December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, was the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked and bombed. Early in the morning, just before 8:00, Japanese bombs were dropped on the American naval base known as Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. As a result of this, 2,403 Americans were killed, with 68 of them being innocent civilians. This event occurred because Japan was under the impression that America would be weakened and America would not be able to interfere with their invasion plans overseas. Unfortunately for them, America declared war the very next day. Three years later, in May 1945, Germany surrendered. This meant that all military attention would now be directed to Japan and their surrender. We continued fighting, and eventually dropped
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In The Potsdam Declaration (source A), we demanded that Japan surrender. We explained that we have no ill-will towards Japan, but that, if they did not surrender, the result would be “prompt and utter destruction.” Japan was given a warning and chose to ignore it. Another reason we are justified in dropping the bombs is the lack of Japan’s intention to surrender. In sources C and D we read about how Japan was going to fight until the very end. Source C, the Japanese foreign minister, told the ambassador to Moscow that Japan was going to keep fighting as long as the United States was a threat to them. Source D, a pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, spoke to the pilot who dropped the atomic bomb. Fuchida (Japanese pilot) told Tibbets (American pilot) that he “did the right thing” and that Japanese citizens intended to resist invasion “with sticks and stones if necessary.” The last reason that proves we were justified in dropping the bomb is the consequences if we did not. In Source G, a memoir of Henry L. Stimson, Stimson says that if we did not drop the bomb, the war probably would not have ended until “the latter part of 1946, at the earliest.” He also says that there would have been “over a million casualties to American
In The Potsdam Declaration (source A), we demanded that Japan surrender. We explained that we have no ill-will towards Japan, but that, if they did not surrender, the result would be “prompt and utter destruction.” Japan was given a warning and chose to ignore it. Another reason we are justified in dropping the bombs is the lack of Japan’s intention to surrender. In sources C and D we read about how Japan was going to fight until the very end. Source C, the Japanese foreign minister, told the ambassador to Moscow that Japan was going to keep fighting as long as the United States was a threat to them. Source D, a pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, spoke to the pilot who dropped the atomic bomb. Fuchida (Japanese pilot) told Tibbets (American pilot) that he “did the right thing” and that Japanese citizens intended to resist invasion “with sticks and stones if necessary.” The last reason that proves we were justified in dropping the bomb is the consequences if we did not. In Source G, a memoir of Henry L. Stimson, Stimson says that if we did not drop the bomb, the war probably would not have ended until “the latter part of 1946, at the earliest.” He also says that there would have been “over a million casualties to American