Use of Nuclear Weapons in Japan
M'Kenzei Waterman
Background Information
We dropped the first ever nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. That decision changed the way the world thought about war forever. The bomb immediately killed 80,000 people on impact. The United States dropped another bomb on Nagasaki; which killed around 40,000 people. We believed this would be the only way to end the war and the best option to prevent more American and Japanese lives being lost or losing their family.
Perspective of the United States
At this point the United States was tired of fighting and losing American lives. Japan was the underdog in the situation in terms of the soldiers, ammo, and supplies, but they refused to give up. The United States felt they had no choice but to drop the bomb on the cities so that we could officially end the war. They already knew lives were going to be lost, but that was a risk they were willing to take because the war needed to end.
Perspective of Japan
The Japanese were warned that the US would drop a weapon of mass destruction on one of their cities, but they thought they weren't going to do it. They thought that the US didn't even have weapons, so therefore they didn't take us serious at all. After the first bomb was sent off the US asked Japan if they officially surrendered, but they refused. In retaliation they dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki only two days later. After that, Japan knew that this war could not win, and they surrendered. Japan has went through some tough times in the years that followed the attacks, but some feel that they put themselves in that situation for not listening to America's warning about the bombs.
Media Bias
Between the years of 1945 and 1952, the United States censored out the horrors of what really happened in Japan. The reality of this situation was that the United States wanted the public to approve of the decision to drop the bomb and to prevent domestic violence from the people that didn't support the action. Because of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the media released what actually happened in 1952. The response was that they knew that the reason they didn't show what really happened because of the amount of violence from the Homeland.
Criticism (Historical)
Nowadays, if we use nuclear weapons on another country we would definitely see repercussions for it. Back when all of this took place nuclear weapons were new and unheard of, and the United States was the first military to use them. We were the first to use them be whoever was the first to use a bomb would be known as the most dominant military in the world is the theory we go by. If we were to use this theory today it would be the start of WWIII
Criticism (Cultural)
People were more accepting towards death in wars and death in general around the 1940's. We had just finished WWI which was the bloodiest battle since the Civil War. The public was used to there being death in the world. Dropping the atomic bomb was just another war attic that the people were used to.
This 1946 film shows actual footage of the atomic bomb destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan