Name _____________ Dropping the Atomic Bombs: Analysis and Debate

EQ:
Directions: Rotate to each station with your group and answer the questions that correspond with the
document/graphics at each station. Write in complete sentences.
Station 1: Leaflet dropped on cities in Japan warning civilians about the atomic bomb, August 6, 1945.
1. What does the leaflet warn about?

2. What is the United States demanding?

3. In your opinion, why did the United States make this appeal to the Japanese public?

Station 2: Excerpt from statement by President Harry Truman, August 6, 1945

1. What is the purpose of President Trumans statement?

2. Why does the President refer to the rejection of the Potsdam ultimatum in this statement?

3. What does he mean when he says the Japanese can expect a rain of ruin from the air?

Station 3: Editorial in the Nippon Times, August 10, 1945. Source; America in World War II, p. 803.
1. What is the purpose of this editorial?

2. What are the most important/powerful charges the editors are making?

3. In your opinion, is a Japanese newspaper justified in making these charges? Explain.

Station 4: Statement by Emperor Hirohito, accepting the Potsdam Declaration, August 14, 1945.
1. What is the purpose of this statement by the Emperor of Japan?

2. What reason does he give for the declaration of war on America and Britain?

3. Why did the Japanese issue this statement?

Station 5: Images and Graph of Nuclear Devastation

1. What emotions are evoked by these images?
2. What were the combined total casualties from the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

3. From the images and graph, explain why the atomic bomb was such as powerful weapon?

Station 6: Why the Bomb was Needed and Justified By Bill Dietrich, Seattle Times staff reporter
1. What is the basic argument in his first point?

2. How does he use the firebombing of Tokyo to support his overall argument?

3. Which of the five arguments to you believe is the strongest and which is the weakest. Explain.

Station 7: Excerpt from The Bombs of August by Howard Zinn

1. What is the disturbing point that Zinn makes in the first paragraph?

2. What does Zinn say about the argument that the atomic bombs saved lives?

3. Using the third paragraph, explain why the U.S. should not have dropped both bombs?

Station 8: Testimony of Kinue Tomoyasu, Hiroshima Survivor

1. What are the emotions evoked in the first two paragraphs?
2. Why do you think those conditions described in the first part of the third paragraph happened?

3. How can this testimony be used in the future to argue against nuclear weapons?