Was The Atomic Bomb Really Necessary

World War Ii Essay, Research Paper

Was the Atomic Bomb Really Necessary World War II

“I have to decide Japanese strategy-shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade. That is my hardest decision to date. But I’ll make it when I have all the facts.”-Harry S. Truman

Many questions have arisen dealing with the need for the atomic bomb since it was twice used in 1945 to end World War II on the Pacific Front. Did it save lives when compared to an all out invasion, or could it have been a statement to Russia in an effort to start suppressing Communism.

What is it that made the United States feel that Japan would not go down by conventional bombing and invasion like we had done with Germany. Most of this idea came from the fact that Japan had instilled an attitude in their people to always fight until death. Surrender was considered a disgrace and it would be better for them to die for their country. Also the United States was having trouble fighting through the islands that Japan had taken over due to their isolation from one another and that there were so many of them. Japan, in actuality, was chosen as the target in 1943. There was a fear that if the bomb did not work on Germany that the Germans would be able to disassemble it and figure out how to make it work. There was not this fear with Japan. Also a revenge factor was set in the heart of Americans ever since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The American citizens were behind using the bomb because they were tired of the war. It had been five years and many had not seen their loved ones and were afraid they would not ever again if they had to invade Japan’s mainland. Americans were not willing to sacrifice more lives to end this war. They felt that the developed technology should be used. After all, creating the atomic bomb had been a long and hard task. It had taken many years of planning, developing, and testing. The making of the bomb combined theories and ideas from countless chemists and physicists. Most of all it had cost large amounts of money and the project workers feared being investigated by the postwar Congress if it was discovered that funding had gone to a secret project with nothing to show for it.

The alternative was an all out invasion of Japan with continued bombing raids. In July 1945, an invasion was being planned by all of the allies. The plan included the United State’s Navy whose role was to impose a blockade on Japan to try to strangle them economically into surrender. Then on July 16 the A-bomb was successfully tested. Truman then made his decision to use it unless Japan surrendered. On July 26 Truman, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek issued an ultimatum demanding the unconditional surrender of Japan. Japan chose not to surrender at that time. Feelings of a British scientist P.M.S. Blackett were a bit different. He wrote a book titled Fear, War, and the Bomb, in which he said that the United States wanted to end the war with Japan prior to Russia’s entrance. Blackett felt that the USA wanted all of the credit for defeating Japan and that we were hoping to deter Russia from invading other lands in an effort to suppress Communism. He feels that the dropping of the bomb was ‘the first major operation of the cold diplomatic war with Russia. (www.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/ History/20th_Century/World_War_II/Atomic_Bomb_The/) Also an American historian, Gar Alperovitz, wrote a book titled Atomic Diplomacy. His book contains a diary entry from 28 July 1945 by U.S. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal that describes Secretary of State James F. Byrnes as ‘most anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians got in’. (www.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/ History/20th_Century/World War_II/Atomic_Bomb/The/) Also Byrnes’ assistant Secretary of State, Walter Brown, has a diary entry that suggests that Truman and Byrnes saw the bomb as a way to reduce Soviet political influence on Asia, particularly China. This was basically saying that in order for Americans to have an advantage over the Russians in getting China that a quarter of a million Japanese had to die. Most of the deceased would probably be women and children.

When discussing the decision-making process many people had opinions in favor of the use of the bombs. A secret government advisory group called the Interim Committee on June 1, 1945, recommended to President Truman “that the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible; that it should be used on a war plant surrounded by workers’ homes; and that it be used without prior warning.” Byrnes felt that one million lives would be saved; General George Marshall stated that the figure would be closer to a half a million. After the dropping of the two bombs Truman noted that Hiroshima was a military base and that we wished to avoid killing civilians. Despite the fact that Truman was trying to justify killing civilians people surrounding him believed that the bomb would not do much more harm than continued conventional bombing. This idea came from the fact that in Tokyo alone, conventional bombing had killed 100,000 civilians. This basically forced killing civilians to be deemed proper and inevitable even in democratic nations. Truman in a diary entry on August 11 of 1945 stated that “nobody is more disturbed over the use of Atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese of Pea