Atomic Bomb Paper
When Albert Einstein wrote then President Franklin D. Roosevelt a letter concerning the creation and use of the greatest bomb the world had ever seen, the Nobel Prize winning scientist saw the bomb as a means to end the rising power of the Nazi's; however, when the bomb had been created and was awaiting deployment, I believe policy-makers saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, or bomb in this case. With the dropping of the atomic bomb, the United States not only brought the war to an end, but also solidified its place as a supreme world power and made very clear to every other nation in the world, specifically Russia, the force with which America was prepared to use to maintain that power. In the days leading up to and following the dropping of the bombs, President Truman and his staff were readily prepared to defend the use of the weapon and explain the hopes for the future, but as every good history student knows, things aren't always as they seem. In pursuit of nothing less than unconditional surrender from Japan, and with the hopes of ending the war relatively soon, the United States had no choice but to drop the atomic bomb. And so on August 6th 1945, the first atomic bomb was released on the city of H
So pleased, in fact, that in a conversation with Henry Stimson, Churchill recalls that Truman "stood up to the Russians in a most emphatic and decisive manner, telling them as to certain demands that they absolutely could not have, and that the United States was entirely against them" (205). As the fighting ceased and treaties were signed, a new war was only just beginning, the Cold War. Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki were all approved and optional targets for the bomb depending on the weather. After offering the Japanese a peace treaty on July 26th 1945 (215-216) which was unanimously ignored, the Americans were quite ready to attack before Russia had a chance to declare war on Japan. The decision to use the bomb affectively ended the war, but the decision to drop it on Japan was influenced not just on the current circumstances of war but also by the changing political landscape of the world. The only alternative to releasing the special weapon was yet another amphibious assault on heavily protected beaches that would have cost thousands of soldiers' lives. Seen as a successful endeavor, just three days later another bomb was dropped onto Nagasaki, Japan and soon after the Japanese government surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers. It would have been very difficult for the Allied forces to make such bold requests of the Japanese government had the annihilation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima not happened in such a dramatic way. However after the immense destruction of two major cities, the Japanese emperor made arrangements for a treaty to be signed, and for the war to be put to an end. Amphibious assault may have worked overtime, but the terms of surrender would have looked much different; for example, if the emperor had retained his power after the setting up of a new government, it would have been quite easy for him to return to power as a dictator of divine proportions. With the bombs ready to be dropped, targets were chosen and mapped out. Not quite the outcome Truman and Churchill had hoped for, the Democratic West and the Communist East were unable to agree on post-war policies for each and diplomacy seemed to take a back seat to the armament race. James Byrnes was very "anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians get in" because he felt that if they got into Japan it may be near impossible to get them out (217). Having never seen the bomb himself, or really understanding its power or capabilities, Truman begins to use the new device as the backbone of his policy in dealing with the Russians.
Common topics in this essay:
Truman Churchill,
President Truman,
Stimson Churchill,
Nobel Prize,
Japan Amphibious,
Kingdom China,
Allied Powers,
Russia Manchuria,
Allied Commander,
Kyoto United,
atomic bomb,
truman churchill,
president truman,
japanese government,
drop atomic bomb,
drop atomic,
special weapon,
amphibious assault,
nations built,
world seen,
signed war,
|
Acceptance Essays
