The official reason given by the government for dropping such a devastating weapon was that the deaths caused by the two bombs would be far less than the number of lives lost if the Japanese were not forced to surrender. Although by mid 1945, the Japanese were steadily retreating and had not won a successful victory against the Americans for some time, many believed this was the case. The Japanese were notoriously fanatical soldiers in the Second World War, who rarely surrendered and fought on bitterly in the face of obvious defeat. Despite the loss of hundreds of thousands of men it was thought that the Japanese army would still continue to fight until the end, therefore justifying a dramatic action like dropping the atomic bombs. In addition the war in Europe was over and many American servicemen had been sent home which would have had a big impact on the morale of the men still fighting in Asia.
The American army and navy certainly didn’t want to risk a huge assault on Japan itself, which was heavily defended with such morale problems. The projected loss of life would be huge and the dropping of the atomic bomb would avoid this. There are some, however, who think that the dropping of the atomic bomb, and all the consequent deaths, was an act of revenge for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and that the war could have been won by conventional means. The official reason given by the government for dropping such a devastating weapon was that the deaths caused by the two bombs would be far less than the number of lives lost if the Japanese were not forced to surrender. Although by mid 1945, the Japanese were steadily retreating and had not won a successful victory against the Americans for some time, many believed this was the case. The Japanese were notoriously fanatical soldiers in the Second World War, who rarely surrendered and fought on bitterly in the face of obvious defeat. Despite the loss of hundreds of thousands of men it was thought that the Japanese army would still continue to fight until the end, therefore justifying a dramatic action like dropping the atomic bombs. In addition the war in Europe was over and many American servicemen had been sent home which would have had a big impact on the morale of the men still fighting in Asia. The American army and navy certainly didn’t want to risk a huge assault on Japan itself, which was heavily defended with such morale problems. The projected loss of life would be huge and the dropping of the atomic bomb would avoid this. There are some, however, who think that the dropping of the atomic bomb, and all the consequent deaths, was an act of revenge for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and that the war could have been won by conventional means.
One alternative was to showcase the power of the atomic bomb in a non-combat demonstration. The dropping of the atomic bomb on an unpopulated area of Japan with international observers would have shown Japan the power of the bomb and they would probably have surrendered. If the Americans sought more casualties, a similar demonstration of exploding an atomic bomb in Tokyo Harbour could have achieved such results and might have pushed the Japanese to the brink of surrender. Such demonstrations would have saved the lives of thousands. Killing needlessly was a concern for some American officials. Herbert Hoover wrote to army and navy journal publisher Colonel John Callan O'Laughlin, "The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul."
A second alternative was to modify the U.S. demand for unconditional surrender. The Japanese did not want to surrender because they thought the emperor would be taken away from them. The Japanese believed that the emperor was a god, a belief that had the unfortunate effect of restraining the peace factions in Japan. The U.S. could have told the Japanese that if they surrendered they would be allowed to keep the emperor.
It is clear after analysing the evidence that America had several reasons to use the a-bomb. Nevertheless the bias in some of the sources I have used is evident. It is my belief that the use of the atomic bomb to bring about the end of World War II was not necessary. The Japanese were ready to surrender and it was not necessary to hit them with such a destructive weapon. Furthermore the lack of Japanese supplies meant that surrender was inevitable.
Finally, I have come to the conclusion that that the use of the atomic bomb played a slight role in ending the war however the shortage of Japanese supplies meant that the surrender was bound to happen, unless there was someway of re-opening their ports.
