Was dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki a good decision?
Atomic Bomb
Exploding in Nagasaki (August 1945)
Why? Why not?
Photo Source: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (2014). The History Channel website.
Retrieved 2:32, January 28, 2014, from
http://www.history.com/photos/hiroshima-and-nagasaki.
Yes because the primary objective for the U.S. was to win the war at the lowest possible cost. Specifically, Truman was looking for the most effective way to end the war quickly, not for a way to not use the bomb.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. It was a quick and effective way to end the war. Also, U.S warned Japan
DeleteYes because if we didn't it would have most likely lead to an invasion.
ReplyDeleteyes, it was a good decision. if we had not dropped the bombs we would have had to initiate a ground invasion, and the Japanese outnumbered our pacific army greatly ultimately if we did it, it would have been a lot more bloody or we wouldn't have even succeeded and if we hadn't bombed them i believe that the cold war would have ended differently the only reason russia didnt atack is because they knew we weren't scared to retaliate to our most extreme capabilities
ReplyDeleteYes, I do because this ended the war quickly. The U.S gave japan a warning and Japan didnt want to listen.
ReplyDeleteI agree because the Japanese had it coming from killing all the people at Pearl Harbor.
DeleteI do agree with you. The bombing had saved millions of lives and if it hadn't happen, there would have been even more wars started. The bombing did had it's pros and cons, Japanese and Americans were both saved by this and which brought war to an end.
Deletei disagree because many women and children were killed and all they were, were innocent people. just because they could not control what was going on in there country dose not mean they deserved to die. also that bomb could have destroyed the entire world and nobody we be here to day because of a unnecessary decision that was made.
DeleteYes it was a good decision. The bombing had saved thousands of peoples lives, perhaps even a millions.Japanese and Americans, were saved by the bombings which brought the war to a close without an invasion of the Japanese main islands. Given the fanatical resistance of the Japanese before the bombing, I have to say the bombings were justified.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought the decision to drop the bomb was the right one. A lot of valid points were made in tuesday's debate but I still have to stick with the Yes side. They did attack us first and yes, we attacked back. Out of defense. We gave them chances to stop and gave them a warning of our intentions. Yet they ignored us. Action had to be taken. We needed to send a message that the U.S was the top place in the world. It also showed other countries what we were truly capable of. Such as Russia. Had we not have dropped the bomb, the death toll would have most likely sky rocketed due to sending troops over to fight on land. With the choice of the bomb, that would be the end of it. It clearly worked, as Japan gave up very quickly. Innocents may have died, but the saying goes, "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
ReplyDeleteI agree because we did end up on top quickly and I also thought that they should have known we were gonna attack on them since they did first. and HI ZANE
DeleteI think it was a good idea that we dropped the bomb in Japan. The citizens of Japan did die but that doesn't matter, they attacked us first in Hawaii on Pearl Harbor. Since Japan attacked us first, they should of known that we would retaliate because there isn't any rules in war. Its all about who is the victor in the end to show everyone that we mean business. Then other countries might not want to start a war if they know The United States will finish it. I have also learned that if we didn't drop the bomb on Japan, Adolf Hitler would of had the first Atomic Bomb if we didn't. Thats what i think
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jonathon, they attacked us first so we needed to counter attack by bombing them. And who knows what would of happened if Hitler got a hold of that bomb
DeleteDo you still feel this way knowing that Germany surrendered three months prior to the Japanese atomic bombing missions?
Deleteyes because they didn't really surrender. Germany still broke all the rules from the treaty that was given to them
DeleteThere was really no other choice. It was either drop the bombs, kill a few thousand people or not drop the bomb, the war lingers on and more people die than the bombs killed. WW2 had to stop and this made it happen. Neither country could afford any more warring on the other, this was a costly expense. True we killed innocent people, but if we didn't more would have died at the hands of the Japanese and of the Americans. The bombs not only made sense, they saved lives. Despite taking some.
ReplyDeleteI think we shouldn't have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just because they had bombed pearl harbor and we are just trying to get revenge on them. But, I think we should have at least just backed off and humbled ourselves a little bit. And since we did bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it didn't solve anything, but war.
ReplyDeleteIts kind of in the middle. It was a bad idea because we killed thousands of innocent people who didnt deserve to die. They didnt know what was going on, and the didnt deserve to die because there army attacked us. It was inhumane to drop attomic bombs not know the side affects, and how its going to affect the community. But, if we were to invade there country, alot more people would have died. They would have tried to stand up for there country, and retaliate against america. So, i guess its in the middle. On the bridge of being good and bad.
ReplyDeleteim whit you , we killed so many people but if we would have invade them it would have killed even more people .
