After careful deliberation, my personal opinion is that option 2 serves as the best possible decision that the US could make. In my mind, option 2 addresses the two most important concerns that are brought up in the discussion of the atom bomb. Those concerns are sustaining human life, especially when it comes to American, and innocent (non-military) Japanese citizens, and the preservation of constitutional American morals that were created to define America’s course of action in peace, as well as in war. Though all three options attempt to address these issues, option 2 clearly has the highest likelihood of producing the best possible outcomes for both of these concerns. Though all three options attempt to prevent the loss of life, option 2 does this most …show more content…
The issue with the second statement is that it ignores a basic fact of the Japanese people, which is that the Japanese would most likely unconditionally surrender if they were sure the emperor would retain his power, even if they were forced to relinquish their captured territory. According to the Report from the Combined British-American Intelligence Committee, “to ensure the survival of the institution of the Emperor, the Japanese might well be willing to withdraw from all the territory they have seized...and even to agree to the independence of Korea and to the practical disarmament of their military forces." Even if this statement were completely false, and the Japanese decided that relinquishing power would be a complete mistake, option 2 addresses the only other outcome, which is where the Japanese continue their attack. If the US was completely sure that the Japanese were not willing to surrender, they would have a moral obligation to eliminate them in the most effective way possible, the atomic