Running head: JUSTIFYING THE BOMB
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Justifying the Atomic Bomb
Julian Contreras
3/13/18
JUSTIFYING THE BOMB
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Abstract
The debate of whether the use of the atomic bomb was justified or not has been around a
while and probably won’t subside any time soon. there are people who believe the bombings
were unjustified however, there is much more evidence pointed towards justifying the actions.
The decision to drop the bombs potentially prevented more bloodshed and loss of life than it in
fact ended.
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Justifying the Atomic Bomb
The use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been debated for over 70
years. Although people will argue that neither of the bombs were necessary for the surrender of
Japan, there are countless arguments commending President Truman’s decision to use the atomic
bomb. The atomic bomb was the bomb that ended world war II forcing the Japanese into an
unconditional surrender. Without the use of the bomb the united states and its allies would have
invaded Japan ending with many more casualties to both the Japanese and allied forces. It
prevented the war from dragging on longer than it was projected. The Japanese were also
preparing to fight till the last man standing.
It is understandable how someone can believe that the bombings on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki were unnecessary. According to the New York Times, the official strategic bombing
survey done after the war concluded that the bombs were unnecessary saying, ''Japan would have
surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the
war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated'' (A-Bombing of Japan, 1988).
The US intelligence had predicted that Japan would collapse when the Soviet Union joined the
war and Truman’s advisors told him “that surrender was likely if the United States let it be
known Japan could keep its Emperor” (A-Bombing of Japan, 1988). According to Secretary of
War Henry L. Stimson’s diary, “the rush to use atomic bombs quickly, rather than follow other
available courses, was intimately connected with the desire to end the conflict before the Soviet
Union entered it” (A-Bombing of Japan, 1988). However, my position is that the atomic bombs
potentially saved countless allied and Japanese lives.
President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb saved many lives in the long run.
According to The Washington Times, “Truman was warned that a land invasion could cost from
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half a million to a million American lives” (The Moral Use, 2011). In 1944, U.S. war planners
projected half a million casualties to subdue Japan's 3.5 million military defenders during
Operation Downfall, which, by 1945, had increased to a projected 1 million casualties to 5
million defending Japanese soldiers stationed exactly on Downfall's designated landing beaches
(Revisiting the Atomic Bomb, 2009). The Japanese had a strategy called Ketsu-Go, decisive
operation. Ketsu-Go was island-to-island combat that was designed to wear down American
morale to try to negotiate favorable terms to end the war and even after the second bomb was
dropped Japanese officials wanted to keep fighting the war, whereas without the bombs the war
would have carried on which would have ended with a substantially greater number of Japanese
losses (The Moral Use, 2011).
Without the use of the atomic bomb Japan would have kept on fighting. President
Truman wanted the unconditional surrender of Japan saying, “The alternative for Japan is prompt
and utter destruction" and because they did not surrender, the bomb on Hiroshima was dropped
(Loebs, 1995). Truman then warned, "we shall continue to use it until we completely destroy
Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us."(Loebs, 1995) Even after the
first bomb Japan had many officials wanting to continue the war, but prompted Emperor
Hirohito to put an end to the war. Before the bomb on Hiroshima was dropped, none of the
previous events in the war made the Emperor act, not the defeat of the Japanese army on
Okinawa, the destruction of Japan's cities, the starvation blockade, nor the threat of an allied
invasion on Japan. (Loebs, 1995). Japan’s weapon supply and oil reserves were low, the country
was starving due to the blockade, and more than 3 million Japanese had already died in the war,
1 million in the last eight months of the war alone (Loebs, 1995). According to Loebs,under all
these circumstances they still were determined to fight “even at the cost of self-destruction of the
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entire Japanese race” (1995). The atomic bomb was what shocked Emperor Hirohito into
surrendering. The Japanese wanted to surrender under terms of being able to preserve the
imperial household and if the allies refused they “had no choice but to fight to the end" (Loebs,
1995). Loebs mentions that Japanese soldiers were made to believe "if they lost their weapons
they should fight with their feet; if they couldn't fight with these, they should bite, and if they
could not, should cut out their tongues and kill themselves” (1995). The Japanese also claimed
that if they could not halt the enemy, 100 million Japanese would gladly prefer death over
surrendering. (loebs, 1995). According to Loebs, the Japanese were prepared for a kamikaze
defense where they had 2.5 million troops with 9,000 kamikaze planes, 32 million civilians ready
to die fighting for the emperor, and that even children were trained to throw themselves under
American tanks with dynamite strapped to their chests, called Sherman carpets (1995). Many
Japanese were prepared to “strike the invaders dead” before the emperor decided to surrender
claiming, “I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer” due to the destruction from
the atomic bomb (Loebs, 1995).
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki served as a catalyst to put an end to the
war. Although some people say the atomic bombs were unnecessary for the surrender of Japan,
the Japanese people’s mindset says otherwise. The Japanese people were ready and willing to put
their lives on the line for their homeland. They had the mindset to keep fighting until they could
no longer fight. Emperor Hirohito’s decision to surrender, after seeing the devastation of the
atomic bomb, put an end to the war and potentially saved millions of lives both jappanese and
allied.
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References
A-Bombing of Japan Was Unnecessary. (1988, October 29). New York Times. Retrieved from
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.daccad.nmsu.edu:2048/apps/doc/A175972970/OVIC?u=nm_a_dona&sid=OVIC&xid=d516e
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Loebs, B. (1995, August 18). Hiroshima & Nagasaki: one necessary evil, one tragic mistake.
Commonweal, 122(14), 11+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.daccad.nmsu.edu:2048/apps/doc/A17210233/OVIC?u=nm_a_dona&sid=OVIC&xid=cf91a0e
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Revisiting the atomic bomb debate. (2009, November 11). Washington Times [Washington,
DC], p. A23. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.daccad.nmsu.edu:2048/apps/doc/A211726311/OVIC?u=nm_a_dona&sid=OVIC&xid=7bb1fe
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The moral use of nuclear weapons. (2011, August 25). Washington Times [Washington, DC], p.
B04. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.daccad.nmsu.edu:2048/apps/doc/A265221545/OVIC?u=nm_a_dona&sid=OVIC&xid=1b5ad
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