DeleteHonestly, i think we should have just went after there army just like they did.. Hurt the people who hurt us, not the people who had no idea what was going on.
DeleteI dont believe we needed to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki we killed so many women and kids whit that bomb. and to this day they are still trying to recover for the bomb. that bomb killed 40,000 on the day it was dropped, and approximately 70,000 by the end of 1945.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. It was unnecessary to kill innocent lives. America should have just went after the people who dropped the bomb. Not went over there and killed people who probly didnt even know what was going on. People are still being affected by those bomb today
Deletei know its crazy to think of what america did when they only had war on there minds .
DeleteI belive that they shouldn't have dropped the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, the reason for that is so many innocent women and children were killed and did nothing to deserve it. It had nothing to do with ending the war because you cant just sit there and kill millions of innocent people. This caused a lot of psychological damage for the people of Nagasaki and it left many people lives scared and in shambles. What the US should have realized is that you cant just go and destroy a whole country. with a weapon that destructive they could have destroyed they entire world.
ReplyDeleteJapan did not take the warning of the bombs that the U.S has sent. I do believe that this was an effective way to end the war.
ReplyDeleteI disagree; it was not certain this massacre would end the war.
Deleteyes I agree we warned them and we wanted to end the war quickly and effectively.
Deleteyes i believe it was a good idea because they attacked pearl harbor and we warned them, they did not listen so we got back at them and we wanted to do it in a way we could end the war.
ReplyDeleteDropping the atomic bomb was the act of revenge and desperate fear. Since the bombing of Pearl Harbor american to it in their hands to take revenge. The bombing itself was on two cities (not an army base like pearl harbor) that killed 100,970 thousand more lives than Pearl Harbor, Including women and children. To this day the bombing of these two cities still are taking aftershocks. Outlines of bodies and footprints are forever imprinted on sidewalks and sides of buildings forever frozen in time, also the radiation from the bombings are still highly present in the cities air and water supply. Also following the bombing suicide rates reached over millions further adding to the death count. Thou not everyone know's there was supposed to be three bombings that day; the third, Big Stink, supposedly had malfunctions and disappeared, but later it was found that the pilot of Big Stink refused to drop the third bomb and aborted the mission.
ReplyDeleteThree bombs? Interesting. That's one I haven't heard. Can you cite that report? I tried searching to no avail.
DeleteI did find an interesting account of the events of the Nagasaki mission: Near Failure at Nagasaki from the Online Journal of the Air Force Association. I learned some details here that I backed up with other reports.
I don't think dropping the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima was a good idea. A lot more people were killed with the atomic bombs than those at Pearl Harbor. The bombs also created mass destruction. Some of those that survived the bombings were affected by it later on. I understand that it was dangerous to send troops in to invade Japan but why did the U.S feel the need to drop two bombs?
ReplyDeleteI feel that dropping the bombs was both good, and bad. It was bad decision because yes there were innocent people that were killed and they were mostly women and children and the effects were catastrophic and the effects of the radiation are still going on today. But it was also a good decision because Japan bombed us first and they killed our people too and some were innocent as well, and we gave Japan a choice to surrender and they didn't accept our offer, so we had to bomb them.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are good and bad reasons for dropping the bomb, based on the debate, I'd have to say it was a bad idea, because, from what I learned last class, a lot of people were killed and injured. Most of the people who were in those two cities were civilians, and, although they may not have been the nicest of people in general, they were still not involved physically in the war.
ReplyDelete"...although they may not have been the nicest of people in general..."
DeleteI think there is an important question hiding here, if you let it come out. ;)
What if it went something like this? =>
Are the actions of a nation's military, especially under the rule of a dictator, always identical to the wishes of the general public?
No, I do not believe that the bombing should have occurred. There could have been another route the US could have taken, rather than bombing many innocent people. The bombing did end the war, therefore, it was effective.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were both a good thing, and a bad thing. The bombings were a good thing because they triggered the beginning of the end of WW2. The bombings were also a bad thing, because they killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your sensitivity and attention to both positions here. Given the balance of positive & negative consequences... would you make the call to send in the planes if you were Truman and this was happening all over again this week?
Deleteyes i think it was a good idea because it stop the war. if we didnt drop the bomb more American at the end of the war
ReplyDeleteif we didnt drop the bomb more american would of die by the end of the war.
Deleteno i do not think so because the americans killed to many asians in so little time but the asians did not retaliate
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of good and bad reasons for the bomb dropping like there were millions killed and when the bomb was dropped it stopped that stupid war. There was a comment from the good side I think that was "America proved that we are the strongest" I honestly think that it was pointless because we are still at war today with other countries because America has way too much pride to say we aren't the strongest.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a good thing. I think it was a good idea because without the bombing who knows where we would be today. We could still be in a war, you can just never know. Yes it caused many deaths but there could of been so much more.
