Alex McAllister
show how powerful the atomic bomb was however decided not to, because there was a danger of the test being a dud and did not want to waste the bombs. Even if they had
shown a demonstration the Americans thought it very unlikely that the Japanese would surrender. From an interview with James Byrnes, American Secretary of state, twenty years later ‘we were talking about the people who hadn’t hesitated at Pearl Harbor to make a sneak attack, destroying not only ships but the lives of many American sailors’. The Japanese had not hesitated planning an attack on Pearl Harbor so the Americans did not hesitate planning an attack on Japan.
Although all these sources convince us that the dropping of the atomic bombs was justified they were mostly written by Americans. This make these sources bias. The fact that the sources were written by Americans tells us that they are unreliable, although they are speaking the truth, the truth was spoken by Americans and they needed to convince people the dropping the bombs was justified.
There are many reasons and sources to this part of the argument, that the droppings of the atomic bombs were not justified. Within a radius of one kilometer from ground zero, men and animals died almost immediately from the tremendous blast pressure and heat. Houses and other structures were smashed, crushed, and shattered and fires broke out. There was a tremendous amount of causalities all horrific and very painful for the people of Japan. The exact number of dead and injured will never be known because of the confusion after the explosions. Persons unaccounted for may have been burned beyond recognition in the falling buildings. No sure count of even the pre raid populations existed. In this uncertain situation, estimates of casualties have generally ranged between 100,000 and 180,000 for Hiroshima, and between 50,000 and 100,000 for Nagasaki. A plausible estimate of the importance of the various causes of death would have ranged as followed: Flash burns 20 to 30 percent, Other injuries 50 to 60 percent and Radiation sickness 15 to 20 percent. Flash burns are the flash of the explosion, which was extremely brief, emitted radiant heat traveling at the speed of light. Flash burns followed the explosion immediately. Survivors in the two cities stated that people who were in the open directly under the explosion of the bomb were so severely burned that the skin was charred dark brown or black and that they died within a few minutes or hours. A few instances were reported of arms or legs being torn from the body by flying debris. According to the Japanese, those individuals very near the centre of the explosion but not affected by flash burns or secondary injuries became ill within 2 or 3 days. Bloody diarrhea followed, and the victims expired, some within 2 to 3 days after the onset and the majority within a week. Autopsies showed remarkable changes in the blood picture-almost complete absence of white blood cells, and deterioration of bone marrow. Mucous membranes of the throat, lungs, stomach, and the intestines showed acute inflammation. The majority of the radiation cases, who were at greater distances, did not show severe symptoms until 1 to 4 weeks after the explosion, though many felt weak and listless on the following day. After a day or two of mild nausea and vomiting, the appetite improved and the person felt quite well until symptoms reappeared at a later date. Within 12 to 48 hours, fever became evident. In many instances it reached only 100° Fahrenheit and remained for only a few days. In other cases, the temperature went as high as 104° or 106° Fahrenheit. The degree of fever apparently had a direct relation to the degree of exposure to radiation. Once developed, the fever was usually well sustained, and in those cases terminating fatally it continued high until the end. If the fever subsided, the patient usually showed a rapid disappearance of other symptoms and soon regained his feeling of good health. The other symptoms commonly seen were shortage of white corpuscles, loss of hair, inflammation and gangrene of the gums, inflammation of the mouth and pharynx, ulceration of the lower gastro-intestinal tract, small livid spots resulting from escape of blood into the tissues of the skin or mucous membrane, and larger hemorrhages of gums, nose and skin. Source 1 form J Hersey’s account of the effects of the bomb had
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said ‘Father Kleinsorge found about twenty men in the bushes. They were all in the same nightmarish state. Their faces were wholly burned their eye sockets hollow, the fluid from their melted eyes had ran down their cheeks. Their mouths were mere swollen pus covered wounds, which they could not bear to stretch enough to admit the spout of a teapot. So Father Kleinsorge got a large piece of grass and drew out the stem so as to make a straw and gave them all the water to drink that way’. These innocent Japanese people were in so much agony that they could not even open their mouths for a drink, this was due to the wounds around their mouths. They had to drink from a straw. A girl as young as five saw these shocking things ‘the skin was burned of some of them and was hanging form there hands and there chins’ for a young girl to see such dreadful things at such an early age. She must of thought that mankind must be so cruel to do such a terribly thing. A British journalist had said ‘people who were not only injured in the bombing are still dying mysteriously and horribly from a unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague’. This source was not written by a Japanese citizen nor an American it was written by a British person. This tells us that it cannot be bias, as the person is from neither of the two fighting countries. The Americans had properly not thought of the after effect the bomb would have. The survivors of the bomb had to deal with radiation sickness, which was explained above. This is a Japanese eyewitness account of radiation sickness ‘ survivors began to notice in themselves a strange form of illness. It consisted of vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea with large amounts of blood, purple spots on the skin, bleeding from the mouth, loss of hair and usually death. The Americans had not needed to use the bombs as source 11 explains ‘ we thought we would be able to defeat the Americans on their first landing attack. But if the Americans launched a second or third attack, first our food supply would run out then our weapons. The Americans could have won without using the atomic bombs’. This source was from an interview with a secretary to the Japanese war minister. However, this source was written after the attack with the atomic bombs. So how do we know that the Japanese are not lying they could have defeated the Americans. The Japanese did not want to surrender and at one point had the stronger side than America. The Americans did not even do a demonstration of what destruction the atomic bomb had. A not form the American nuclear scientist to the government in June 1945 ‘ a demonstration of the bomb might best be made on the desert or on a barren island. Japan could then be asked to surrender’. This tell us that if Japan had been given a demonstration, they would have possible surrendered because of what destruction one atomic bomb can cause. However there was no demonstration and the atomic bomb was dropped and thousands of lives were lost. The bombs huge amounts of suffering, sadness and human lives and that can never be justified.
Were the droppings of the atomic bombs justified or not? The dropping of the atomic bombs was not justified. Many sources tell us of the absolute pain that Japan had to go through because they fought strong and would not surrender. Thousands of innocent peoples lives were lost. Sources 1,4,5 and 6 tell us the horrific casualties that had happened as an effect of the atomic bombs. Although many people had died in the actual bomb explosion, many had died or were dying of radiation sickness, explained in source 6. Source 6 was written by a British journalist, he was from neither country and therefore could not be bias about his report. Americans mostly wrote many of the sources that back up the evidence that the dropping of the atomic bombs was justified. This seems unfair, as the country that dropped the bombs was in fact America. America cannot say that Japan was heavily equipped with weapons as they do in source 8 and decide that they just cannot defeat them and have to go to such drastic measures as the dropping of the atomic bombs. If America had only dropped the one bomb on Hiroshima, that would still have been an uncalled for act upon the Americans, however, to drop a second bomb on Nagasaki was certainly not justified.
Alex McAllister
However, one of the sources supporting that the dropping of the bombs was not justified was written after the war. This was source 11 from an interview with the secretary to the Japanese war minister. This had said that if America had gone ahead
and attacked twice or maybe a third time Japan would have been defeated because of lack of weapons and food supply. How do they know that, that was what was going to happen. Japan did not want to surrender and had five million men and five thousands suicide aircrafts. They are saying that America was the stronger country, when at that moment Japan clearly was. Furthermore, the Americans did not have to use the atomic bombs to win, said the secretary to the Japanese war minister, but as mentioned before Japan at that moment were the stronger country. Some of the sources were unreliable such as the ones mentioned above, ones written by Americans and others written after the war. The dropping of the atomic bombs was not justified and the second bombing of Nagasaki was an uncalled for act upon the Americans.
