Homepage page 1

• The US was justified in dropping the two atomic bombs on Japan because it led to the eventual Japanese surrender, saved the lives of many American soldiers and scared off the Soviet Union. If the US had not dropped the bombs, Japan most likely would have gained even more power, the Soviet Union could have started a war with the US, countless American lives would have been lost, and the outcome of the war could have been very different.
• Although there were some prominent figures who opposed the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (i.e. Einstein and Eisenhower), it proved to be a necessary step towards ending the war. Einstein thought that the bomb should have been dropped on a nearby island so that the Japanese would be able to see the power of the bomb but we wouldn't have to kill as many innocent civilians. Roosevelt thought that this was too risky because the Japanese were so nationalistic and proud to die for their country that he thought that they needed to know that the U.S. was serious about their threat (a bomb would be dropped on a major city every three days until Japan surrendered). Considering the threat was a bluff and we really didn't have enough bombs to maintain it for very long, Roosevelt came to the conclusion that although many Japanese citizens would have to die, there was no other way to force their surrender. In addition to the necessity of a Japanese surrender, many Americans felt that they needed retribution for the Pearl Harbor attacks. Also, the Japanese were infamous for treating their prisoners horrifically: starving, raping, torturing them until their last breath. This plus a substantial amount of propaganda led many Americans to believe that the Japanese didn't deserve any mercy and that the United States was more than justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.