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Nuclear Bomb in Japan

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Submitted By thegoalcheat
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Jimmy Neutron
Professor Rob Allison
Philosophy 172
3 November 2011
Nuclear Bomb in Japan The atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan during World War II is still one of the most catastrophic events in history. This bomb obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it is a major controversy of World War II. It remains a controversy because it questions the moral issue of killing innocent civilians to get the Japanese military to surrender the war. One British philosopher, AC Grayling, argues that the nuclear bombing of Japan was a moral crime because there is never a justifiable reason to attack civilians. The atomic bombing of Japan was unethical because it killed civilians, was a disproportionate attack for just conduct of war, and was a violation of human rights. It is immoral that United States targeted Japanese civilians with the atomic bomb to cripple the morale of the military. United States knew the bombs would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they still annihilated the cities to attain Japan’s unconditional surrender in World War II. It was disregard for the moral right and AC Grayling states,
Deliberately bombing cities and towns to kill and terrorize civilians, not all of whom are engaged in manufacturing arms or aiding their country’s military, and many of whom were children and elderly folk - and at the same time destroying the culture and necessities of the people contravenes every moral and humanitarian principle debated in connection with the just conduct of war. (245-246) The focus of war should be defeating the enemy’s military, but America attacked Japan’s civilians to be victorious in the war. This is morally wrong because the civilians were not the people that wanted to fight America, but they were killed because it would lower Japanese morale. This event may have forced

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