Essay On The Atomic Bomb Essay, Research Paper

There has been a long standing debate on why the atomic bomb was used to defeat

Japan. The threat of Russian advancement in Europe and in Asia was enough to worry the

top officials in the United States and British governments. Wherever the Russians moved

through they took for themselves. The imminent invasion of mainland Japan and the allied

casualties that came with it were also a factor in the decision to drop the bomb, as said in

document A. The dropping of the bomb was not entirely used to stop the Russian

advancement.

If the allied forces had invaded mainland Japan, many lives on both sides would

have been lost. Most probably more than were lost in the bombing of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki put together. The tactics that the allies had used up to this point had cost

hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. This was when the Japanese only had

maybe two or three thousand men on an island; whereas on the mainland millions of

people who would fight until their death to protect their country. Can you imagine if the

Americans invaded mainland Japan where they had not only soldiers to fight against but

the citizens of Japan loyal to Hirohito? Massive destruction, immense loss of life, and

prolonging of the war until late 1946, as stated in document A, would result from invading

on foot instead of using the bomb.

Revenge also played a role in the decision to bomb Japan. The Japanese were not

following the Geneva convention in regards to treatment of prisoners of war. Which says

that the prisoners are not to be put through torture of the psychological or physical nature.

The Japanese did these things anyway, they would decapitate American prisoners, or they

would shove bamboo shoots under their fingernails. The American government also

wanted revenge for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. No warning was given by the

Japanese to the Americans and no war was declared until after the incident.

The Russian territorial expansion definitely played a factor in the dropping the

bomb on Japan. The Soviet Union had already taken Poland and many other countries

during the war. The Soviets were helping the Chinese with the war against Japan and

later would get railroads in China and Manchuria when Japan completely surrendered, as

stated in document D. As said in document E, the Americans did not want the Russians to

get involved in the war against Japan. The most obvious reasons would be to prevent the

Russians from expanding any more and to keep them out of Japan where they would

hamper the peace process and gain even more territory.

As president Harry Truman says in his radio address, document H, all of the

countries involved were trying to create the atomic bomb to use for their efforts.

Fortunately the Americans won the “race of discovery”. If the Germans had won that race

they probably would have used it continuously in Russia and Britain until Hitler got what

he wanted which was world domination and the extinguishing of the Jewish and others and

the ascent of his “superior race” of Germans. The dropping of the atomic weapon on

Japan was not entirely to halt Soviet expansion although it did play a major role.