gainst Hiroshima, Japan. This atomic bomb, the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT,
             flattened the city, killing tens of thousands of civilians. While Japan was still
             trying to comprehend this devastation three days later, the United States struck again, this
             time, on Nagasaki. One hundred and forty thousand people were condemned to death or
             injury on the morning of August 6th and seventy thousand more on the 9th, when the
             bombs were dropped. In retrospect there are serious questions that circulate to this day,
             as to whether or not the decision was justified. Contrary to popular belief, there are
             people that state the bombs were unnecessary to bring the war to an end and that the use
             of the bombs was strictly to impress the Soviet Union and shock the Japanese into a quick
             surrender. By examining the alternatives that existed; a conditional surrender, a combined
             assault or a demonstration of the powerful weapon, one will understand why dropping the
             bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unjustified.
             On the evening of July 26, 1945 in San Francisco (which in Tokyo was the
             morning of July 27) a message from the Allies now commonly known as the Potsdam Proclamation was broadcast in Japanese. The broadcast was relayed to the Japanese government on the morning of the 27th. The proclamation demanded "the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces" . It made no mention of Japan's central surrender consideration: the retention of the Emperor's position. What made this crucial was that the Japanese believed their Emperor to be a god, the heart of the Japanese people and culture. The absence of any assurance regarding the Emperor's fate became Japan's chief objection to the Potsdam Proclamation . In addition, the proclamation made statements that, to the Japanese, could appear threatening to the Emperor: "There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived ...