Was the Hiroshima Bomb Necessary?

AS and A Level History

0261 – 012

IB History SL

Ivan La Bruna

May 2002

Word Count : 2325

Was the Hiroshima Bomb Necessary?

During the middle of the twentieth century countries were involved in one of the most deadly wars of the century. European countries already had a war at the beginning of the century but they weren’t able to avoid a second world war that involved also non-European countries. The expansion of the war made the alliances even bigger to the extent that there was too much power between the alliances causing the war to be inevitable. The countries started to war and slowly ran out of supplies and soldiers, this made alliances stronger and bigger because support was needed to continue war. The alliances would always end up to balance out because they prevented each other to have more power, as a result countries lost hopes for a closer end of war. The United States, to balance out the power and to solve their economic problems caused by the war, decided to join the war. Once in the war they also noticed that there was no hope to stop war quickly so they came to a solution, due to the circumstances, that war would stop if they would have dropped a disastrous atomic bomb over Japan. Japan was an enemy of the United States and the atomic bombs were used as warning to make them surrender, the Japanese didn’t surrender after the first bomb on Hiroshima but only until the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The war ended with terrible consequences, but was it worth killing about 200,000 people to stop the world war or were there other solutions? Many historians believe that Japan could have never been able to be a valuable enemy for the United States and therefore the nuclear bomb was unnecessary, others instead say that war would have not stopped if the atomic bombs were not used.

It all starts from the alliance system during the Second World War, it was a great factor of why United States dropped the bomb because if they were on the other side maybe they would have dropped it in Europe rather than Asia or maybe not dropped at all. The alliances during the Second World War were mainly two groups: one of them was the Axis Powers and the other was the Allied Powers. The Axis group was composed mainly by Germany, Italy and also Japan; while the Allies were composed mainly by Great Britain, France, and the United States. The two alliance systems were bulding too much power to the point that the countries, including United States, thought that the only way to solve the situation was by having a war. The war was fought with tanks, submarines, airplanes, soldiers, and even more but countries knew that because of that they would have had war last longer. Countries tried to find other methods to defeat them.

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Japan was probably the sparkle that lit up the fire. Japan chose to attack the United States at Pearl Harbour, which was one of the main United States ports, during a moment of peace. (Truman) Japans attack was a success because it totally devastated most of the ships that were at Pearl Harbour killing more than 125,000 people. United States were not happy of the surprise attack because they never expected an attack from Japan on Pearl Harbour, they weren’t able to avoid the attack. Because of the attack the Americans started to have a great anger in them because of their great losses and they wanted to seek revenge. United States decided to make a surprise attack using the nuclear weapon, which was tested and therefore they knew the consequences, on Hiroshima as a warning to make Japan surrender. As a result Japan wouldn’t surrender and United States will drop another bomb on Nagasaki as second warning, only after the second nuclear bomb Japan surrenders.

The atomic bombs could have been used but not as the United States used them, if the atomic bombs affected only military objectives then it would not be a problem, but the atomic bomb was aimed towards innocent civilians. Even if the United States wanted it or not, children and women were killed due to the devastating effect of the nuclear bomb, both at the time and also after due to the radiations that stained in the soil. To a certain extent United States was wrong because laws were written stating that bombing civilians was illegal and yet they bombed civilians. The League of Nations had agreed on September 30, 1938 to:

“Recognizes the following principles as a necessary basis for any subsequent regulations:

The intentional bombing of civilian populations is illegal;
Objectives aimed at from the air must be legitimate military objectives and must be identifiable;
Any attack on legitimate military objectives must be carried out in such a way that civilian populations in the neighborhood are not bombed through negligence”

(Protection of civilian populations against bombing from the air in case of war – Sept. 30, 1938, League of Nations)

The US, however, was not a member of the League of Nations , but they still had a law that said the same thing:

ARTICLE XXV

The attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or buildings which are not defended, is prohibited.

(CONVENTION WITH RESPECT TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR IN AIR - The Hague, July 29, 1899)

In the Draft Rules of Aerial Warfare, The Hague, February 1923 United States in article XXII declares that “Aerial bombardment for the purpose of terrorizing the civilian population, of destroying or damaging private property not of military character, or of injuring non-combatants is prohibited.” Further on in article XXIV there are many points declaring that aerial bombardment is only accepted on “military forces; military works; military establishments or depots; factories constituting important and well-known centers engaged in the manufacture of arms, ammunition or distinctively military supplies; lines of communication or transportation used for military purposes.” and if it’s done on people “the aircraft must abstain from bombardment.”. The US had laws against the bombarding of civilians but they never paid for their mistakes, president Truman stated that, “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians”, when in reality the United States Strategic Bombing Survey stated in 1946 that the cities, “Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets because of their concentration of activities and population” Mark Weber stated that “President Harry Truman, the killing of tens of thousands of Japanese civilians was simply not a consideration in his decision to use the atom bomb” because after the Hiroshima atomic bomb was dropped they dropped another one in Nagasaki and they mass killed most of the Japanese people destroying and burning the city of Tokyo creating a lot of prejudice among Americans about the Japanese. (Mark Weber)

The problem that might have been would be the fact President of the United States was changed, Franklin Roosevelt was the President when the war began but on the 4th of December, 1945, he died and Harry S. Truman became president since he was the Vice President. He probably was unprepared for his new office to face the problem of war considering the mistakes he did but since no one expected the death of Roosevelt during such a critical moment, felt ready. A vice president has to represent the president that he is being replaced but Truman didn’t actually replace Roosevelt with his own ideas because Roosevelt was against the bombing of civilians while Truman knew he was bombing civilians and that the atomic bomb was a terrible weapon. Truman when he got his office of president, and especially after the Pearl Harbor attack, he started to have an anger towards the Japanese because “The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor”. He had in himself a feeling of revenge, together with the rest of the Americans, so he decided to bomb civilians from the air as the Japanese did. Roosevelt, instead, said that the air bombing “has sickened the hearts of every civilized man and woman, and has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity” (Franklin D. Roosevelt), he wrote this to appeal to other countries to stop involving the innocent people, he knew that something wrong was being done to civilians in Europe and wherever war was fought. The League of Nations was not entirely effective because no one obeyed the laws that were established, Roosevelt’s attempt to change peoples mind failed with a result that the situation did not change and that the League of Nation lost its importance throughout time.

Since there was chaos in the alliance systems and that laws were not followed, many countries changed sides to just be with the winner. Japan did not want to stop the war because it knew that it would have had chances to win, but everyone knew that it had no chances to win because it had no resources to continue the war against everyone else since Germany surrendered. Many countries in fact thought that Japan was already defeated and that the atomic bomb was not necessary. (Doug Long) Reports say also that the US wanted to show their power to Japan so that with the two attacks they demonstrated what could happened to Tokyo if they were going to do a third attack at Tokyo. United States justified their action against Japan because of the attack at Pearl Harbor that destroyed and killed thousands of American citizens.

The American justification was not accepted by the great powers, even the Pope was against such an event, the atomic bomb was considered a “destructive weapon [that] remains as a temptation for posterity, which, we know by bitter experience, learns so little from history.” () Pope Pius XII considered it a crime against God and to man itself. The Pope found no justifications in the bombing Hiroshima, he knows though that it is part of human nature to be tempted to gain power and prosper but not always we learn from our own mistakes from the past. General Eisenhower said that the Japanese “were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing,” () with the “awful thing” being the atomic bomb, Eisenhower “hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon. ” () Also Admiral Leahy thought that “wars cannot be won by destroying women and children” and “the use of the barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan”. These were a minor part of people who were against the bombing which was totally unnecessary to win the war. President Truman thought that it was useful to stop war and to make Japan surrender since it was the only country who did not surrender, if Truman was against the bombing of civilians he would have done everything to avoid the disaster. There were two atomic bombs dropped on Japan because the first one was a warning, and yet it had a tremendous damage, while the second one was dropped because Japan would not surrender from war and the United States threatened Japan that they would bomb Tokyo with the same weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.( Doug Long) Japan surrendered because realized that the weapon used both on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was nuclear, another nuclear bomb was feared and so Japan surrendered immediately. The justifications were accepted for Hiroshima but not entirely for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki which was about three days after Hiroshima. The bombing on Hiroshima happened the 6th of August,1945, while the bombing on Nagasaki happened the 9th of August, 1945. Because their mistake was repeated right after three days their excuses were less accepted by anyone because it was morally wrong.

Truman in a public speech said, "If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." (Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945, pg. 197, 199). People knew that something bad was going to happen and it was mainly Truman’s decision, he justified himself because of the Japanese who “began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor” and Truman’s anger was so great that he wanted to seek revenge ,and the feeling of revenge started to spread around to the point that soldiers said, “Thank God for the atom bomb” giving more importance to the bomb rather than God itself because of the end of the war. (Mark Weber)

United States made the wrong decision and was not able to see the consequences of the atomic bomb because they were blinded by revenge. But it isn’t entirely their fault because if they were brought to do something so bad it was because of war and of people fighting for power. The fact that no one wanted to stop the war brought countries to enter a desperate situation. United States acted without thinking deeply about the consequences, they were full of anger and wanted to seek revenge because of the surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor and also to stop war to not see any more deaths. The fault was of the situation in which the world was in, war had to prevented and war should have been stopped, the fault therefore lies mainly on the countries who weren’t able to control these factors. United States and Japan were not able to stop their war against each other and their situation did not able them to stop war. Countries after what happened will learn hopefully from their mistakes to avoid certain situations.

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