The Use Of Atomic Bombs In Human History

More than 70 years ago on August 6th and 9th the United states deployed very controversial military weaponry on Japan. Two Atomic bombs, Little Boy and Fat Boy, were dropped on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the first use of atomic bombs in human history and is still currently debated whether it was necessary or justified. Many think it was justified because it ended the war with much less casualties, ended the war quickly, and the fact that japanese had the motto of no surrender. Prior to the idea of the engaging nuclear warfare, the United States had intentions to invade japan with our soldiers. Japan had an army that consisted of two million soldiers(The Decision to Drop the Bomb) ready to defend against an invasion. If the invasion would have happen it could have resulted in millions of lives lost. The Nuclear bombs had reportedly resulted in at least 129,000 casualties and no more than 250,000(Richard Cohen), which is miniscule compared to the millions that would have been lost in the invasion. While many say innocent lives were lost from the bombs, the soldiers all had families and were humans too. The war had been going for …show more content…
One of the alternatives was the idea that a demonstration of the bomb would make Japan think twice about continuing. The issue with this idea is it was thought that it would make us look weak and foolish if the demonstration didn't work (Michael Barnes). Another reason it was not a good idea to do a demonstration is it would have used one of our two working nuclear bombs. There was the thought that we would not be able to recreate a bomb, which would leave us with one bomb. One bomb was not thought to be enough to make them surrender. A third reason against demonstrating the bomb was it would eliminate the element of surprise. Rather than giving them a demonstration we decided to engage nuclear war which ended well considering the