Paragraph: Was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan justified?
Use a minimum of three arguments from the sheets to explain your answer.
Argument
There was a high civilian death toll that resulted
from the use of the atomic bomb.
Many in the Japanese government hoped for a
negotiated peace and a conditional surrender, and
the Americans only demanded for the
unconditional surrender of Japan.
Both sides used mass strategic bombings and
conventional bombings to hinder war production.
This resulted in a large numbers of civilian
casualties, similar to that of the atomic bombs.
The use of the atomic bomb was unethical and
immoral as it created a new meaning of total war
by destroying thousands of civilians in a grotesque
manner
By 1945, Japan was crippled as a result of the
Allied blockade and bombings and neared
collapse.
The alternative to using the atomic bomb
(bombardments / blockade) would have had
devastating effects on the Japanese population and
would have prolonged the war and their suffering.
The Allied strategic bombings and blockade had
devastating effects of Japan, yet these efforts were
not enough to compel the surrender of a Japanese
military still bent on victory.
The Japanese military were preparing a desperate
defense of their homeland that would inevitably
produce high casualties on both sides.
Evidence
Almost 150,000 civilians were killed as a result of the bombardment of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.1[1]
On July 21, 1945, the Japanese government informed its representative in
Moscow: “We cannot consent to unconditional surrender under any
circumstances. Even if the war drags on and more blood must be shed,
so long as the enemy demands unconditional surrender, we will fight as
one man against the enemy in accordance with the Emperor’s
command.”2[2]
During the Battle of Britain, over 146,700 civilians were killed or
seriously injured.3[3] The air-raids in Germany cost approximately
600,000 civilian lives.4[4] During the bombing of Dresden, 135,000
people were killed.5[5] The firebombing of Tokyo claimed 83,000 lives,
the majority of them being civilians.6[6]
William D. Leahy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated: “My
own feeling is that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical
standard common to barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to
make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women
and children.”7[7]
A report by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey following the war
concluded that: “Certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all
probability prior to 1 November 1945, 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.”8[8]
Conventional bombardments killed and would have continued to kill
hundreds of thousands of civilians in Japan. Large numbers of Japanese
civilians would have perished through starvation and disease as a result
of the blockade.9[9]
Throughout June 1945, Kyushu was built up as a military stronghold. 10[10]
Commanders ordered soldiers and civilian volunteers to attack American
tanks, asking “all able-bodied Japanese, regardless of sex” to “be
prepared to sacrifice his life in suicide attacks on enemy armored
forces.”11[11]
As a result of the Japanese defensive buildup in July, and the losses
during previous battles in the Pacific, Truman was informed by General
Marshall that an invasion of Japan could result in half a million
American casualties.12[12] This figure was projected by Pentagon
planners, who estimated 132,000 American casualties for an invasion of
Kyushu, and 90,000 for Honshu. 13[13]
Bragdon, Henry W., McCutchen, Samuel P., Ritchie, Donald A., History of a Free Nation, (Columbus: Glenroe/McGraw-Hill, 1998) 22
James Byrnes, Speaking Frankly (New York: Greenwood Press, 1947) 211.
John R. Elting, “Costs, Casualties and Other Data”, Grolier Online, <http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_16.html>
4[4]
John Keegan, The Second World War (New York: The Penguin Group, 1990) 426.
5[5]
Roy Jenkins, Truman (New York: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1986) 27.
6[6]
Ronald Takaki, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Bomb (New York: Little, Brown & Company Limited, 1995) 27.
7[7]
William D. Leahy, I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, Based on his Notes and Diaries Made
at the Time, (New York, 1950) 441.
8[8]
“The United States Strategic Bombing Survey,” The Truman Administration: A Documentary History (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1966)
45.
9[9]
Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (New York: Random House, 1999) 334.
10[10]
Edward J. Drea, MacArthur’s ULTRA: Codebreaking and the War against Japan 1942-1945 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992) 209.
11[11]
Ronald Spector, Eagle Against the Sun (New York: Random House, Inc., 1985) 544.
12[12]
Harry S. Truman, Year of Decisions, (Garden City: Doubleday, 1955)
13[13]
Brian McNulty, “The Great Atomic Bomb Debate” Ohio University, 25 November 2003, <http://www.ohiou.edu/perspectives/9701/bomb2.htm>
1[1]
2[2]
3[3]
Fact Sheet: The Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima and Nagasaki
A picture of the Enola Gay with
one of its crewmembers.

