The emperor was believed to be a God to the Japanese, and to lose his guidance leaves the Japanese with no purpose for existence. This caused Japan to further the war and fuel its people to fight. The Japanese had also been using barbaric war tactics through out World War II. They believed the war would be over once they eliminated their target or every one of their soldiers was dead. This left the United States in the position to stop Japan and defeat them, thus using the atomic bombs. The United States could have agreed to a surrender agreement on Japan’s terms to end the war efficiently. If the United States had done that the threat of Japan would not have been over. They would have been left off the hook with their emperor still head of state to rule and guide the attitudes of the Japanese to fight again to the very last man. Without the use of the bomb the beliefs of the Japanese of the time would have proved to be more trouble to handle for the world due to their beliefs of supremacy and kamikaze.
The U.S. had to use the atomic bombs on Japan for economic reasons. The United States as well as the rest of the world was tired and worn out from fighting in this large scaled war. The United States paid a grand total of $1,889,604,000 equivalent to approximately $21,570,821,000 today (). To leave it unused would be a large waste of funding for American money to not know the potential power of the device. The United States spent approximately 3.3 trillion dollars in the war, and to continue with Japan would prove to be costly by much higher means. The top solution economically for a country tired from fighting, would be to end the war as fast as possible. Without an unconditional surrender by Japan the next fastest solution was to put the atomic bombs to use. The necessity of the bomb for economic reasons was to help end the war before the United States spent more money in their attempts to blockade Japan and continue to fight while Japan could start industrializing and build her defenses. This would prove to be strengthening in a shorter period of time for Japan while hurting the United States’ economy. The United States could have scared the Japanese with a test bombing of an uninhabited island instead of actually using the bomb. This would scare them into surrender without using much money on bombing or invasion. The Japanese would have not backed down through a threat, thus wasting an atomic bomb, a lot of money. Then with lack of artillery on the atomic scale an invasion would need to take place, costing the United States billions of dollars more. The atomic bomb helped not only the United States but also Japan to lessen economic issues in the aftermath of the war.
For the United States to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a large interest for its military. It proved to be both strategic and effective for the United States. Hiroshima was chosen to be bombed due to its military presence being higher than that of other cities. Nagasaki was chosen because the city had been one for southern Japan’s largest seaports. It was also of a great wartime importance due to the amount of various industries, including the production of ships, military equipment, ordnance, and other war materials. The city was attacked due to its industrial importance to the country.
These bombings proved to be successful for the military. Had the military pursued another course of action such as an invasion from the south by the United States, it would have claimed many more lives, from both Americans and Japanese. The United States and Japan fought in The Battle of Okinawa, on the island of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands, which became the biggest amphibious assault during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The results proved an invasion would be disastrous for both sides. Nearly a third of the total population of Okinawa was killed during this major battle. It was the largest sea-land-air battle in history, running from April through June, 1945 claiming about 100,000 Japanese killed or captured; yet many preferred suicide to the disgrace of capture. The battle also took over 72,000 Americans in casualties. This could have been considered as a preview of what would happen if an invasion took place, thousands to millions of deaths from both sides. Japanese civilian loss of life from a United States invasion would have easily far exceeded the amount of lives lost in both atomic bombings. The bombings were inhuman and done in the wrong manner to cities where there was not a major military base, where the population was also of other races being unjustified. This is not so, for both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen for particular reasons. Hiroshima was a city with military presence where the first bomb could be used to show Japan the power of the United States. Nagasaki was chosen for its location and industrial presence and being a large seaport. The bombing of both cities showed Japan the power and might of the United States while weakening Japan severely. Had this not been done, Japan may have continued to fight without surrender for many years later, thus bringing about many more lives of military and innocent civilian lives.
