Atomic Bomb Speech

In World War II, an atomic bomb was released by the United States, striking and devastating parts of Japan. This action made by the U.S. government was immensely criticized by the public eye. In class, we read the three texts, “Robert Oppenheimer Speech”, “A Petition to the President of the United States”, and “The Decision to Drop the Bomb”. All of these pieces of writing discuss the topic of how and why United States decided to drop a nuclear bomb over to Japan. The three seem to have a the common topics of the fact that the U.S. should not have used their nuclear weapons and that having the ability to use atomic bombs is privilege that should have been discussed in more detail, however these texts also discuss different perspectives on dropping bombs into a country. When the government does anything that could possibly affect their nation, it is crucial that they think long and hard about the outcome of what they are considering. However, in the event of when the United States government decided to drop a bomb into Japan, this was not the case. In his speech, Oppenheimer states, the extraordinary speed with which things which were right on the frontier of science were translated. . .¨ (Paragraph 4). In his speech, Oppenheimer states, the extraordinary speed with which things which were right on the frontier of science were translated. . .¨ (paragraph 4). The two speakers discuss the situation at which the government was in. Not only did they not discuss their decision with other authorities, but they also completely rushed their decision to do so. The decision to release the immensely dangerous and corruptive weapon was a spur-of-the moment decision that could have made situations much worse. Not only was this decision impulsive, but it was also mostly done to show off to other countries, which is not a mature way of handling war. The United States was one of the luckiest countries during the time of WWII, because of their modern weapons. The U.S. was a privileged country that had owned nuclear weapons that could easily take down half of Japan, however they were not smart in the way they decided to handle war. “A Petition to the President of the United States” also …show more content…
This was exactly what the United States was left with after the bomb was dropped in Japan. However, it also left the U.S. filled with a variety of opinions about whether or not this was the correct choice. Some, agree with the narrator of “The Decision to Drop the Bomb”, stating, “. . . his decision to drop the bomb was purely military” (Paragraph 11). Contrastingly, “A Petition to the President of the United States” says, “Such a step, however, ought not to be made at any time without seriously considering the moral responsibilities which are involved” (Paragraph 5). Essentially, in “The Decision to Drop the Bomb”, it explains that there was no other reason other than for military purposes for the bombing of Japan and that it was only thought of as a way of counteracting the enemies. On the other hand, in “A Petition to the President” it clearly expresses that it is important to think about the other affects of bombs, other than the military ones. These differences were ultimately the debate about whether or not dropping the bomb was an inhumane