Student: Leslie Sexton Achievement: Application Total: Marks Section 1

August 14^th, 1945, marked the end of a long struggle for freedom, democracy, and peace. At the same time, it marked a change in the nature of war, and the dawn of a new era. Truman’s controversial decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan ended the Second World War and began the nuclear age. Since the end of the war, Truman’s decision has been the subject of much controversy, largely due to the high civilian death toll that resulted from the bombardments.

Was the use of the atomic bomb against Japan justified?

Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan was justified by the historical context of the Second World War, Japan’s refusal to surrender, and the high death toll expected from an invasion of mainland Japan.

1) The use of the atomic bomb was justified in the context of the Second World War.

2) Japan’s refusal to surrender made the use of the atomic bomb necessary in order to end the war.

3) The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki allowed America to avoid an invasion of mainland Japan.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified in the historical context of the Second World War.

1) “With the well-developed understanding that the productivity of a nation was directly connected with its ability to resist, and with the knowledge that particularly in Japan the pattern of productivity was spread widely among small private producers in urban communities, the rationale for mass bombing had been developed. The distinction between civilian and military targets had approached a vanishing point as war became total.”¹

3) During the battle of Britain over 146,777 civilians were killed or seriously injured.³ The air-raids in Germany cost approximately 300,000 civilian lives, and injured almost 780,000 more.⁴

4) “The most widely cited figures [casualties from the strategic air campaign on Japan] from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey are 333,000 dead and 472,000 wounded, including 120,000 from the atomic bombs.”⁵
The destruction wrought by conventional bombings, a common practice during the Second World War, caused similar destruction and high death tolls. During the war, every country used new technology to gain the upper hand. Therefore, the bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented a culmination in the destructiveness of aerial bombings, not a significant deviation from previous aerial bombing practices.
5) “Aerial bombardment inflicted civilian deaths in Japan measured in hundreds of thousands, but the direct and indirect effects of the blockade in China killed noncombatants by the millions, and the blockade against Japan aimed for the same ghastly results.” ⁶
The devastating effects of the blockade and conventional bombardments would have produced high civilian casualties. These options would have unnecessarily prolonged the war and the suffering of the Japanese people. The use of the atomic bomb was no less moral than these horrific wartime practices.
6) “Nuclear weapons were to be used to save the Japanese nation and the Allied soldiers from the horrors that had been planned for them from conventional bombardment and invasion.”⁷
The use of the atomic bomb made an invasion and continued conventional bombardment unnecessary, saving the lives of Japanese soldiers and civilians.
C. Concluding Sentence

The use of the atomic bomb was not morally unjustified in the context of the Second World War.

The use of the atomic bomb was necessary to compel the surrender of Japan.

1) “Tokyo’s aim was to inflict such severe damage and casualties on the attackers that the Allies would be convinced of the futility of further fighting and of the wisdom of negotiated peace.”⁸

Despite its seemingly futile position, the Japanese military refused to surrender, planning to fight desperately until they were entirely destroyed. Thus, it was necessary to use the atomic to shock the Japanese military in order to compel a Japanese surrender.

The use of the atomic bomb was a military necessity in order to prevent a costly invasion of Japan.

1) “On June 18 [Marshall] had estimated 350,000 Japanese on Kyushu. ULTRA now reported 600,000, ready to fight to the death. (This estimate in turn was much too low; after the war it was discovered there were 900,000.)”¹⁴

High American and Japanese casualties expected from an invasion of mainland Japan justified the use of the atomic bomb as a military necessity.

Despite moral objections to the use of the atomic bombs, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justifiable in the context of the Second World War. The bombings produced a sufficient shock to compel the surrender of a Japanese military struggling to fight until they were destroyed entirely, and prevented a costly invasion of mainland Japan.

The historical context of the Second World War, Japan’s refusal to surrender, and the high death toll expected from an invasion of mainland Japan justified the use of the atomic bombs against Japan.

Though today it is easy to judge the use of the atomic bombs as wrong because of their destructiveness, the primary factor in Truman’s decision to use these weapons was a desire to end the destruction of war.

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