Effects of the WWII Atomic Bombs
             When the atomic bomb went off over Hiroshima on Aug. 6th,
             1945, 70,000 lives were ended in a flash. To the American people who
             were weary from the long and brutal war, such a drastic measure seemed
             a necessary, even righteous way to end the madness that was World War
             II. However, the madness had just begun. That August morning was the
             day that heralded the dawn of the nuclear age, and with it came more
             than just the loss of lives. According to Archibald MacLeish, a U.S.
             poet, "What happened at Hiroshima was not only that a scientific
             breakthrough . . . had occurred and that a great part of the
             population of a city had been burned to death, but that the problem of
             the relation of the triumphs of modern science to the human purposes
             of man had been explicitly defined." The entire globe was now to live
             with the fear of total annihilation, the fear that drove the cold war,
             the fear that has forever changed world politics. The fear is real,
             more real today than ever, for the ease at which a nuclear bomb is
             achieved in this day and age sparks fear in the hearts of most people
             on this planet. According to General Douglas MacArthur, "We have had
             our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable
             system, Armageddon will be at our door." The decision to drop the
             atomic bomb on Japanese citizens in August, 1945, as a means to
             bring the long Pacific war to an end was justified-militarily,
             The goal of waging war is victory with minimum losses on one's
             own side and, if possible, on the enemy's side. No one disputes the
             fact that the Japanese military was prepared to fight to the last man
             to defend the home islands, and indeed had already demonstrated this
             determination in previous Pacific island campaigns. A weapon
             originally developed to contain a Nazi atomic project was available
             ...