Pros And Cons Of Dropping The Atomic Bomb

The decision to use nuclear weapons

The decision, made by the United States of America, to drop nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki may not have been the most popular or best choice for the planet; but however, it was the choice that needed to be made to end the war in the pacific. This decision was made so that both sides would suffer the lowest number of casualties possible. The United States had a conference with Japanese leaders to attempt to bring the war to an end peacefully, however the Japanese had made it very clear to the United States and president Truman that they had no intention of abandoning the code of honor they live by and would fight until the last man. After this conference the Decision to drop …show more content…
The American government did not want to completely slaughter the Japanese people. They knew most of them were innocent, however the war in the Pacific needed to come to an end. America also knew that a land invasion would result in a massive loss of life for both sides, and surrender from the U.S. would be nothing but weakness in the eyes of Japan and the Soviet Union. On top of this there was a large amount of consideration about what this would do to Japan’s economy, ecosystem and future as a country. President Truman was also concerned about the way that the United States would be viewed by the rest of the world in the time following the use of a weapon that would destroy an entire city in an instant. He was worried about the United States being viewed as a nation of inhumane and savage people by nations that are not involved in that particular conflict. This would make trade with said other countries nearly impossible and could have created tensions between some of the other world superpowers of the …show more content…
Their mission was to reach the city of Hiroshima, activate and drop the bomb, escape the blast radius and return to base. In doing this they changed warfare forever. When “big boy” was dropped on hiroshima the city was destroyed as soon as the bomb detonated. The equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT exploded and instantly killed over 80,000 people and vaporised almost everything in the city. In the weeks after the bombing, thousands of people would die from radiation poisoning due to the fact that atomic bombs emit massive amounts of radiation. In the days following the use of the first atomic bomb the United States pleaded with Japan to surrender and start rebuilding. However, the Japanese would not give up the fight even after such a massive loss. this showed Truman that he could not hold back any longer and decided to send in a second atomic bomb to destroy a second Japanese city. The second atomic bomb was to be dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki and like the first atom bomb, would kill tens of thousands of people. This ultimately would be what led to the surrender of Japan, but only if the country could keep their emperor as a leader. This was because of the fact that tradition is so deeply ingrained in Japanese