ReplyDeleteI think we should of dropped the bomb on Nagasaki & Hiroshima because the united states weren't just at war with Japan but with Germany and because we did we displayed the power our country and show that we don't hesitate.
ReplyDeleteWWII was an epic mess. We certainly were at war with Germany. However, did you realize the Germans surrendered an whole three months prior to the atomic attacks on Japan?
DeleteWould that fact change your opinion in even a small way?
I believe it was a bad idea, killing too many innocent people. It ended the war, but not in the right way. Most people killed were civilians. Also the radiation, spread to other cities and killed people even after time. This bomb created mass destruction and killed more innocent people then their bomb on pearl harbor.
ReplyDeleteDropping the bomb was a good idea, and we know this because we can see that to this day no one wants to be a part of our wars. Japan didn't think we would, and we did. It was an opportunity to prove how strong our nation is, and it ended the war in less than 60 seconds. The death rate would've been larger in the long run without this bomb. And not just that, but the war most likely would have gone on for way longer. Wars don't just last a day or two then it's all good. Japan would've eventually started fighting on american territory, american citizens would die along with Japanese citizens, so would our troops.
ReplyDelete"Japan didn't think we would, and we did."
DeleteWhen I see this argument, here is what I wonder: Did the Japanese really have any clue of the true scope of that weapon?
Usually when the response goes quickly to: "But what about the second bomb? Wasn't the damage from one enough to force surrender?"
In 1945, in a war torn country that had been bombed night after night for a long time prior to the first atomic bomb... did the Japanese leadership really have the time and the resources to get in to that disaster area after the first event, and make a quick decision based upon the damage? Just a question. Can you find anything along these lines? That seems like an area of research that would be revealing.
It is sometimes difficult to imagine a world without Internet-speed communications. What do you think?
Yes, I think atomically bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a good decision. This is because they had killed our people in the Pearl Harbor attack and if it was not done then some other country may have done it. Although it killed many innocent Japanese people, it was what needed to be done to satisfy America's allies and not cause a large war.
ReplyDeletei believe that the bombing was needed but at the same time i think they shouldnt have bombed them because they killed so many people that had nothing to do and just like america would not bow down to japan i dont think japan wanted the same thing but i think it was a good thing that america dropped the bomb because the war had to end some how but still i think they could have settled it a different way instead killing 200,000 people in under 43sec
ReplyDeleteThere are things that cause the bomb was millions of innocent people die or just have trouble looking for homes and food, but there are good reasons why they drop the bomb on the war. There could be other ways to settle it without harming innocent people.
ReplyDeleteYes, i think it was a good idea. We gave them many warnings even after they attacked us in the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Even tho it killed many innocent people it also killed and destroyed many terrorists and nuclear weapons.
ReplyDeleteI think that the negative side won because they had more valid points. The positive side kept saying the same things. I didnt really get to hear what the positive side was saying because they were speaking low so the negative side wins to me.
ReplyDeleteI think dropping the bomb was the best idea because the presidents job is to protect his country. If he doesn't drop the bomb then the war goes on longer and more people die in America and Japan. So the president made the best choice to end the war and save people on both sides even though the bomb killed people in japan.
ReplyDeleteI think it was because Japan attacked us and if America wouldn't of retaliated then Japan would of kept attacking. America had to do what they had to do to save our citizens lives. One good point was that they hasn't been a world war since then, and that we gave them a chance to surrender but Japan didn't. this is why it was a good decision to drop the bombs.
ReplyDeleteBased off of the debate i watched, i think the side that won was the side that said it wasn't a good decision. I don't think it was a good decision because the radiation from the bomb spread to more than 2 other places, & not just japan. Many people got cancer from that radiation, which wasn't fair. A lot of innocent people were killed, that didn't even want to be involved in the war. The only good thing that came out of this was revenge.
ReplyDeleteyes it was a good decision because if it didn't happen they wouldn't have backed down. like where would we be now if it didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteI Think the bombing was a good idea because i heard a lot from the side that was for the bombing. They said there would be even more deaths later if we didn't.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good idea because Japan had a bigger bomb that could kill a whole bunch of people. Yes it killed innocent civilians but what about Pearl Harbor, didn't that kill people too.
ReplyDeleteJapan had a bigger bomb? Can you cite support for this fact from a reputable source?
Deletehttp://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/12/113_56715.html The bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened August 6th and 9th of 1945.
DeleteDropping the atomic bomb had negatives and positives. Some negatives were the deaths taken and the after deaths due to radiation, but even the after deaths would have happened in a reagular war due to post tramatic stress. Also some positives were that it ended the war right then and there
ReplyDelete