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Introduction

Alex McAllister Was The Dropping Of The Atomic Bombs On Hiroshima And Nagasaki Justified? A single atomic b**b, the first weapon of its type ever used against a target, exploded over the city of Hiroshima at 8:15 on the morning of August 1945.the attack came 45 minutes after the all clear had been sounded from a previous alert. The explosion came as an almost complete surprise and the people had not taken shelter. The b**b exploded slightly northwest of the centre of the city. Because of this accuracy and the flat land and circular shape of the city, Hiroshima was uniformly and extensively devastated. Practically the entire densely or moderately built up portion of the city was leveled by blast and swept by fire. At Nagasaki three days later, the city was scarcely more prepared, though vague references to the Hiroshima disaster had appeared in the newspaper of 8 August. The city remained on warning alert, but when two B-29's were sighted, coming in the raid signal was not given immediately; the b**b was dropped at 11:02 and the raid signal was given a few minutes later at 11:09. Only about four hundred people were in the city's tunnel shelters, which were adequate for about thirty percent of the population. Was the dropping of the bombs justified? Was it right for America to drop these catastrophic weapons? Was it vital to drop the atomic bombs could they have conquered Japan without them? ...read more.

Middle

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 b**b 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. b****y 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. ...read more.

Conclusion

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 b**b on Hiroshima, that would still have been an uncalled for act upon the Americans, however, to drop a second b**b 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. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 section.