On 6 August 1945 a United States B29 bomber plane, the
Enola Gay, flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
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At 8:15 a.m. an atomic bomb was dropped.
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It exploded with the power of 20,000 tonnes of TNT. It
produced a giant mushroom shaped cloud over the city.
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Anyone within a kilometre of the explosion became a bundle of
smoking black charcoal in seconds.
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Within minutes about 70,000 people were dead, those who
were still alive were in agony from their burns.
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Estimates of the casualties vary:
The USA gave a figure of 79,400.

The Japanese estimated that 240,000 people
were killed during the explosion or died
shortly afterwards from the effects of
radiation.

On 9th August 1945 a second bomb was dropped on the port of
Nagasaki.

According to the USA it killed 20,000 people. The Japanese
said that 50,000 people were killed.

The two bombs that were dropped were called Fat Man and Little Boy.

Afterwards, the Americans denied that radiation
sickness existed and they banned journalists from
Hiroshima.
th
A picture of Fat man (left) and Little Boy (right).
The Explosion of an Atom Bomb
Eye Witness Accounts:
a) The skin was burned off some of them and was hanging from their hands and from
their chins.
b) In Hiroshima, 30 days later, people who were not injured in the bombing are still
dying mysteriously and horribly from an unknown something which I can only
describe as the atomic plague
c) Survivors began to notice in themselves a strange form of illness. It consisted of
vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhoea with large amounts of blood, purple spots on the
skin, bleeding from the mouth, loss of hair and usually death.
Below: A photo showing radiation burns
Radiation Burns
"..We tried to open the eyes of the injured
and we found out they were still alive. We
tried to carry them by their arms and legs
and to place them onto the fire truck. But
this was difficult because their skin was
peeled off as we tried to move them. They
were all heavily burned..."
Right: A British Cartoon published in 1945
The caption states:
JAPAN WAS SEEKING PEACEH BEFORE
THE FIRST ATOM BOMB WAS DROPPED…
The Use of Atomic Bombs on Japan ~ The Pros and Cons
Historians are still divided over whether it was necessary to drop the atomic bomb on
Japan to end World War II. Here is a summary of arguments on both sides:
Why the bomb was needed or justified:
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The Japanese had demonstrated near-fanatical resistance, fighting to almost the
last man on Pacific islands, committing mass suicide on Saipan and unleashing
kamikaze attacks at Okinawa. Fire bombing had killed 100,000 in Tokyo with no
discernible political effect. Only the atomic bomb could jolt Japan's leadership to
surrender.
With only two bombs ready (and a third on the way by late August 1945) it was
too risky to "waste" one in a demonstration over an unpopulated area.
An invasion of Japan would have caused casualties on both sides that could easily
have exceeded the toll at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The two targeted cities would have been firebombed anyway.
Immediate use of the bomb convinced the world of its horror and prevented future
use when nuclear stockpiles were far larger.
The bomb's use impressed the Soviet Union and halted the war quickly enough
that the USSR did not demand joint occupation of Japan.
Why the bomb was not needed, or unjustified:
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Japan was ready to call it quits anyway. More than 60 of its cities had been
destroyed by conventional bombing, the home islands were being blockaded by
the American Navy, and the Soviet Union entered the war by attacking Japanese
troops in Manchuria.
Japan tried to surrender to the U.S. but wanted to keep their emperor in place
American refusal to modify its "unconditional surrender" demand to allow the
Japanese to keep their emperor needlessly prolonged Japan's resistance.
A demonstration explosion over Tokyo harbor would have convinced Japan's
leaders to quit without killing many people.
Even if Hiroshima was necessary, the U.S. did not give enough time for word to
filter out of its devastation before bombing Nagasaki.
The bomb was used partly to justify the $2 billion spent on its development.
The two cities were of limited military value. Civilians outnumbered troops in
Hiroshima six to one.
Japanese lives were sacrificed simply to prove to the Soviet Union that America
had the power and technology and were not afraid to use it.
Conventional firebombing would have caused as much significant damage
without making the U.S. the first nation to use nuclear weapons.