W+THE+DROPPING+OF+THE+BOMB

Argument that the bomb was unnecessary

A Wikispace on the bombs

The technical side of the bomb

On 14 August 1945 World War II < __https://olmsteadhistoryproject.wikispaces.com/World+War+Two__ > ended. The war had gone on for six long years with death tolls in the millions. With the war over, peace would be restored to the world for a time. The atomic bomb < __https://olmsteadhistoryproject.wikispaces.com/Nuclear+Holocaust+or+Heaven__ > would cause the final casualties of World War II. Some claim the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States were unnecessary and caused too much destruction and death, but, truly, the atomic bombs were a necessary show of force that caused Japan to surrender. If the atomic bombs had not been dropped on Japan, it is likely that Japan would not have surrendered until almost every Japanese citizen who was fit to fight was dead. Thus, World War II would have lasted much longer with many more deaths.
 * CAUSE PARAGRAPH : THE SPEEDING UP OF THE END OF THE WAR BY USING THE NUCLEAR BOMBS**

C**AUSE PARAGRAPH - THE NUMBERS OF US SOLDIERS DYING FROM CONVENTIONAL WARFARE**  The original United States plan to end the war was for the United States to invade Japan by bringing in ground troops by sea. The invasion was known as “Operation Olympic” or “X-Day.” Just weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima, in the Battle of Okinawa, 123,000 Americans and Japanese were killed. The first part of the United States invasion was to be on the island of Kyushu in the fall of 1945 and the second part of the Invasion was to be on the Tokyo Plain on the main island of Honshu. The invasion would have been very difficult and complex. According to an article in __The Journal of Military History__ entitled “Needless Fear: The Compromise of U.S. Plans to Invade Japan in 1945,” on Kyushu, Japan “had gun emplacements in the hills on both sides of the mouth of the bay, capable of covering the entire land area. Photographs showed entrances to a network of tunnels.” (Coox) After the war, the U.S. military discovered that there were about 735,000 Japanese troops available to defend Japan at Kyushu. In Japanese culture it was a custom to fight to the death and it was also considered very dishonorable to surrender a battle. It was considered very honorable for a Japanese to commit suicide instead of being taken as a prisoner by their enemy. Consequently, for the invasion of Japan to have been successful, the U.S. soldiers would have had to fight a very large Japanese army, most of which would not have been visible, until all the Japanese soldiers were dead. According to President Harry Truman, the estimated death toll for United States troops was about 500,000.

 World War II had been fought with little knowledge that the atomic bomb had been developed by the United States. In the early 1940s scientists started their work on developing the atomic bomb. This classified project was code named theManhattan Project < __https://olmsteadhistoryproject.wikispaces.com/Nuclear+Holocaust+or+Heaven__ >. Among the scientists working on the project was world-renowned Albert Einstein. The top scientists in the project included Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi and Niels Bohr. The concept that started this project was that an atom would emit a neutron and that neutron would collide with another atom, splitting this atom into two new types of atoms. Those atoms being collided with neutrons would emit other neutrons and create a chain reaction of neutron splitting atoms. This chain reaction would create a great deal of energy, enough to incinerate everything near it. The range of destruction would be determined by the size of the bomb. In 1942, an experiment was conducted by the Manhattan Project under the University of Chicago’s football stadium. In this experiment they observed a nuclear reaction to see if they could create a chain reaction. When the needle on the machine, which measured how many atoms were being split, went as far as it could move, the experiment was quickly stopped before a large portion of Chicago was incinerated. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt got news of the experiment’s success, the Manhattan Project was switched from research to production of the atomic bomb. Work on the Manhattan Project continued in thirty-seven different sites located in thirteen states and the actual construction of the atomic bomb took place at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The project was conducted under so much secrecy that Harry S. Truman would not know about this project until President Roosevelt died suddenly on 12 April 1945 and Truman became President.
 * CAUSE PARAGRAPH: THE RESEARCH AND FUNDING THAT WENT INTO CREATING THE BOMB**

 At the Yalta Conference, from 4 February 1945 until 11 February 1945, a few months before Germany < __https://olmsteadhistoryproject.wikispaces.com/American+Responce+to+The+Holocaust__ > finally surrendered, the Allied powers discussed how Germany would be divided after the war. The members of the conference included Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill from Britain and Franklin D. Roosevelt from the United States. One of the key points at the conference was that the Soviet Union would become involved in the war against Japan ninety days after Germany surrendered. The United States was concerned that, if the Soviet Union was successful in invading Japan, the Soviet Union might spread communism to Japan. Germany finally surrendered on 8 May 1945. The Yalta conference was Roosevelt’s last major conference before he died.
 * CAUSE PARAGRAPH: THE THREAT OF USSR 'HELPING' AGAINST JAPAN The US and UK did not want that**)

