...move, the United States dropped the very first atomic bomb on Hiroshima; another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. There are two sides to every story, the question lies in whether or not the United States was justified in dropping the atomic bomb. By exploring this controversy, hopefully there lie some answers about this great debate. It is estimated that some 200,000 lives were taken between the bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People opposed to the dropping of the bomb argue that these lives were taken unnecessarily due to the fact that Japan was trying to negotiate a peace treaty. They were out of resources needed to fight a world war and began to reach out to Sweden and Portugal in hopes of a peace treaty. On January 20, 1945 the Japanese sent terms of surrender that were almost identical to the terms that we agreed upon after the bombs were dropped, however these terms were not accepted. Again in April and May of 1945 they tried three more with no success. “Japan was already defeated and dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary” –Dwight D. Eisenhower (do we have an in-text citation for where this came from?). The people in opposition of the dropping the atomic bomb also argue the cities chosen to drop the bomb were of little military value; the number of civilians far out weighted the number of troops. On the other side of the debate are people that believe dropping the atomic bomb was necessary and supported of the strategic move...
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...Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM, the nuclear bomb 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber. The decision to do so has become one of the most controversial topics in scholarly debate. The two major arguments among historians, such as Herbert Feis, Barton Bernstein and Martin Sherwin, are that on the one hand, the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war with Japan and on the other, that the bomb was dropped by the Truman administration to make the Soviet Union more manageable. I am in more agreement with the latter and this essay will argue that the decision to drop the atomic bomb was an American attempt to inhibit Soviet diplomatic ambitions rather than an attempt to bring the war to a quick end. The American decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was without doubt influenced by the desire to end the war since that is what it accomplished. Truman assured after the bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that “the dropping of the bombs stopped the war and saved millions of lives.”[1] The dropping of the atomic bombs prevented an American invasion on Japan, the approximate cost for this exceeded $500,000 and more than a million lives would have been lost. Herbert Feis argued that many in the Truman administration believed that a land invasion of Japan would not have been sufficient enough to cause Japan to surrender quickly and unconditionally and thus Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb was a quick solution to ending the war with Japan...
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...Nicholas Bissen Comp. 2 Rough Draft 11/21/2011 The Atomic Bomb Aftermath The mushroom cloud is a familiar image, but few people are aware of the less visible and longer lasting effects of the atomic bomb. In the following paragraphs, there are going to be three main topics to be discussed. First, the medical effects from the atomic bomb are going to be analyzed and discussed. The main medical effects to be analyzed is Leukemia and Breast Cancer. Second, the injuries that were associated with the survivors of the atomic bomb. There are many characteristics that will be discussed. Third, the damages that were caused by the dropping of the atomic bomb. Some of the damages were ground shock, flash burn, and long and short range blast damage. The first topic is the medical backlash. The main medical effect is Leukemia. Leukemia cases were divided into two categories. The first category was being possible cases which the information used was collected from death certificates. The second category was probable cases in which the diagnosis was determined from hospital studies.( Heyssel 314) Survivors who were living in Hiroshima and who were exposed at less than 1000 m. received a very large amount of radiation. Conversely, those who were 2000 m. or further away received a much smaller amount of radiation.(Heyssell 315) Another little know effect is that males who were exposed to a 1000 m. or closer were more likely to get Leukemia than that of females. (Hessley...
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...The Atomic Bomb Everest College U.S. Constitution and Nevada History 03/05/12 The Atomic Bomb On December 18, 1950, President Truman approved the establishment of a continental test site recognizing the need for a secure, readily accessible, and less costly proving ground than the south pacific. The land was already owned by the federal government and was under military control. The test site possessed favorable conditions for year round testing and mountainous barriers that would prevent close observation. It also had large valleys and dry lake beds for constructing facilities and conducting tests. Truman authorized the use of 680 square miles of the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range with the first test conducted on January 27, 1951. Since atom bombs were first detonated at the Nevada test site in 1951 the site has grown from 680 to 1375 square miles, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Much of this growth resulted from the atomic Energy commissions program to develop nuclear propulsion for space vehicles. Smaller additions included annexing the camp Desert Rock area, where a small airport and the mercury base camp were located and Pahute Mesa for testing high yield nuclear devices deep underground. In view of the nature of its use and importance to the nation, the land was withdrawn from the public domain in perpetuity. The radiological hazards experienced in 1945 with the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico and the bombing of Hiroshima...
