Assignment:
Directions: Write a well-developed paragraph of at least five sentences to answer each of the following questions. The story is below.
Q1. What were the reasons the atomic bomb should have been used on Japan? Need Assignment Help?
Q2. What were the reasons the atomic bomb should not have been used on Japan?
Q3. Should the atomic bomb have been used on Japan? Why or why not? Support your claim with evidence from the lesson.
By early 1945, the Allied forces in Europe had German forces crushed between two enormous armies. The Soviets were pushing toward Berlin from the east. The American and British forces were approaching from the west. By late January, the Allies had stopped the German advance at the Battle of the Bulge. Germany's armies could no longer wage offensive war. The Nazis had critical shortages of oil, gasoline, ammunition-and soldiers. Hitler was now forced to use boys to fight the advancing Allies.
By 1945, the Nazi army had lost so many men that they were forced to use boys as young as 12 to fight. This soldier was 16.
At the same time in the Pacific Theater, Allied forces had taken a Japanese strategic stronghold-Iwo Jima. From there, they planned a major assault on Okinawa and, finally, an invasion of mainland Japan.
Meanwhile in the United States, scientists were working on a new weapon that could make an invasion of Japan unnecessary. The power of this new weapon was beyond the imagination of most people. It would soon change the nature of warfare forever. As the final months of the war wound down, Allied commanders made decisions that ultimately ended the war but also caused massive destruction and loss of life.
In this lesson, you will learn about the final bloody months of the deadliest war in history. You will read about the reasons behind the decision to drop the atomic bomb and the shock at the devastation caused by the first weapon of mass destruction. When you complete this lesson, you will complete a written assessment. After the German's last offensive, the Battle of the Bulge, failed in January 1945, Allied troops in the west continued their advance on Germany. Soviet troops were also advancing on Germany from the east. The goal for the Allies was to reach Berlin and capture Adolf Hitler.
Attacks on Germany
General George Patton thanks engineers for the speedy construction of a pontoon bridge crossing the Rhine River in March of 1945.
As the armies advanced, Allied bombers pounded German cities. Major industrial cities such as Berlin and Hamburg were decimated by the bombings. In February 1945, Allied bombers set off a firestorm in the German city of Dresden, destroying the city and killing more than 35,000 people.
In March, Allied forces struck another blow at the German resolve to continue fighting. The Rhine River was a natural border of Germany. Hitler ordered his forces to prevent the Allies from crossing it by bombing all the bridges that provided access. However, at Remagen, German forces were unable to destroy the bridge. Allied forces and tanks captured the bridge and crossed the Rhine on March 7, 1945. They then surrounded and captured almost 250,000 German troops. The Nazi regime was almost helpless by this point.
Victory in Europe
On April 30, 1945, Hitler realized that the Nazis had lost, and he committed suicide. With his death, fighting gradually came to a halt.
Soviet forces entered Berlin, which had been bombed to rubble. Berlin surrendered on May 2, and German armies throughout the country threw down their arms.
The new German leader, Karl Dönitz, officially surrendered on May 7, effective May 8. May 8 became known as V-E Day-Victory in Europe Day. Celebrations erupted in Allied nations and in formerly occupied countries. The Nazi regime in Germany had been crushedBy early 1945, the Allied Forces in Europe had German forces crushed between two enormous armies. The Soviets were pushing toward Berlin from the East. The American and British forces were approaching from the West. By late January, the Allies had stopped the German advance at the Battle of the Bulge. Germany's armies could no longer wage offensive war. The Nazis had critical shortages of oil, gasoline, ammunition-and soldiers. Hitler was now forced to use boys to fight the advancing Allies.
At the same time in the Pacific Theater, Allied forces had taken a Japanese strategic stronghold-Iwo Jima. From there, they planned a major assault on Okinawa and, finally, an invasion of mainland Japan.
Meanwhile in the United States, scientists were working on a new weapon that could make an invasion of Japan unnecessary. The power of this new weapon was beyond the imagination of most people. It would soon change the nature of warfare forever. As the final months of the war wound down, Allied commanders made decisions that ultimately ended the war but also caused massive destruction and loss of life.
Media elements in video © Public Domain
Firebombing of Japan
While the U.S. was fighting in Okinawa, the Allied bombing of Japan had begun under the command of Major General Curtis LeMay. LeMay ordered the firebombing of 64 Japanese cities. 300 B29 bombers attacked at low altitude. The incendiary bombs they dropped started massive fires that consumed the many wooden buildings in the cities. In the Tokyo raid alone, more than 100,000 people were killed and thousands of buildings destroyed.
