Firebombing Dbq

One theory is that dropping the atomic bomb was absolutely necessary. There are several key points to this argument, that the Japanese would never surrender unconditionally, that war would drag on, that a land invasion would be costly, long, deadly, and the bomb was needed specifically to end the war swiftly and with as few casualties as possible. “At the time, there was a wide consensus in support of the decision to strike among the members of the committee. Stimson was very adamant that the bomb be used”.⁴
A key part of the problem was the belief that the Japanese would never surrender. This idea stemmed both from the resources that they still possessed in 1945, and also the notorious reputation of the Japanese suicide bombers. The United …show more content…
There were other options, and some believed that those options would have been more effective. Some high ranking military officials supported the idea of an invasion, “this course was the only one that would permit application of the full power of our combined resources-ground, naval and air-on the decisive objective”.¹³ This argument favored tested and tried methods of winning the war. Firebombing had worked in Germany, and could prove to be successful in Japan. Further, they saw no reason to change their previous strategy, it made more sense to continue what they knew was at least partially successful. MacArthur asserted that they should “continue the offensive methods which have proved so successful in Pacific campaigns”.¹⁴ The United States also looked into other ways of ending the war. There was discussion of ending the war using political means, instead of military force. The Allies had also been working to convince the USSR to declare war on Japan. Despite some controversy over the USSR entering the war with Japan, “the official position of the War Department still held that "Russian entry will have a profound military effect in that almost certainly it will materially shorten the war and thus save American lives”.¹⁵ Some military personnel believed that an invasion, with the backing of the USSR could end the war …show more content…
First and foremost, the bombs that were dropped killed thousands of people instantly. The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, called Little Boy, and it killed around 70,000 people instantly, and killed approximately another 70,000, over subsequent five years.¹⁶ The second bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945, called Fat Man, also killed around 70,000 people instantly and more in the subsequent years.¹⁷ The mushroom cloud that rose over Nagasaki was over 60,000 feet tall.¹⁸ These bombs were more destructive than around a month of carpet bombing would have been. The immense number of people killed instantly by the bombs was and continues to be a moral concern. Another aspect was the lingering effects that the radiation would have. British scientists when considering the possible applications of the weapon said, “Owing to the spread of radioactive substances with the wind, the bomb could probably not be used without killing a large number of civilians”.¹⁹ Scientists were aware of the possible disastrous biological consequences of the use of such a weapon, but policy makers and the people making the decisions were not necessarily aware of the scope of effects possible. “This disconnect between high-level policy makers in Washington and the scientists and engineers who