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...write an editorial on Harry S Truman’s decision to order the dropping of the atom bomb. HARRY S TRUMAN & THE DECISION TO ORDER THE DROPPING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB Boom! Boom! Seventy thousands Japanese citizens were perished instantly after the first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Japanese still refused to surrender to Allied forces. On August 9, 1945, with the dropping of the second atomic bomb in Nagasaki, where eighty thousands people were vaporized, Japanese surrendered unconditionally and the World War II ended (“The Decision to Drop the Bomb” 5-6). But was it a right decision of Harry S Truman to end the war with two atomic bombs? Becoming the president of the United States on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman faced with a decision of unprecedented gravity in his life: dropping the atomic bombs in Japan to end the World War II. It was just a matter of opinion whether his decision was right or wrong. But at the time the bombs were dropped, most Americans as wells as Allied forces accepted President Truman’s decision and agreed that the atomic bombs were necessary to end the war quickly before the disastrous invasion of the Japanese mainland could occur. But after that, many people started questioning about President Truman’s decision to order the dropping of the atomic bombs. They believed that dropping two atomic bombs to destroy two cities of Japan helped America generally and President Truman specifically...
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... Research Plan Research Question 1: How serious are the health issues of the current survivors? Research Question 2: “What were the health effects of the atomic bombings on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?” Secondary Sources: Sigal, L. (1978). Bureaucratic Politics & Tactical Use of Committees: The Interim Committee & the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Polity, 10(3), 326-364. doi:10.2307/3234412 Miles, R. E., Jr. (1985). Hiroshima: The Strange Myth of Half a Million American Lives Saved. International Security 10(2), 121-140. The MIT Press. Retrieved from Project MUSE database. Historical Context: The strange...
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...year are 1945, America dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. As the years and decades have passed, the controversy has only grown. Millions of people both American and foreigners have questioned America’s choice and have even condemned both America and President Truman for making a decision that killed tens of thousand. Many claim that the use of the Bomb was mainly to scare Russia and to get ahead on the already developing Cold War. However, I believe that the dropping of the atomic bomb was the course of action that would have caused the least amount of bloodshed for both the Allies and the Japanese. There are several arguments that justify the dropping of the atomic bomb. For example, the bomb ironically saved Japanese lives. Casualty...
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...Warfare Technology in WWII: The Atomic Bomb The most significant way that technology changed in WWII, was with the invention of the atomic bomb. A scientific advancement in the 1930’s made the atomic bomb production possible. The discovery of nuclear fission; the process in which an atom is split, and the realization that the power from this could be controlled to produce mass amounts of energy were elements of what fueled this development. Once the bombs were made and tested the decision on whether or not they should be used was given to the US president at the time, Harry Truman. Two Japan cities ended up being the main targets for the bombings and suffered great fatalities as a result. The affects of the decision to drop the bombs are still being seen today and it is still debated whether or not Truman made the right decision. Whether it was a justified decision or not, this breakthrough in technology was, and remains to be, a significant turning point in warfare. Looking closer at the decision Truman was faced with we can get a better look at why he decided to drop the bombs. The Allies were still at war with Japan, so the main idea was to drop the bombs on Japan, and weaken them enough so that they would surrender. This was seen as a better solution than the other way that the situation would have been handled – troops forcefully taking over Tokyo – because it wouldn’t be at the cost of countless numbers of soldier’s lives. Also, the bombs could inflict much more damage...
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...Although many people believe that allied powers use of the atomic bomb was excessive, ill timed, I believe that the Empire of Japan left America with little choice. If we just look back four years prior to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when in my opinion was one of the most cowardly acts ever committed against the American population was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In which well over 2000 casualties occurred just on that one fateful day. Now we are at war by unprovoked act. Our men are taken into the draft stripped from their families. Women working factories helping keep the war effort up at home. Up until that point of the bombings, America was tired and fed up with losing its sons and daughter in a war that we never should have...
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...Dropping of the Atomic Bomb When it comes down to President Harry Truman dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, it seems everyone has their own personal view or opinion on rather or not he made the right decision. I’m trying to imagine myself in Truman’s time period and the position that he had to take, and I wonder. What would I have done if I was in his shoes? What would I have done differently? Was President Harry Truman’s decision completely unnecessary? Oddly I would have to say I agree with his decision, and I will explain why. First, let me explain to you what led us to the most drastic decision in history. Responding to the drop in Pearl Harbor. “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast (Understanding the drop of atomic bomb, pg. 1). The US had been fighting a long and massive war since 1941. Four years to be exact, is a long time for any fight. Especially when there’s no sign of either of them giving up. This began to put pressure on both leaders from the American casualties and the Japanese attitudes to end the war quickly as possible. Although Germany had finally giving up and surrendered, the Japanese had not. They were going to fight until they couldn’t fight no more, and that’s what they did. The winning of this war was so crucial and meant so much to them. They were willing to kill themselves in explosive air planes in order to kill them. This is how serious this war was to them. Truman later had American air strikes leave millions of...
