In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why did the Americans decide to carry out these attacks? Explain your answer.
In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why did the Americans decide to carry out these attacks? Explain your answer. The Americans decided to carry out these attacks for a variety of interrelated factors; the conglomeration of these factors led to the deployment of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No one factor was entirely responsible for the dropping of the bombs, however some factors are more significant than others. One significant factor is that the tension between the USA and USSR was building, for various reasons. One reason for this tension was a misunderstanding, a disagreement, related to the Polish government; Hitler had been defeated, allegedly committing suicide on the 30th April 1945, and Poland was liberated, meaning it needed a government. The Russians wanted to impose a Communist, Russia-orientated government in Poland, whereas the Americans had wanted a more balanced approach to government. This misunderstanding led to American contempt for Russia, seeing them as liars and deal-breakers, although this was never voiced by President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt died unexpectedly on the 12th April 1945, leaving President Truman in charge, worsening American relations with Russia. This is because Roosevelt, familiar to Molotov and Russian diplomats, was no longer there, leaving them with an unfamiliar entity, Truman. Truman had a rude and abrasive attitude towards Molotov, calling him a liar and a deal breaker (over Poland). This attitude was shocking to Molotov, who had never been spoken to in such an undiplomatic way before. This meant that tensions were high between Russia and the USA. The USA were also concerned over what the Russian post-war ambitions would be; they feared and hated communism and were concerned that the Russians may have expansionist ideas. Due to these factors over the tension with Russia, the Americans had more reason to want drop the bomb: they wanted to open up the idea of technology trading with the Russians, to build
up a trade partnership; they wanted to demonstrate their power to cause the Russians to fear the Americans for holding such potent technology; they wanted to hasten the (almost inevitable) victory against Japan so that the Russians could not claim any credit for the victory, because the Russians had began to invade Japanese territory. All of these factors are Russia-related reasons for the Americans to drop the bomb, showing that diplomacy with Russia was important to America; they were spurred towards dropping an experimental, dangerous weapon partially due to their attitude towards Russia. Russia was of course not the only ...
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up a trade partnership; they wanted to demonstrate their power to cause the Russians to fear the Americans for holding such potent technology; they wanted to hasten the (almost inevitable) victory against Japan so that the Russians could not claim any credit for the victory, because the Russians had began to invade Japanese territory. All of these factors are Russia-related reasons for the Americans to drop the bomb, showing that diplomacy with Russia was important to America; they were spurred towards dropping an experimental, dangerous weapon partially due to their attitude towards Russia. Russia was of course not the only reason that the Americans wanted to drop ‘The Bomb’. The fact that Truman was eager to end the war with Japan was important, as the public wanted the war to end, and Truman was pressured to end it; a spectacular end to the war would impress the American public. The fact that Truman was new, a factor already responsible for increased tension with Russia, meant that he might have wanted to earn popularity with the public like this; by ending the war, being the victorious president, and being the man who launched the most powerful weapon invented at the time. At the time, the weapon had already been tested at remote locations, but its impact on a real city was still unknown. Due to this, one factor relating to the dropping of the bomb may have been that Truman wished to test the weapon in a ‘real’ situation, to discover its true power and potential for not only the Americans; as afore-mentioned, he wanted to display its true potential to Russia, and indeed any other nation, to discourage attacks on the USA and to open up the potential for technology trading. The reasons behind the attacks can be better understood by examining the alternatives. Alternatives to ‘The Bomb’ were less attractive to Truman for various reasons. The conventional bombing of Japan could have easily forced them into submission, as it was already occurring unopposed and was very effective. Truman decided to use the atomic bombs instead for the factors listed above, as an excuse. The conventional bombing would have brought Japanese surrender in time, however the atomic bomb was a quicker method. The fact that it sped up surrender is little reason to use the atomic bomb, and it would appear that the political reasons influenced the decision to stop conventional bombing in favour of the atomic bomb, not military reasons. Another alternative would be to land US troops in Japan, and assault it in the ‘normal’ method. This was discarded, because of the experiences of the Marines assaulting Japanese-held islands; the battles and landings were horrific, with heavy casualties, and very unpopular with the public. The Americans were not prepared to assault Japan, as