Causes And Consequences Of Dropping The Atomic Bomb

On August 6, 1945, over 70,000 people died all at once in the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Then, just three days later on August 9, over 60,000 people died in the city of Nagasaki (Swain, 2006). Many more people died weeks, months, and even years later, and at the end of all of the destruction, almost 200,000 people were left dead (Rossenfeld, n.d.). The causes of all of this were two atomic bombs dropped by the United States. At first glance, it may seem that dropping these two bombs was a terrible and horrific thing to do. However, the use of atomic weaponry was actually a necessity in how well our conflict with Japan played out. Without the bombs, we would have fought longer, and more lives would have been lost. Dropping the atomic bombs on
This planned invasion was codenamed Downfall and consisted of two stages. The first was Operation Olympic, which would take place on November 1 of that year. The second was Operation Coronet, which was scheduled to take place in March 1946 (Gentry, 2005). If this invasion were executed, the war would have been prolonged by at least several months. Japan would have most likely resisted defeat, so the war would probably have gone on even longer than that. The use of the atomic bombs prevented this. The bombs were dropped in early August, seven months prior to the planned Operation Coronet. This shortened the war significantly, with Japan surrendering on August 15. The bombs were completely necessary for this early surrender to have occurred. Without the bombs, the conflict would have continued for much longer. Dropping the bombs in Japan also allowed the U.S. to become a bigger military threat for other countries, allowing the U.S. to protect itself from future
This was the direct result of the decision to drop the two atomic bombs. The use of these bombs impressed the Soviet Union and showed them, along with the rest of the world, that the United States possessed great military strength (Dietrich, 1995). This allowed the U.S. to gain more control and influence in international affairs than its other allies. The bombings showcased to the rest of the world what the United States was capable of, therefore when the Soviet Union and other countries developed their own nuclear weapons, the U.S. had effectively protected itself under the idea of mutually assured destruction. This is why dropping the bombs was necessary. It showed the world what the United States was able to do, and in turn he United States gained for influence around the