Atomic Bomb Dbq

DBQ ESSAY In Europe, the war with Germany was over but Japan was still fighting. So the U.S could concreted on the war with Japan. The U.S had atomic bombs ready and a decision had to be made; should they sent ground forces to invade Japan or should they bomb Japan. So on August 1945 the U.S decided to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and this created some controversy. Some people though it was a good idea to bomb Japan, while others say that 200,000 innocent people were killed. I believe that bombing the two cities was the right decision because it did save the lives of many U.S soldiers and it ended World War II. Document 1 is President Truman’s decision to bomb the cities. He talks about the pros and cons. Since he was the president he had a lot of stress and a lot of thinking to do. So he finally decided to use them and he never doubt to do so. The reason he decided to do it is because he believed it will end the war. Document 3 is Secretary of War Henry Stimson’s opinion about the bombing. He says that he the bombing was terrible but it did stop fire raids and the blockade that the U.S had on Japan and it did prevent the U.S army clashing with Japanese forces on land. The bombing did end the war. Document 3 is a interview with a American solider in a newspaper article from the New York Times. This document was written 20 years after the bombing and it says that the bomb showed the end of the war and soldiers could go home. I do require an additional source from an American solider that talks about how the bombing affected him. This is why I believe that the bombing was the right decision to make. Not everybody, however, believe that Truman’s decision was right. Documents 2 is President Truman’s Chief of Staff, Admiral William E. Leahy, memoirs. In his memoirs he writes about why the bombing was so barbaric. He writes that he knew that Japan was ready to surrender and wars cannot be won by killing women and children. Document 4 is a newspaper article called the Nippon Times and it is written in Tokyo, Japan. It says that the bombing on Nagasaki ad Hiroshima was a crime because it was pure nihilism. However this is bias because it is a public newspaper that talks about an opinion from person that wasn’t in the bombing and since it is a public newspaper, it will only say the things they want people to hear. Document 7 is 3 pictures that show the results after the Nagasaki bombing. The 1st picture show a woman and child looking probably homeless as well as in front of wrecked buildings, the 2nd picture shows a possible Japanese solider with a some sort of cloth around his nose and mouth holding a severely injured child. This show that innocent people got hurt and/or killed. The 3rd picture shows a group of people laying on the streets. These shows that people were in so much pain that they can’t get on their feet. Document 6 is a part of a Hiroshima Diary that belonged to Michihiko Hachiya, a Japanese Physician. He talks about what he sees after the bombing and he describes that Hiroshima was bright and sunny was now dark and hazy and Hiroshima was no longer a city a burned down prairie. Document 8 is a memoir from Geogrii Zhukov describing what happened when Truman told Stalin that the U.S acquired an weapon of ultimate power and Stalin wasn’t afraid but failed to see the big picture. It showed that, however, Stalin was also creating an atomic bomb and wanted his science researchers to speed up the process. Since Russia was supporting Japan, they opposed the bombing. So in conclusion, the U.S bombing had a huge impact in later times. The bombing was the starting point for the Cold War. The bombing end one war but started another. Even though it killed 200,00 thousand people, I still agree with Truman’s decision on the bombing on Nagasaki and Hiroshima because it did end the war and saved thousands of young American lives.