Balancing the Scales: World Peace vs. The Loss of Innocence
Balancing the Scales: World Peace vs. The Loss of InnocenceOn August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb used in warfare. However, to this day, a debate as to why this city was bombed is occuring. On one side of the argument, the United States dropped the bomb to destroy working parts of the Japanese war effort, save American lives, end the war, and acquire its justified revenge for the bombings of Pearl Harbor, and the Bataan Death March. In contrast, many who disagree with the bombing of Hiroshima, mention that the Japanese had already been defeated, it would have surrendered as early as December 1945 (and therefore ending the war sooner than the atom bomb), and finally the 100, 000 Japanese killed in the bombing were almost all civilians. Although all these statements can be proved, it is difficult to decide which side to support. Four cases can defend the United States' decision to drop the atomic bomb. First, if the United States had not dropped the bomb on Hiroshima on August sixth, a plan to invade in November would have begun. Based on past invasions, many military leaders predicted as many as 500,000 casualties and an end result much like Okinawa, which cost 13,000 American live
Additionally, an invasion with Japan would have been catastrophic, and the results similar to the battle of Okinawa. The scientists were fearful that by using the atomic bomb, a nuclear arms race would occur throughout the world. George Elsey writes, "What would Congress and the Public have done if they later learned that we had a weapon in our hands and hadn't used it while many American's died" (6). This suggests that Hiroshima was chosen simply because it was a good location to conduct an experiment, and was an immoral motive for 100,000 innocent civilians to be killed. That was because we wished to avoid the killing of civilians" (19). Four examples can support this idea. The fourth and final reason the United States dropped the bomb on Japan was to end the war quickly and efficiently. After creating the bomb, the scientists realized that the world was not ready for an atomic bomb, but Truman disregarded the petitions and continued to plan the bombing of Hiroshima. First, Truman had said, " The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. After September eleventh, our president risked losing American, Afghani, and Iraqi lives much like Harry Truman did with the Japanese. David McCullough writes, " If you want one explanation as to why Truman dropped the bomb: 'Okinawa'! It was done to stop the killing" (6). Second, "Hiroshima was chosen as a target precisely because it had been very low on the previous spring's campaign of conventional bombing, and therefore was a pristine target on which to demonstrate the atomic bomb" (10).
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Acceptance Essays