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...neutrons. As a result, the uranium nucleus splits some of its mass to be converted to energy. Other physicists noticed that the fission of one uranium atom gave off extra neutrons, which could in turn split other uranium atoms, starting a chain reaction. Therefore, in theory this energy could be harnessed to make a powerful bomb. Due to this, the development of the ultimate power took many scientists a lot of hard work and dedication to create such an effective bomb. First and foremost, there were problems with the political and social climate of the world that caused a race to unfold in the development of the ultimate weapon. During this period of time World War II was going on, and the United States was fighting with Germany in the Atlantic, as well as Japan in the Pacific. It all started when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, in which the other countries had joined the war for help. As a result, when Leo Szilard heard that Germany had found out about Hahn and Strassman’s discovery he thought they would produce a bomb. Leo Szilard told them that they were attempting to purify Uranium-235, which would make up the atomic bomb. With that being said, he needed to get this valuable information to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president of the United States at the time, but he did not know how to accomplish that. After some thinking he finally came to a conclusion and thought of Albert Einstein, and his connection with the United States. So, he went to...
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...American History The United States is justified in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because Japan attacked the U.S first, the U.S warned Japan, and it ended the war in the Pacific Ocean. During World War II, Japan had already bombed Pearl Harbor resulting to the death of over 2,000 American soldiers. By this time the United States had not yet provoked Japan in any way to have been bombed by them. Although you should not repay evil with evil, the U.S was forced with the difficult decision of either bombing Japan and killing a few thousand, or not and opening the door for possible attacks on the United States and more killing innocent people and putting the country in danger. Before the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they dropped several leaflets in the cities warning the civilian people to evacuate the island because there was going to be an air raid. The Japanese ignored the warnings and decided to stay on the islands even though they knew the risks of not evacuating. This justifies the United States decision to bomb Japan, because the United States gave enough fair warning before blowing up two islands and taking the lives of innocent people, the Japanese are the ones who ignored the warning and remained put. Dropping atomic bombs on the two islands ended World War II in the Pacific Ocean. Japanese soldiers were ordered and forced to fight to the absolute death and would not give up the fight until their enemies surrendered. The United...
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...The use of an atomic bomb is something that has lingered in the conscience of many Americans since the American B-29 Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ever used on August 6, 1945. The United States was urging Japan to surrender, when they refused to comply with these terms, the bomb was dropped and 100,000 people were killed. Two professors of American History, Robert James Maddox and Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, share their opposing views on weather the atomic bomb was necessary to end World War II. Maddox claims that the atomic bomb forced the Japanese army to agree to surrender, which significantly saved more lives than would have been lost. Hasegawa asserts that the Soviet invasion of Japan was a more prominent reasoning for surrender in comparison to the use of the atomic bomb and considers alternatives that seemed to be overlooked by military leaders. A meeting was held at the White House on June 18, 1945. A committee was assembled to consider the major issues concerning the use of the bomb that would present its opinion to the president, army chiefs and secretaries. Army chief of Staff General George C. Marshall was asked to present future war plans. They suggested an operation that was code-named Olympic which would be the invasion of Kyushu to blockade and stage an invasion of Japan’s main island. They then recommended to Truman, “the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible… against a military target surrounded by other buildings… without prior warning...
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...The United States was wrong to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan. The U.S sunk to shocking extremes to make sure that Japan would surrender. The bombs were dropped on two harmless Japanese cities. According to various sources, Japan would have surrendered even if the bombs were not dropped. Yes, the Japanese military did bomb Pearl Harbor when the U.S. was not involved in the war. And yes, the U.S. did have the right to fight back, but not like it did. The U.S. might have wanted to give Japan a taste of its own medicine, but it shouldn’t have overdosed the Japanese. The U.S. is a Christian nation, and Japan practices Buddhism. In the Christian Bible, it says “An eye for an eye; and a tooth for a tooth”, but Buddha disagrees with that and stated “An eye for an eye just makes the whole world blind” I might be Roman Catholic, but I strongly agree with the words of Buddha. Pearl Harbor was a military based ship harbor, so no innocent civilians were killed during that bombing. The United States, instead of bombing a Japanese military base, bombed two Japanese cities that were not controlled by the Japanese military. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities that the U.S. dropped the Atomic Bombs on, were completely ruined. Elderly, women, and children were murdered by the bombs. The U.S. also destroyed and burned down Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, living quarters, etc. One day before the bombing of Nagasaki, the Japanese Emperor let Foreign Minister Shigenori...
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...An atomic bomb is a weapon with great explosive power that results from the sudden release of energy upon the splitting, or fission, of the nuclei of such heavy elements as plutonium or uranium. (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016) This catastrophic bomb was used twice during World War II. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb was known as "Little Boy", a uranium gun-type bomb that exploded with about thirteen kilotons of force. Three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, a twenty one kiloton plutonium device known as "Fat Man.”(Atomic Heritage Foundation, 2012) This paper will discuss the creation and use of the first two atomic bombs. Early in 1939, German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists utilizing that energy to produce a bomb capable of unspeakable destruction. Scientists Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi persecution, and Enrico Fermi, who escaped Fascist Italy, were now living in the United States. They agreed that President Franklin Roosevelt, must be informed of the dangers of atomic technology in the hands of the Axis powers. In late 1941, the American started to design and build an atomic bomb, which later received its code name, the Manhattan Project, which was named after one of the initial sites of research, Columbia University...
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