. This would eventually lead to all of the world becoming Communist countries, so the United States needed a way to send a direct message to Communism. Using Japan as an example, the United States could send a message to Russia and all other Communists states how powerful the States was in erms of strength, military ability, and world dominance.
In a description of the bombing of Hiroshima made by the Pacific War Research Society, it states that “Death, for some, was so sudden, so swift, they did not even have time to cry out in pain and shock… (Document F). This atomic bomb was so powerful that people died instantly with no time of reaction or sense. Bodies of the sick and injured, laid on the streets in horrible, immense pain and no way to be helped (Document G). While some people say that the attack was caused by our own people.
To conclude, in my opinion the first atomic bomb should have been used on Japan to end the war with less lives lost, to ensure the Allies won the war, and to show Communist countries that Democracy was a greater power than all other Autocratic governments. My opinion stands the same on the United States dropping the second atomic bomb on Japan because the Japanese did not respond to the States to surrender after the first bombing, and the Japanese thought that the bomb was a fluke or “natural disaster. ” After the first atomic bomb was dropped a total of 200, 000 people died in Japan.
Expecting an unconditional surrender after these events the United States made another call to Japan to which they received no response. Thinking that the Japanese were ignoring them on purpose, the States felt directly insulted by this. In my belief, no statement of surrender means that Japan would be still at war with the opposing side and could have possibly been plotting revenge on the States for the first atomic bomb dropped. The only way to ensure that the message of unconditional surrender would be brought to the States would be to show the Japanese that there would be more bombing in the future unless surrender was made.
This is why I believe the second atomic bomb should have been dropped. When the Japanese saw the effects of the atomic bomb they thought that it was merely a fluke that it caused so much damages across Hiroshima, and that the United States could not do such damages to them again. The Japanese also presumed that the bomb had help from a “natural disaster” that occurred at the same time that the bomb exploded. I presume that for this reason they remained in the war without surrender.
With the arrogance and ignorance of the Japanese people to towards the atomic bomb the United States should have sent a second atomic bomb to show the Japanese that the first bomb was not a fluke or “natural disaster,” but the work of the America’s most destructive weapon. Although it can be argued that the white blaze created on July 16, 1945, was the beginning of the destruction of the human race, it can also be argued that it was the end of humanity’s greatest period of its own destruction. This is why | believe that both atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan even though it caused great pain and dishonor to Japan.
