Consequences Of The Atomic Bomb

In 1945, the US and Japan were at war. The Pacific War was a brutal one between the two countries, and neither were willing to surrender, nor face the possible consequences of surrendering. In an act of desperation to get Japan to surrender, the US dropped what is called the ‘Atomic Bomb’ on Japan, successfully ending the war between them. Although the bomb had ended the war between the US and Japan, the US shouldn’t have dropped the Atomic Bomb because designing and building it was rather costly, the US was prejudiced towards the Japanese, and the full knowledge of the effects the bomb would cause was lacking tremendously, especially in long term effects. Designing and building the Atomic Bomb was very expensive. The building of the bomb …show more content…
Just as the US, the Japanese had done some things that would be considered immoral, but unlike the US’ unethical things that had been done, it wasn’t a controversial discussion because they had done such things as the Death March on Bataan and the attack on Pearl Harbor. The propaganda of the Japanese being the bad guys had put the them in such a spot as the US’ target of vehemence, as well as their culture preferring to die a fighter, to die in battle, rather than living and coming home due to submission. Many people in the US had felt the Japanese deserved what they got from the bomb because they were still hurt, like a man called William T Laurence, a journalist who was aboard the Enola Gay when they dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, and he stated, “Does one feel any pity or compassion for the poor devils about to die? Not when one thinks of Pearl Harbor and the Death March on Bataan.” Even President Truman felt a strong sense of dislike towards them, going as far as calling them beasts for the things the Japanese had done, and although he claimed he was ‘disturbed’ about the use of the Atomic Bombs, he felt that the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Death March on Bataan were far worse, “When you have to deal with a beast, you have to treat him as a …show more content…
A Japanese physician at the time had taken account of people who were there during the bombing of Hiroshima, observing the victims and their deaths, describing the cause of deaths for the ones who died. Some died instantly, some it took a couple of days and some had gotten radiation sickness before they died as well. He had taken note of the way the sickness presented itself, like anorexia, vomiting, vomiting blood and coughing up blood. Even though the bomb had killed less people in its short term effects than the other bombs they used, (the ones that weren’t nuclear) the long term effects were far worse, like a death caused by the radiation sickness or suffering for several days from being burnt half to death. Even a man who was in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, attending class, claimed there wasn’t much knowledge of radioactivity at the time. When the US demonstrated the bomb out in the middle of nowhere, in a desert in New Mexico, to show the Japanese what the bomb could do, to warn them of what would happen should they choose to not surrender, the effects of the bomb were unknown and the Japanese didn’t quite feel threatened by it and didn’t even bother to respond to the warning, so they didn’t surrender until after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved of the horrible effects and damage the bombs could