Decisions to Drop the Bombs on JapanEssay Preview: Decisions to Drop the Bombs on JapanReport this essayButler 1Nicholas ButlerProfessor McDonnellEnglish I11 May 2005Decisions to Drop the Bombs on JapanWar in itself is an atrocity, to kill or be killed in the name of whatever government chooses to go to war over. Taking lives in order to save lives is the most outrageous oxymoron ever heard, yet during the end of WWII taking the lives of Japanese people saved America from fighting on home soil. Many factors play a role in the final decision to drop the atomic warheads on Americas enemy, yet in the end after all is said and done America was simply defending her land and right for freedom. America was under attack in a war fought on foreign soil. No one wanted the war to be brought on American soil and all Americans wanted the war to be over to assure safety of the American people. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to bring the war with Japan to an immediate halt.
Dropping of the A-bomb took thousands of lives and rendered many others sick while completely destroying in total two entire cities. The force of the first atomic bomb (Hiroshima, code name: “Little Boy”) was equivalent to 12.5 kilotons of TNT and the second bomb (Nagasaki, code name “Fat Man”) was equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT (Clancey). It is difficult to fathom the power held within each bomb. Twenty thousand tons of dynamite! To dream of dropping this much power on any living thing is total genocide. Many members of the atomic bomb scientists because of the tremendous power each nuclear reaction would generate had discouraged the use of such power. William L. Laurence composes a beautiful picture with words of the cataclysmic energy released from the Nagasaki bomb:
Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings. Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, ten thousand feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed. (233-4)
The atomic bomb had such an excess amount of energy it makes one question the reason or absolute need to use such tremendous force. May be slightly too much power than should be needed.
Living as a civilian in Hiroshima on the dark day of August 6 1945 would be the most frightening thing to imagine. First an amazing brilliant flash drawing attention as if a new sun is birthed with a core bursting heat in every direction. The bomb erupted into a fireball fifteen meters in diameter within a tenth of a millisecond emitting temperatures of nearly three hundred thousand degrees Centigrade (Laurduy). Doom is a certainty and a tragic event subdued by the effects of war. It is easy to say we should have dropped the bomb as outsiders. Taking the facts and coming to the most logical conclusion, yet how many would say the bomb was necessary that were near the bomb and experienced the destruction and decay the bomb brought to the land? Not very many.
Korean war deaths during World War II are so many. The number of them is not even limited to these three countries.
The Korean war casualties in the summer of 1945 (1950-1951) are even bigger. It is estimated that a total of 9,000 Korean civilians, mostly women and children, died in the fall of 1945. While we cannot say how large the casualties were, the numbers are impressive and the number of deaths is very high.
According to a war statistic source, during the summer of 1945, over 200,000 civilians of the Korean peninsula died, or about a third of the total in the United States. The death toll is a record high and, according to the World Health Organization, “We estimate that more than 3 million people, nearly 10% of the population, died during the summer of 1945.” The figure is a little higher (more than 300,000) when the war was still just starting in the early 1940s.
More than 30,000 civilians were killed by the conflict that was raging across the Korean Peninsula during what is still known as the Korean War, which began in 1945. In the year from 1945, only 22,837 people had died.(1)
Even without accounting for the civilian casualties, the total number of civilians who died in Vietnam is not quite that huge. In the case of Vietnam, the actual toll of those casualties was greater than 7,100,000. Only a small proportion of those deaths resulted in civilian casualties. As we shall see later later, the situation became even worse:
In the spring of 1943, in the middle of the second war, the war was still raging over southern Vietnam. By the beginning of 1945, the war had started growing and with that, the numbers began to rise. That is to say, by the end of that spring, approximately 1.4 million American military personnel were there in Vietnam, according to the United States Office of War Information. During the spring it was actually much higher than in the spring of 1944.
On June 3d of 1944, the United States of America began bombing southern Vietnam. The U. S. military had begun with a 2,000 pound bomb at Abydos, just over two kilometres away from the capital. In about 45 minutes, the U. S. dropped more than 50 bombs on the entire southern Vietnamese city. With no survivors, and thousands of men dead and half dead civilians, it was impossible to comprehend what was happening.
In most cases, the United States of America would not even call a military response unless it sent a plane, a submarine, or its own people. Of the 852 killed over five years. That was not the level seen for a decade ago:
From March to January of 1945, just over 300,000 Americans died of heart attacks and respiratory problems, all too many for that day to come.
Korean war deaths during World War II are so many. The number of them is not even limited to these three countries.
The Korean war casualties in the summer of 1945 (1950-1951) are even bigger. It is estimated that a total of 9,000 Korean civilians, mostly women and children, died in the fall of 1945. While we cannot say how large the casualties were, the numbers are impressive and the number of deaths is very high.
According to a war statistic source, during the summer of 1945, over 200,000 civilians of the Korean peninsula died, or about a third of the total in the United States. The death toll is a record high and, according to the World Health Organization, “We estimate that more than 3 million people, nearly 10% of the population, died during the summer of 1945.” The figure is a little higher (more than 300,000) when the war was still just starting in the early 1940s.
More than 30,000 civilians were killed by the conflict that was raging across the Korean Peninsula during what is still known as the Korean War, which began in 1945. In the year from 1945, only 22,837 people had died.(1)
Even without accounting for the civilian casualties, the total number of civilians who died in Vietnam is not quite that huge. In the case of Vietnam, the actual toll of those casualties was greater than 7,100,000. Only a small proportion of those deaths resulted in civilian casualties. As we shall see later later, the situation became even worse:
In the spring of 1943, in the middle of the second war, the war was still raging over southern Vietnam. By the beginning of 1945, the war had started growing and with that, the numbers began to rise. That is to say, by the end of that spring, approximately 1.4 million American military personnel were there in Vietnam, according to the United States Office of War Information. During the spring it was actually much higher than in the spring of 1944.
On June 3d of 1944, the United States of America began bombing southern Vietnam. The U. S. military had begun with a 2,000 pound bomb at Abydos, just over two kilometres away from the capital. In about 45 minutes, the U. S. dropped more than 50 bombs on the entire southern Vietnamese city. With no survivors, and thousands of men dead and half dead civilians, it was impossible to comprehend what was happening.
In most cases, the United States of America would not even call a military response unless it sent a plane, a submarine, or its own people. Of the 852 killed over five years. That was not the level seen for a decade ago:
From March to January of 1945, just over 300,000 Americans died of heart attacks and respiratory problems, all too many for that day to come.
John Herseys Hatsuyo Nakamura was written about survivors of the atomic blast in Hiroshima. His work is very powerful in America and after reading his work one can not help feel remorseful for the woman in which Hersey interviews (181). As America being the perpetrator of the use of a weapon of mass disstruction, American people feel sympathetic for the people of the atomic bombings.