Why Atomic Bombs Are Used?

On 6th August 1945, the first of the two fatal bombs was dropped on the army base of Hiroshima. Three days later on the 9th August, the second was dropped on Nagasaki. Both bombs caused widespread damage to Japan, and the knock on effects of radiation have caused the number of those killed to increase every year since 1945, totalling nearly 240,000 deaths. Therefore, those who designed and invented the bomb must have had strong reasons as to why it should be used, rather than the conventional bombs.

The first of these reasons as to why the American government decided to carry out the attacks is because for the four years prior to the use of atomic weapons, the Japanese had fought viciously and ferociously and this amounted in the cost of many American lives, nearly three hundred thousand deaths during the Second World War. The USA government wanted to finish the war quickly with minimum casualties, as the cost in human lives of the war was far too much and they couldn’t afford to waste any more lives. Advisors in 1945 told president Truman that if the war were not finished quickly, then it would go on until 1946, maybe even ’47, with the cost of up to another one million American lives. The day after the first bomb was droppe

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And so in conclusion to this essay, I believe that one of the main reasons as to why the American government decided to carry out the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was because this would bring about a swift end to the war, and therefore save thousands of American lives. On 2nd September 1945, the Second World War officially ended with Japan surrendering to General MacArthur in Tokyo.

The use of atomic bombs would hopefully bring about an end to the war without invading Japan. The morning after the attack, president Truman defended his decision by saying, “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base…we won the race of discovery against the Germans, we have used it…we shall continue to use it, until we completely destroy Japans power to make war…”. The Americans knew that invading Japan would be far too costly, and needed a quick and sure way of ending the war, even if it meant dropping the bombs. With mounting pressure on the American government to end the war, it was vital that this was done with minimum casualties. They were designed so that they would give maximum damage in a short period of time- more damage than a whole fleet of B-29 bombers would do in a day. In June that year, the first atomic bomb was successfully tested at Los Alamos in New Mexico. Leading members of the Government backed the decision up to use the bombs, as they had no idea of how much damage it would causes and therefore it should be tested out on a civilian population, and quite conveniently they were at war with a Japanese army who weren’t prepared to surrender and therefore the use of the bombs would bring a swift end to the war in the East. The Americans didn’t want this happening in the East, and therefore they needed to end the war convincingly and rapidly, otherwise they faced the threat of having to deal with the Soviets. Therefore, with the pressure to end the war mounting, the use of the bombs was becoming more and more of a probable resolve to ending the war. d, president Truman explained why he did order the attack by stating, “…we have used it (the atomic bomb) in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans…”.

The cost of the war was also having a heavy toll on the world economy.

And therefore, on 6th August 1945, the first devastating bomb was dropped on the military and industrial town of Hiroshima.

Approximate Word count = 1283
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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