 President Harry S. Truman, with much thinking and tension, decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan soon after he found out that the atomic bomb was an option. At the Potsdam Conference < __https://olmsteadhistoryproject.wikispaces.com/Nuclear+Holocaust+or+Heaven__ > from 17 July to 2 August, 1945, Harry Truman from the United States, Winston Churchill from Great Britain and Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union discussed how to divide Germany since Germany had now surrendered. Their decision was called the Potsdam Agreement. The Potsdam Declaration, issued on 26 July 1945, not to be confused with the Potsdam Agreement, which was also formed at the Potsdam Conference, Harry Truman from the United States, Winston Churchill from Great Britain and Chiang Kai-Shek from China demanded an unconditional surrender of Japan or, they stated, that a total destruction of Japan would be guaranteed. Japan refused this unconditional surrender. Meanwhile, Truman did not know if the atomic bomb would work or not or, if it did work, whether the dropping of the atomic bomb would cause Japan to surrender. This made his decision of whether to drop the atomic bomb much more difficult.
 * THE DECISION BY HARRY S TRUMAN** - **IMMEDIATE CAUSE**

 The decision of where to drop the atomic bombs was made based partially on where military production was occurring in Japan, geography, the size of the Japanese city, if the weather was clear over the city on the day of the attack, and the city had to be within range of the Island of Tinian, where the planes were to take off from. The cities, listed in the order of preference, included Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki. Ultimately, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen. There appears to be no conclusive evidence as to why these particular cities were picked as targets.

 On 6 August 1945 a uranium bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb caused a four mile radius of complete destruction and about 71,000 Japanese people died. Also about 20,000 more people were injured and about 171,000 people were left homeless. Approximately one-third of the people that were killed instantly were Japanese soldiers. Even though 71,000 deaths is a large number, it is only a fraction of the deaths that would have occurred in the X-Day invasion.
 * THE EVENT AND INITIAL CONSEQUENCES**

 Surrender was given as an option for Japan before the dropping of the first atomic bomb. “Hiroshima, Bombing of (6 August 1945),**”** an article in the __Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History__, states that “[f]ollowing rejection of conditions promulgated by the Potsdam Proclamation on 26 July, a declaration threatening Japan with total destruction if unconditional surrender was not accepted, President Harry S. Truman authorized use of the special bomb.”(Van Rhyn 680) Japan did not take the threat seriously because they felt it would be dishonorable to surrender. Japan was willing to defend the home islands of Japan until the last man able to fight was dead.
 * CONSEQUENCE: JAPAN'S LEADERS REFUSE TO SURRENDER**

 After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, Japan still did not surrender and another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. This bomb was a plutonium bomb nicknamed “Fat Man.” The target for Fat Man was originally the city of Kokura, but due to cloudy weather, the target was changed to Nagasaki. The bomb killed about 74,000 people. Also about 75,000 people were injured and about 18,000 homes were destroyed. After the second bomb was dropped, Japan received a threatening warning from the United States. A 10 August 1945 New York Times article entitled “Leaflets and Radio Tell Japanese Bad News, Urge They Seek Peace” states that “[t]hree million leaflets were dropped today warning the Japanese people that the atomic bomb and other explosives would be used again and again to destroy every military resource unless they petitioned the Emperor at once to end the war.” The United States did not have any more atomic bombs available, but dropping two atomic bombs staggered over a few days most likely convinced Japan that the United States had more atomic bombs. Because the atomic bombs had been dropped and the Japanese feared that there would be more, the United States caused Japan to surrender much sooner than it would have if the United States invaded Japan instead.
 * CONSEQUENCE: NAGASAKI BOMB**

 On 16 August 1945, the Japanese finally surrendered due to the fear of more atomic bombs. Because Japan surrendered, the invasion of Japan would never happen. In the article “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” by Paul Fussell in the __Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social, and Military History__, Fussell explains his feelings as a American Second Lieutenant "[w]hen the atom bombs were dropped, and news began to circulate that “Operation Olympic” would not, after all, be necessary, when we learned to our astonishment that we would not be obliged in a few months to rush up the beaches near Tokyo assault-firing while being machine-gunned, mortared and shelled, for all the practiced phlegm of our tough facades we broke down and cried with relief and joy."(Fussell 2096) These feelings were typical of many American soldiers. Many soldiers who were scheduled for the invasion of Japan were very worried about their lives. In Japanese culture, the Japanese soldiers defending Japan would not have surrendered until all the soldiers were dead or physically unable to fight. Also, in daily United States air raids during the war on islands occupied by Japan, more people were killed than were killed by the atomic bombs. For example, in one air raid, the fire bombing of Tokyo on 9 March 1945, the official United States estimates stated that the death toll was 80,000 but other estimates were that up to 100,000 civilians died. There were four other fire bombings of major cities with large death tolls and there many more smaller daily air raids. In the battle of Iwo Jima from February to March 1945, 20,000 Japanese died as a result of the battle, 6,000 Americans were killed and 25,000 Americans were wounded. Japanese soldiers were told that they each should kill ten American soldiers before they died. The atomic bomb ultimately was the best of the many negative options that the United States had to win the war against Japan.
 * CONSEQUENCE: SURRENDER OF JAPAN**

 The atomic bomb ended World War II much sooner that the war was expected to end by the planners of the X-Day invasion. The X-Day invasion would have involved American deaths of about half a million people. The death tolls as a result of the atomic bombs were about 145,000 people. Having two atomic bombs caused Japan to surrender quickly because of their fear that the United States might drop more atomic bombs on Japan. In conclusion, the atomic bomb caused the world to reach a state of peace much sooner than expected.
 * CONCLUSION**