In the current era we live in, people are having renewed fears of nuclear war, whether it be with Russia or China. This current age of nuclear anxiety and turmoil started in the 1940s when the US developed the first atomic bombs in 1945. The atomic bomb was then used to level both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing an end to WW2 and highlighting the shocking power of this weapon. Hundreds of thousands of people died and many others contracted ailments related to radiation poisoning. While it brought a speedy end to the war, the use of these weapons has nevertheless been controversial and hotly criticized. Many Japanese people view the atomic bombs as a severe attack on their country. Others believe it lead to the constant state of anxiety we face today.
The issues are quite simple really; was President Truman justified in dropping an atomic bomb on Japan? While it may seem like a simple choice today, back then the choice had a lot of complicated background behind it. On the one hand, there was the risk of the Soviets being inspired to construct their own nuclear weapon(they already had spies in the Manhattan Project stealing information). On the other hand, the alternative to using atomic bombs to end the war was a full-scale invasion of Japan. This invasion was planned for 1946 and would have been even huger than D-Day. The Japanese knew about the general plan and planned to give a lot of blood for every yard the Americans would take.
Their plan was to force a stalemate through attrition and stubborn, almost suicidal tactics. Japanese pilots would fly kamikaze missions into Allied ships carrying soldiers and aircraft. Japanese civilians would rush American troops with bamboo spears, hoping to take at least one with them. Japanese soldiers would literally fight to the death to keep their country free from the Americans. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and at their last legs, but like Rocky Balboa they kept taking hits and kept coming back. It was forecast that up to a million Americans and 10 million Japanese folks would have died. The invasion was clearly shaping up to be very bloody and dangerous.
Truman was aware of the costs an operation would entail. He also knew the American public was weary of war(Americans aren’t very comfortable with troops coming back home in body bags). He also had political reasons to deploy the bomb; Congress wanted an end to the war and the isolationists in the Republican Party, led by Robert Taft, were gaining public support. Weighed against this, dropping the atomic bomb seemed like the rational and even moral thing to do. He figured that using the bomb would scare the Japanese into surrender, and it did. Emperor Hirohito got the message and after infighting with the extremists in the military, declared Japan’s surrender.
The fact is, Japan needed something destructive to finally get them to surrender. The Japanese code of Bushido demanded fighting to the death; the Japanese nation and people were committed to a brave, yet ultimately futile fight against the Allies. The Japanese viewed the struggle as a just and honorable one; they intended to glorify their ancestors and their empire. To show just how committed they were, the officers would prefer to commit seppuku than become a prisoner of war or live as defeated. Finally, the Japanese genuinely feared the Allies and thought they would destroy the Japanese people. This was reinforced by racism and hatred towards Japanese people in the Allied countries; they were viewed as vermin and as inferior. Thus they would rather die fighting than surrender. Millions of Japanese civilians would have sacrificed themselves in the invasion; the atomic bomb ensured their lives would not have been thrown away in some desperate bid for victory. They would not have surrendered even when the Soviets joined the party and attacked Manchuria.
It is often argued the dropping of the bombs was immoral and inhumane. It is worth noting that the Japanese were regarded as subhuman by many Americans, and there was little sympathy for the plight of the survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; even President Truman referred to them as beasts. But the claims that the attacks are immoral and inhumane portrays the Japanese as the primary victims here; this makes no sense in light of Japanese aggression and war crimes. The Japanese attacked America first by bombing Pearl Harbor and killing 3000 Americans; the US was committed to bringing the war to an end with their utter defeat. It was the government’s fault for provoking the war in the first place; they also treated American and other Allied POWs very harshly with death marches and wanton executions of prisoners.
The Japanese also killed millions of innocent civilians during the war. They had been at war with China since 1937 and had carried out numerous bombings and massacres of civilians like the Rape of Nanking. They also had forcibly enslaved many women as “comfort women”, beating and assaulting them. They even had their own sick experiments, similar to the ones the Nazis did; they performed cruel experiments on civilians under the guise of “medical research”. One such unit is Unit 731, and they had a special fondness for experimenting on pregnant women. The Japanese were just as fanatical and fascist as the Germans were, believing they were the master race and above the Chinese, Koreans, and other Asian races. This belief justified their atrocious acts. Even today, there is deep enmity and hostility towards Japan in China and South Korea for the war crimes committed.
It is quite clear then that the use of atomic bombs in Japan were justified. The casualties and the terrible effects on the survivors were definitely tragic and horrible, but such is the way of war. It is one more reason why we must work towards a peaceful world without war and violence. The atomic bombs were merely the rational response to ending an already costly and bloody war, but we have never had war matching the scale of World War 2 since then. Lets hope it remains that way.
