Was America Justified in Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima in 1945?

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The final reason why I believe America was justified was because Japan had initiated an attack on Pearl Harbour, and it was America’s strategy to strike back. The attack on pearl harbour took the lives of more than 2,500 people (Libguides.huntingdon.edu, 2015), and America had nothing to do with Japan until Japan attacked Pearl Harbour (militaryhistorynow.com, 2013). Many people may argue that the bombing of Pearl Harbour was nothing compared to the dropping of the atomic bomb. However, although 2,500 people is nothing compared to the 175,000 people that died in the dropping of the atomic bombs; America had logical reasons to drop the atomic bombs, when Japan did not have a good reason to bomb Pearl Harbour.

On the other hand, many people believe that the dropping of the atomic bomb was not justified. One of the major arguments that people have stated, is that America should have used a way that did not cause so many health problems in the aftermath. Many of the people affected by the atomic bomb that are still alive have deformities and illnesses (Nytimes.com, 2015). I do not agree. Many people suggest using fire bombs to attack Japan, but America had already tried that before. It was estimated by The Tokyo Fire Department that there were 97,000 deaths in the fire raids in Tokyo (Selden, 2007). However, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima killed 87,000 people. Therefore, in comparison, the fire raids was actually more damaging then the dropping of the atomic bomb. Moreover, when the fire raids in Tokyo happened, Japan didn’t surrender despite the high death toll. As a result, America had to find another way to attack Japan.

Many people believe that Japan was ready to surrender right before the dropping of the atomic bomb and that if America were to warn them about the bomb, they would have immediately surrendered. However, this is incorrect. 5 days before the dropping of the atomic bomb, flyers were dropped from American planes onto 35 Japanese cities warning people about the places that were in danger of the atomic bombs (Amnation.com, 2015). This gave innocent people the chance to evacuate and Japan a chance to surrender. The flyer reads, “Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or a friend. In the next few days, four or more of the cities named on the reverse side of this leaflet will be destroyed by American bombs... the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives.” – LeMay Leaflets (Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog, 2015)

These are the reasons why I believe that America was justified in dropping the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The combined facts that it had lower casualties then if it the bomb was not dropped, that it showed the USSR how advanced and powerful America is and that there was no possible way that the Japanese would easily surrender otherwise; was enough to make me believe that America was justified.