Wells H. Gwin Gwin 1
Doctor James McCord
Period 2/3
2 March 2017
Why The Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Were Justified In 1945 the United States altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. They did this by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although bombing Japan was no question a tragedy, doing so was the best option for America. The United States was justified in bombing Japan because the United States would have lost even more troops if they had to invade Japan, the Japanese had already done many terrible things, and it was the quickest way to end World War II. If the United States did not bomb Japan, they would have had to invade Japan. The United …show more content…
On December Seventh, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, killing many American soldiers, as well as women and children. This attack was completely uncalled for because the United States had no intentions to go to war with Japan. This however was not the only terrible thing Japan had done. Four years before Pearl Harbor, there was the Nanking Massacre. The Japanese invaded Nanking, China in hopes of taking over China, what happened there however was worse than anybody could have anticipated. The Japanese soldiers violated the laws of war by killing the small number of Chinese soldiers that remained. What also happened was the Japanese soldiers murdered Chinese civilians, raped Chinese women and destroyed or stole Chinese property on a scale that may never be known (Bush). In fact in is estimated that the civilian deaths from this atrocity range between 20,000 to 200,000 civilians (Wasserstorm). There also have been cases of Japanese soldier practicing cannibalism in World War II. There are over 100 documented cases of Japanese soldiers eating soldiers from Australia and India, as well as workers from Papua New Guinea. One Pakistani man that was a prisoner of war in that prison testified that in the area he was imprisoned Japanese soldiers ate one prisoner per day, even while the prisoners were still alive. “In some cases the (Japanese) …show more content…
When President Truman was deciding what the next step in World War II was he knew that the Japanese would not go down easily “The U.S. military was aware of the burden of imposing terms of unconditional surrender on Japan. The Okinawa campaign was long, hard, and bloody, and fighting would even be worse in the invasion, subjugation, and occupation of Japan's home islands.” (Wainstock). America was also well aware of the effect Emperor Hirohito had on the people of Japan. The people of Japan worshipped this man like a God and actually thought he was one. They were willing to do whatever he said, even dying for him, which some of them were doing by being a kamikaze pilot. America knew the Japanese would fight for him until there were no Japanese people left, and they were terrified by this. About a week after World War II ended, a well informed Japanese officer was being interrogated by Americans. The Japanese officer admitted that he knew America would have won the invasion they were planning, but also claimed that Japan would not be disgraced by surrender. "We would have kept on fighting until all Japanese were killed, but we would not have been defeated," said the officer during his interrogation (Compton), the deaths caused by the atomic bomb would have surely been less than killing everyone in Japan, and it is not even close. The Japanese knew they did
Doctor James McCord
Period 2/3
2 March 2017
Why The Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Were Justified In 1945 the United States altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. They did this by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although bombing Japan was no question a tragedy, doing so was the best option for America. The United States was justified in bombing Japan because the United States would have lost even more troops if they had to invade Japan, the Japanese had already done many terrible things, and it was the quickest way to end World War II. If the United States did not bomb Japan, they would have had to invade Japan. The United …show more content…
On December Seventh, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, killing many American soldiers, as well as women and children. This attack was completely uncalled for because the United States had no intentions to go to war with Japan. This however was not the only terrible thing Japan had done. Four years before Pearl Harbor, there was the Nanking Massacre. The Japanese invaded Nanking, China in hopes of taking over China, what happened there however was worse than anybody could have anticipated. The Japanese soldiers violated the laws of war by killing the small number of Chinese soldiers that remained. What also happened was the Japanese soldiers murdered Chinese civilians, raped Chinese women and destroyed or stole Chinese property on a scale that may never be known (Bush). In fact in is estimated that the civilian deaths from this atrocity range between 20,000 to 200,000 civilians (Wasserstorm). There also have been cases of Japanese soldier practicing cannibalism in World War II. There are over 100 documented cases of Japanese soldiers eating soldiers from Australia and India, as well as workers from Papua New Guinea. One Pakistani man that was a prisoner of war in that prison testified that in the area he was imprisoned Japanese soldiers ate one prisoner per day, even while the prisoners were still alive. “In some cases the (Japanese) …show more content…
When President Truman was deciding what the next step in World War II was he knew that the Japanese would not go down easily “The U.S. military was aware of the burden of imposing terms of unconditional surrender on Japan. The Okinawa campaign was long, hard, and bloody, and fighting would even be worse in the invasion, subjugation, and occupation of Japan's home islands.” (Wainstock). America was also well aware of the effect Emperor Hirohito had on the people of Japan. The people of Japan worshipped this man like a God and actually thought he was one. They were willing to do whatever he said, even dying for him, which some of them were doing by being a kamikaze pilot. America knew the Japanese would fight for him until there were no Japanese people left, and they were terrified by this. About a week after World War II ended, a well informed Japanese officer was being interrogated by Americans. The Japanese officer admitted that he knew America would have won the invasion they were planning, but also claimed that Japan would not be disgraced by surrender. "We would have kept on fighting until all Japanese were killed, but we would not have been defeated," said the officer during his interrogation (Compton), the deaths caused by the atomic bomb would have surely been less than killing everyone in Japan, and it is not even close. The Japanese knew they did