The Decision To Drop The Atomic Bomb

Great Essays
The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bombing in Japan
In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs, causing major destruction and life threatening issues, over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everyone has their own take on what really happened and have their own perspective on controversies regarding the United States’ decision to drop the bombs. Perspectives that I will be discussing today are from three disciplines: scientific view (Leo Szilard), journalism view (Wilfred Bruchett), and historical view (a writer of an article called “The Decision to Drop the Bomb” and Bernard Feld’s article “Lessons from Hiroshima and Nagasaki”). Each have their own unique approach on the atomic bomb and it’s affects. Even though all writers
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Bruchett explains how at the time when the bomb fell, there were a few people who did not suffer from any injuries, but now are dying from the after effects of the bombing (2). People began to have the aftermath symptoms of the bombing as they lost their sense of hunger, started to lose their hair, had the appearance of bluish spots on their bodies and as they began bleeding from different places such as their ears, nose and mouth (Bruchett 2-3). Bruchett also goes on to talk about how drastic the effects of the bombs were, “Many people had suffered only a slight cut from a falling splinter of brick or steel. They should have recovered quickly. But they did not. They developed an acute sickness. Their gums began to bleed. And they vomited blood. And finally they died (3). Even those who were trying to help the Japanese victims eventually became suffers as well. The health of the Japanese victims after the bomb was tarnished. More than 200,000 people died because of the diseases and medical issues that arose in result of the …show more content…
The writer says “military analysts insist that Japan was on its knees and the bombings were simply unnecessary. The American government was accused of racism on the grounds that such a device would never have been used against white civilians”. Thus saying, it is said that Japan was planning to surrender, the United States dropping the atomic bomb was just an extreme, making it assumed that the United States are the terrorists of the attack. The writer also states “other critics argued that American diplomats had ulterior motives. The Soviet Union had entered the war against Japan, and the atomic bomb could be read as a strong message for the Soviets to tread lightly. In this respect, Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have been the first shots of the Cold War as well as the final shots of World War II.” The United States were the first to drop an atomic weapon on another

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