On the 6th August 1945, America dropped the first ever atomic bomb on a Japanese city called Hiroshima. 70, 000 people were killed and 70, 000 of the 80,000 buildings collapsed. Three days later, on the 9th August 1945

History, Atomic Bomb

Coursework

On the 6th August 1945, America dropped the first ever atomic bomb on a Japanese city called Hiroshima. 70, 000 people were killed and 70, 000 of the 80,000 buildings collapsed. Three days later, on the 9th August 1945, another atomic bomb was dropped by America, this time on a Japanese city called Nagasaki. Around about

36, 000 people were killed. There are several reasons suggested why the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of which being that the Americans believed that the Japanese would never surrender. And if America were to attack Japan, lots of American and Japanese soldiers would die during the invasion. The bombs had cost America a lot of money and they saw it as a waste not to use them. The Americans used this to show their military power to the USSR. In prisoner of war camps, American prisoners had been treated appallingly. So dropping the bomb was viewed as payback by the Americans.

Before the war between America and Japan took place, Japan had attacked Pearl Harbour on the 7th December 1941. From the beginning of the 20th century Japan and America were reasonably friendly, as Japan had begun to trade with America, Japan began to become less and less isolated. But in 1937 Japan signed an anti – communist pact with Italy and Germany. Japan upset Britain and America when they attacked China. And from then the relationship between America and Japan got worse. The Japanese had plans to conquer to entire Far East, but to do this they would have to knock out the American navel base at Pearl Harbour. If Japan were to succeed the attacks on Pearl Harbour would have been seen as a massive risk worth taking. The Japanese leaders wanted to expand because they saw Japan as powerful nation, so they had their minds stuck on getting more land to gather more raw materials, and as the Japanese population was always growing, they would need more space for their people to live.

In 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour to slow down the Americans from stopping them taking over land in the Far East. The plan was for the Japanese to take over territories that belonged to Britain, France and Holland in south East Asia. As the months went by the Japanese had gradually taken over these territories and had began to threaten both Australia and India. Then in June 1942 the Americans won the battle of Midway. This victory stopped Japanese advanced and slowly the Americans began to take back territories that Japan had taken over.

There were many ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

There were many reasons why America decided to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To start with political and military reasons, first of all the Americans did not want the USSR becoming involved with attacks on Japan, as the USSR was communist and America were scared of communism. However, if the USSR where to get involved and defeated Japan would have been great for the Americans with regards to the war effort but seeing as the USSR was a communist state if they were to take over Japan, Japan its self may also become communist under the power of the Soviets. So the Americans dropped the atomic bombs to finish the war and to keep the USSR from getting involved. If the USSR were to defeat Japan it would seriously damage the trade links that America had with Japan and the surrounding countries before the war began. In 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and it is said that the Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an act of revenge against Japan for the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Also feelings were running high in America as reports of the treatment of American prisoners of war were filtering through to the American people. Many people saw dropping the bomb as a good way of bringing the war to a conclusion and freeing the American prisoners of war earlier.

There were not just political and military reasons why the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were also a lot of social reasons. To start with the Americans saw Japan as a second rate country. The Japanese had a very different attitude towards war than the Americans did, for example the Japanese used Kamikaze pilots and the soldiers saw surrendering as dishonourable. The only why to make the Japanese retreat would have been to drop the atomic bombs, not only would this have ended the war sooner rather than later but it would have saved a lot of Japanese and American lives, if the war was to continue. As the casualty rate was rising higher as the war went on, the Americans had to end the war. And the Americans came up with two plans. The first was to bomb the capital of Japan to bits until the Japanese finally gave up or to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But if the Americans were to bomb Tokyo the casualty rate would be even higher than the causality rate of using the atomic bombs. And in the end the Americans saw using the atomic as a better solution as they would not have to bother invading Japan.

But economical reasons were why I think America decided to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For example the America had been working on the atomic bombs for four years and $2000 was spent on creating these bombs, and it would have been seen as a massive waste not to use them. And America did not have a supply of these bombs. They only had three. One was tested and the other two were used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If the Americans had decided not to drop the atomic bombs they would have had to carry out a conventional attack. This would involve more bombs to be dropped, and the Americans did not know how many more bombs it would take to make Japan surrender. And they also did not know how much longer the war would go on for it they didn’t drop the atomic bombs. It was said that after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima killing 70, 000 people, that Japan were about to surrender anyway but America then decided to drop a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. There was no actual real explanation why the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Many people say it was just to test out a different type of atomic bomb. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was made from uranium and the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was made from Plutonium.

Conclusion

Looking over all the possible reasons I could find on why the Americans dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I have come to the conclusion that one of the main reason why the atomic bombs were dropped was because the Americans just could not find any other way to make the Japanese surrender. As the Japanese soldiers were very patriotic. And looked up to their emperor as a God. And by being dishonourable to the emperor, they saw it as being dishonourable to God. An example of how extreme their patriotism was they would use Kamikaze pilots. This is were the pilot would fly a plane loaded up with bombs straight into an enemy ship or any enemy target. The pilots would think that they would go straight up to heaven when they died as they had died for their Emperor who they regarded as a god.

Some of the reasons for the attack on Japan can be linked together, for instance not wanting the USSR to become involved because of communism. America as a whole saw communism as a worldwide threat. Also any Soviet dominance in that area would damage trade previously enjoyed prior to the war.