The bombing were also justified through the political issues surrounding the United States as well as Japan during the time. Japan gave the United States little choice but to use the atomic bomb to bring peace to the world as soon as possible. The United States was looking for Japan to adhere to Unconditional Surrender. Japan would not coincide with the terms due to the feeling of loyalty towards their emperor. President Truman had promised an end to deaths of American soldiers and for the war to end. Truman was face to make a decision in which the ideas included:
Although much of the Japanese naval fleet and air force had been destroyed by Allied raids, their ancient Bushido tradition prevented surrender. Therefore, an Allied victory would create extremely high casualties. This fact put Truman in a very difficult position. He had to choose between the massive destruction the bomb would cause Japan and saving the lives of his American soldiers. After being consulted by his military advisors that an invasion of Japan would cost over 1 million American lives, he decided to drop the bomb on Japan (http://www.pomperaug.com/socstud/stumuseum/web/msrbomb1.htm)
This showed that Truman did not have much of a decision at all. His job was to protect his people, and do the best to benefit the United States. One may argue that he should have considered the bombing of Nagasaki and not have done it at all. But Truman made a decision, without the second bomb Japan had an attitude to win at all costs, without driving fear into them they would not give up. The second bomb was necessary and a wise political movement to convince the Japanese to agree to unconditional surrender.
Japan was responsible for social atrocities that had led the United States to use the atomic bomb for world safety. Through out the war Japan had been using cruel acts of violence to defeat their enemies. One such act was the Rape of Nanking. The Japanese army invaded China and started their barbaric conquest for land. Through out their advances they stopped to kill many Chinese people during that time, in gruesome ways. The event was one of the most tragic military debacles in the history of modern warfare. In an attempt to defend Nanking the Chinese army allowed themselves to be surrounded and then slaughtered by the Japanese. The Japanese showed no mercy, killing aged men, women, and children, even those who were believed to have been soldiers. The catastrophe gained its name through one horrific act the Japanese made towards the Chinese. In excess of the six weeks of the carnage portrayed by the Japanese, the Japanese troops raped over 20,000 women, in addition to the murder of about 300,000 civilians. Most of the women raped were murdered subsequently. The event was gruesome to be enacted by such a person; in detail the event was disturbing:
Women of all ages (including children as young as seven and elderly women in their seventies) were violated, many of them being gang raped or attacked on multiple occasions. Some women were held captive so that they could be repeatedly abused. Rapes were committed in broad daylight, in front of spouses, children, or other family members, and with appalling frequency. The soldiers' usual practice, officially condoned by high-ranking officials so as to "avoid difficulties," was to murder the women when they were finished with them. This was most often done by cutting off their breasts and/or disemboweling them with a bayonet to the abdomen. Senior officers were not only aware of these acts, but participated in them as well.
Particularly disturbing is that the Japanese perpetrators derived great pleasure from these heinous crimes, while their superiors condoned and even supported them. One outstandingly revolting account is of several soldiers who, after raping and killing a pregnant woman, presented her fetus on a bayonet to their commanding officer, who replied with laughter. There were innumerable gruesome occurrences like this...an act of cruelty seemingly beyond human capacity but commonplace, in the massacre of Nanking.
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These acts were barbaric and none the less cruel. This, unfortunately, was not their only act of cruelty, their atrocities continued with the Bataan Death March. In April of 1943 American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to walk about a hundred miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando, 55 miles away. The event was tragic due to the treatment of the men who were captured, explained first hand by Jesse Knowles he tells the gruesome story of:
76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were bound, beaten, or killed by their Japanese captors. Some were bayoneted when they fell from exhaustion. Some were forced to dig their own graves and were buried alive. Only 56,000 prisoners reached camp alive. Thousands of them later died from malnutrition and disease” ().
Yet again the Japanese army was killing in gruesome inhumane ways. Also to be included as acts of atrocities is their attack on Pearl Harbor, also killing innocent soldiers. Their acts would not be put to rest until they were defeated. An invasion would have led to more captures of soldiers allowing the Japanese to commit gruesome acts of murder. By using the atomic bomb the United States could keep their soldiers from capture by Japanese, and end their acts of violence against the war the quickest and most efficient way.
Throughout the Second World War new inventions of military tactics were introduced to the world. The atomic bomb was used to protect the world and end World War II as quickly as possible. It was justified through the amount of reasoning behind it. The Japanese beliefs made it worse for any nation to invade the homeland to fight in a head on battle because that would result in many more deaths. To keep the atomic bomb and use an invasion or continuous blockade on Japan would cost the United States a fortune and elongate the war for many years. The bombings were strategic and effective to the role of surrender by Japan. Politically the atomic bomb proved to be a choice of sacrificing others for the benefits of many more on both sides of the battle field. And in an effort to end the atrocities of World War II the atomic bomb was dropped to bring a peaceful era, an end to the war. For the duration of World War II the employment of atomic weapons were justified.