The photograph shows a road passing through a part of Tokyo that was destroyed in a March 10, 1945, air raid. Still, the Japanese had not offered to surrender. Yet, like Germany, their lack of war supplies and troops made defeat almost certain. As Allied forces prepared for the final stage of the war against Japan, some American leaders considered using a new, more deadly weapon. This weapon had been in development since the beginning of the war. In 1939, scientists had begun research on an atomic bomb, an explosive device that uses fission, the splitting of atoms, to create a huge blast of energy.
By 1940, Allied leaders knew that Germany was also working on atomic weapons. At that point, it became a race to see which side would attain this ultimate weapon first.
In 1943, scientists from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain joined forces in the Manhattan Project. The goal was to beat Germany in the race to build an atomic weapon. American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, that developed the atomic bomb. By 1945, the bomb was ready to test. Then a sudden death thrust a new leader into office.
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
"father of the atomic bomb"
Truman and the Bomb
In April 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died during his fourth term in office. Roosevelt, who had shepherded the American public through the war, knew about the development of the atomic bomb. Vice President Harry S. Truman, who assumed office after Roosevelt's death, did not. Just two weeks after becoming president, Truman learned about the bomb. Truman appointed a committee to advise him on the use of the atomic bomb against Japan. The committee met in May and June 1945. At the end of these meetings, the advisors recommended to Truman that he use the atomic bomb against Japan if testing proved successful. However, the decision to use it would be his and his alone.
In July 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated in a remote area of New Mexico. This was the Trinity Nuclear Test. Scientists and government officials watched the explosion in bunkers below ground from over five miles away.
This rare color photograph shows the mushroom cloud from the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico in July of 1945.
The explosion left a crater a half-mile wide and ten feet deep in the desert sands. The force of the explosion equaled the same force as 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. The sand of the desert up to a half-mile from the impact site was melted into glass.
Truman received word that the test was successful on the day before the opening of the Potsdam Conference in Germany. This was a meeting of the Allied leaders-Truman, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin-to make postwar plans for Germany.
Truman informed Churchill of the details of the successful test. He also told Stalin about the existence of a new weapon but did not provide details. But Stalin had known about the development of the atomic bomb since 1940, thanks to Soviet spies. He made plans for a Soviet nuclear program once the war was over.
What Was Decided at the Potsdam Conference?
Conference participants, including the new British prime minister Clement Attlee, who, due to an election during the conference, replaced Churchill, issued the Potsdam Declaration. Among the matters agreed upon were
- occupation areas in Germany for each Allied power
- trials of Nazi leaders to be held in Nuremberg, Germany
- the unconditional surrender of Japan
Unconditional surrender meant that the Japanese people would have to remove their emperor from power. To many Japanese, the emperor was a religious figure. This Allied demand was considered almost impossible for the Japanese to meet.
Clement Attlee, Harry Truman, and Josef Stalin at the Potsdam Conference in 1945.
As Truman traveled back to the United States, the Allies awaited a response from Japan. When none came, Truman faced a choice unlike any other president had ever had to make. As a combat veteran from World War I, Truman knew the horrors of war. He knew that almost 170,000 Americans had already died in the Pacific War. Americans wanted to end the war quickly. But to do so meant unleashing a weapon of war that had unlimited powers of destruction. After Japan failed to respond to the Potsdam Declaration, President Truman approved the use of the atomic bomb. However, not all military leaders agreed with the decision. Some thought that Japan was close to defeat. Once the Soviets declared war, they contended, Japan would surrender. Other leaders were fearful of what the use of an atomic bomb meant for the future of humanity.
General Dwight Eisenhower opposed dropping the bomb. When he learned about the plans, he wrote in his memoir.
I voiced to him [Secretary of War Henry Stimson] my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon...no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
Admiral William Leahy served as an advisor to both Roosevelt and Truman. He, too, disagreed with the decision.
My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.
-Admiral William Leahy
Using the Atomic Bomb
Hiroshima shortly after the explosion of the first atomic bomb, 6 August 1945
Despite the disagreement with military leaders, Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped. On August 6, 1945, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr,. and crew flew the B-29 bomber Enola Gay over Hiroshima and dropped the bomb.
Hiroshima was a city with a population a little under 300,000. When the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city, the temperature at ground level reached 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit. People half a mile away from the bomb site were vaporized. At least 80,000 people died instantly. Over the next four months another 100,000 people would die as a result of injuries and radiation poisoning.
Three days passed without surrender. On August 9, Truman ordered another bomber, the Bockscar, to drop a second atomic bomb; this one landed in Nagasaki. Of the 263,000 people living in the area, around 60,000 were killed immediately. Tens of thousands more would die from the radiation unleashed by the bomb. The effects of the atomic bombs would last for decades. Many more Japanese people died of radiation sickness and related illnesses, such as cancer.
