You have heard two reasons why dropping the atomic bombs in Japan was not justified and unnecessary. But perhaps the most compelling reasons why dropping the bomb was not justified is that the United States was weeks or months away from Japan surrendering and the war ending before dropping the bombs and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. As you will hear from General Mitsuru Ushijima, Japan was already losing the war. The country was surrounded by US troops, Americans controlled Japanese airspace and waterways, and US casualties in military battles were low compared to Japanese. The US commanders knew that Japan was close to surrendering as Germany had already surrendered, and Russia, another powerful military force, was
