Atomic Bomb Assignment

Part 1: At 5:29 am, on July 16, 1945, a white blaze was created. It stretched from the bottom of the Jemez Mountains, to the once tranquil skies above. In the mountains outside of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the worlds first atomic bomb exploded. The white light pierced the sky with such ferocity that a blind girl claimed to see the flash from a hundred and sixty kilometers away. After witnessing the explosion, J. Robert Oppenheimer quoted a fragment of the Bhagavad Gita declaring, I have become death, the destroyer of worlds, "The Gadget" just ushered in the Atomic Age. Oppenheimer, Heisenberg, Fermi, and Teller were all pioneers and geniuses of their era, working together they created the most destructive weapon that the world has ever seen. Given that this new technology was discovered, America had the right to use it to end one of the bloodiest wars of all time. America should have used an atomic bomb on Japan to end the war with less lives lost, to ensure the Allies won the war, and to show Communist countries that Democracy was a greater power than all other Autocratic governments. The death toll of World War Two before the atomic bomb is estimated to be at 56 million people. With this much deaths in the war already, American commanders estimated that there would be at least 1 million casualties to add onto this number (not including Japanese soldiers) if the Allies were to invade Japan. With so many lives lost, the cost of one million lives more would be too high, especially if there was another alternative available. Also, the amount of money and time spent on a full scale invasion in Japan would be too much to spend when a shorter, less expensive way to end the war was available. This is why I believe that using the atomic bomb to attack Japan would have been a better way to solve the issue of ending the war, rather than physically invading Japan at the cost of so many lives. The Japanese were seen as patriotic and fanatics because of the extreme methods that they would go through to achieve success such as choosing to die or commit suicide by use of kamikaze pilots rather than surrendering. With such extremists on the opposing side of the war, even if the United States and the Allies seemed to have more power at the time, there would be no actual way of determining if the United Sates and the Allies could successfully defeat Japan. Taking this into consideration, the use of the atomic bomb would be a necessary choice for success in Japan, to not only ensure the success of the Allies but to discipline the Japanese. During the time period of World War Two there were two types of major political ideologies that existed, Democracy and Communism. The United States saw Russias interest in Japan and feared that if a majority of countries became Communist there would eventually be more Communist countries than there were Democratic countries in the world. This would eventually lead to all of the world becoming Communist countries, so the United States needed a way to send a direct message to Communism. Using Japan as an example, the United States could send a message to Russia and all other Communists states how powerful the States was in terms of strength, military ability, and world dominance.

To conclude, in my opinion the first atomic bomb should have been used on Japan to end the war with less lives lost, to ensure the Allies won the war, and to show Communist countries that Democracy was a greater power than all other Autocratic governments. Part 2: In addition, my opinion stands the same on the United States dropping the second atomic bomb on Japan because the Japanese did not respond to the States to surrender after the first bombing, and the Japanese thought that the bomb was a fluke or natural disaster. After the first atomic bomb was dropped a total of 200, 000 people died in Japan. Expecting an unconditional surrender after these events the United States made another call to Japan to which they received no response. Thinking that the Japanese were ignoring them on purpose, the States felt directly insulted by this. In my belief, no statement of surrender means that Japan would be still at war with the opposing side and could have possibly been plotting revenge on the States for the first atomic bomb dropped. The only way to ensure that the message of unconditional surrender would be brought to the States would be to show the Japanese that there would be more bombing in the future unless surrender was made. This is why I believe the second atomic bomb should have been dropped. When the Japanese saw the effects of the atomic bomb they thought that it was merely a fluke that it caused so much damages across Hiroshima, and that the United States could not do such damages to them again. The Japanese also presumed that the bomb had help from a natural disaster that occurred at the same time that the bomb exploded. I presume that for this reason they remained in the war without surrender. With the arrogance and ignorance of the Japanese people to towards the atomic bomb the United States should have sent a second atomic bomb to show the Japanese that the first bomb was not a fluke or natural disaster, but the work of the Americas most destructive weapon. Although it can be argued that the white blaze created on July 16, 1945, was the beginning of the destruction of the human race, it can also be argued that it was the end of humanitys greatest period of its own destruction. This is why I believe that both atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan even though it caused great pain and dishonour to Japan, to quote the, Bhagavad Gita, in pleasure and pain, and in honor and dishonor; it is ever requisite with the saving of thyself.