it was thought that it would be like the assaults on smaller islands, but on a larger scale and more horrific. The Americans were therefore reluctant to land troops due to the loss of life and timescale involved, so sought an alternative. The Americans had the option of allowing the Japanese to keep their ‘Mikado’, their Emperor, and allow him to govern under a constitutional monarchy. This approach was not taken, as it was a conditional surrender, whereas the American public had already been promised (in speeches) unconditional surrender, and conditional surrender had failed in the past: Versailles. The failure of the Treaty of Versailles led many to believe that conditional surrender was weak and did not work. Also, ‘The Bomb’ was again preferable for other reasons stated. The Americans needn’t have dropped the bomb if they had encouraged Russia to invade Manchuria, in aid of China, and cut off more of Japan’s war resources and convince them it was hopeless. The Americans chose not to do this, firstly because they wanted the pride of winning the war that they had fought from the beginning single-handedly, and also because they wanted to deny Russia any credit for the war, so as not to allow them political leverage. The Americans had, at one stage, planned to show the Japanese (and possibly the Russians, for the political reasons already mentioned) footage of a test drop to frighten and threaten them into submission. They instead opted for a surprise, shock attack on Japan; they felt that this would be more convincing, more frightening and would also demonstrate that they were prepared to use this weapon on their enemies. A major factor, creating the need for these options, and an excuse for the Americans to use the atomic bomb, was the sheer stubbornness and fanatacism of the Japanese troops. They were prepared to fight to the last man, and cared little for their own lives; a clear example of this is the Japanese ‘Kamikaze’ pilots who would happily go to certain death for their Mikado. This devotion was very hard to overcome, and it led to a variety of factors: the Japanese may have surrendered much earlier, meaning that the Russians would have no opportunity to ‘intervene’ in the war; the USA could have achieved a surrender much faster with conventional bombing; they would have lost far less people on the islands, meaning that a landing on Japan would be a strong possibility; they wouldn’t have needed to demonstrate their power in such a way; an unconditional surrender could have been achieved without such Japanese fanaticism about the Mikado, and lastly the fact that, even if the Japanese continued fighting during conventional bombing, a test drop would have been enough to cause them to surrender as they would have nothing to gain. In conclusion, there were two major long-term factors in the American decision to carry out the attacks, which led to many short-term factors actually becoming issues in the first place. One is the political tension with Russia, which was caused by the loss of familiarity with Roosevelt, Truman’s rudeness, a misunderstanding over the Polish government and the simple fact that Americans were anti-communist, whereas Russia was a communist nation. This tension meant that the USA wanted to hasten Japanese surrender so that the Russians couldn’t get some last-minute credit for the war, to scare the Russians, and to create the prospect of trading technology with Russia, which didn’t have a nuclear project at the time. This is clearly a very significant factor, as the alternative of conditional surrender would have been easier, but would not have demonstrated the weapon to Russia, a high priority for the USA. The fanaticism of the Japanese is in my opinion slightly more important than the political reasons; it causes many other factors, some of which lead into the political reasons. They may have surrendered much earlier without their fanaticism, which would have eliminated several factors; the USA would not need to drop the bomb to eliminate any Russian credit, and the USA would have looked stronger if they eliminated a powerful nation like Japan. Even if the Japanese hadn’t surrendered early on, conventional bombing probably would have softened them up enough to accept unconditional surrender anyway; a compromise of conditional surrender needn’t have come into question, had the Japanese not been so fanatical about the Mikado. The island campaign by the USA would have been more successful if the Japanese weren’t fighting to the last, shortening the time taken to get to Japan, and a landing would be less unattractive had so many Americans not been killed on the islands by Japanese fanatics. This would also make the war less unpopular with the public, so there would be less pressure from there. This factor of Japanese fanaticism is clearly vastly important, as had the Japanese been in the same frame of mind as the Americans, the war would almost certainly have been swifter. These factors are the main reasons for the dropping of the atomic bomb, both directly and indirectly, and in the absence of these factors it is likely that the bomb would never have been dropped. The alternatives, considered but not tried by the Americans, would have a chance of success. The fact that they were all-too-eager to drop the atomic bomb was due to their political situation with Russia more than their military situation with Japan. Had Japan not been so fanatical, this ‘excuse’ for the bomb would not have come up. In the absence of these two factors, or even one of them, the atomic bombs would not have been dropped; therefore they are the most important factors.