On August 10, the Japanese government made an offer to surrender, and by August 15 Japan and the Allies had agreed to end the war. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese foreign minister officially signed the surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri.Historians estimate that between 35 million and 60 million people died in World War II. As the postwar era began, the economies of many nations were ruined. Cities were leveled throughout Europe and Asia. Millions of people were refugees.
The Nuremburg Trials
The International Military Tribunal was established in 1945 by the U.S., Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union to prosecute Nazi leaders for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg Trials focused on Nazi leaders and their actions during the Holocaust.
Although Hitler and his main accomplices, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler, had all died by suicide, 24 defendants were prosecuted for war crimes-19 Nazi defendants were convicted, and 12 were sentenced to death.
The doctor Herta Oberheuser was sentenced to 20 years for carrying out medical experiments on people.
Former Japanese prime minister and minister of war Hideki Tojo takes the stand to testify in his own defense.
Tokyo War Crimes Trial
Eleven nations made up the International Military Tribunal for the Far East: Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, India, The Netherlands, New Zealand, The Philippines, The Soviet Union, and The United States of America.
Prosecution began in May of 1946 and concluded in January of 1947. Seven Japanese leaders were sentenced to death, including Japan's wartime Prime minister, Hideki Tojo.
How Did Nations Rebuild After World War II?
Rebuilding in Europe presented additional political challenges. In February 1945 at the Yalta Conference, Allied leaders had agreed that Germany would be divided into occupation zones by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. They also agreed that free elections would be held in occupied countries to establish new governments.
During Yalta the leaders had also finalized the terms of membership in the newly created United Nations. In late 1945, fifty countries signed the charter establishing the United Nations. The charter went into effect on October 24, 1945.
Much of Europe lay in ruins at the end of World War II. This photograph shows the town of Saint-Lo, France, after fighting between German and U.S. forces.
Bretton Woods
While the war still raged, delegates from 44 nations came together in July of 1944 for the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire. The purpose was to establish a framework for international economic cooperation. Two major components of the conference were the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
The IMF's job was to maintain exchange rates centered on the U.S. dollar and gold. The IMF also provided short-term loans to countries struggling economically.
The IRBD, now known as the World Bank, was established to assist nations in rebuilding from the devastation of World War II by offering loans and assistance to nations to get their economies off the ground after the war.
In Japan, General Douglas MacArthur led the effort to rebuild Japan's economy and create a new government. MacArthur took a hard line when dealing with Japan.
First, the Allies ordered the dismantling of the Japanese military. Former military leaders were prohibited from taking political roles in the new government. Land reforms were instituted to weaken the power of landowners who supported Japanese expansion. The large Japanese corporations were also broken up. Finally, the U.S. essentially dictated the new Japanese constitution which rendered the emperor a figurehead.
An aerial view of the industrial area of Tokyo, flattened by Allied bombing
Why Did the Threat of Communism Grow After World War II?
With agreements on postwar Europe and the United Nations, there should have been few challenges to rebuilding the continent. However, the threat of Communist domination began to replace that of Nazi domination as 1946 arrived.
During the war, Soviet troops advanced from the territory of the Soviet Union through Eastern Europe to reach Germany, essentially occupying the nations it liberated. Once its troops were in place, communists from the various nations embraced Soviet support. The Soviet government was happy to assist communists in Eastern Europe. They wanted to create a buffer zone between their nation and Germany. After two devastating World Wars, the Soviet Union wanted to ensure they would not be attacked again.
As Communist governments took control of Eastern Europe, they pushed out other parties and consolidated their power. Stalin and the Soviet Union supported these moves, and soon most of Eastern Europe was aligned with the USSR.
The term "iron curtain" described the separation between democratic and communist governments in Europe.
Stalin also knew about the atomic bomb capabilities of the United States. Soviet scientists were developing a similar weapon and would test their first atomic weapon in 1949.
Soon, the distrust between the United States and its Western allies and the Soviet Union became a conflict that would last for decades.
The Rise of Superpowers
In the aftermath of WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two world superpowers. The Soviet Union was seen as being a key factor in helping to defeat Germany in Europe, while the U.S. was seen as ending the war on all other fronts.
Economically, each country was able to produce as much as the rest of the world's combined production capacity. While the two were strategic allies during the war, the years immediately following showed a huge division in Soviet and American foreign policy. These fundamental differences, combined with the two nations' developments of nuclear weapons, would lead to a political and military tension between democracy and communism that was known as the Cold War and would last for nearly 45 years.