Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Was it right to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
By Ellie Hayes

I think that the U.S. did the right thing by bombing Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The cold hard fact is that Japan started the war, we just ended it.
This debate will always be controversial because of the amount of Japanese citizens the two bombs killed and injured, but I believe those people are looking at it from the wrong perspective.
The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was one of the most devastating tragedies in American history. Soldiers asleep in their beds within their ships were gunned down in cold blood. There was no warning of the impending attack which was gutless and cowardly by a nation that we were not at war with. Innocent women and children died in the attack that day leaving broken American families and orphaned children. Over 2400 innocent Americans died that December morning. Over 1200 more were injured. Japan started the fight in a cowardly manner; we ended it to ensure no more Americans died at the hand of the Japanese military.
It is our duty to protect the American people. We used our resources to create the atomic bomb to use if ever we needed it. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor to sink our battleships because they felt the ships were the biggest threat to them. We used the same tactic. America did what we needed to do to protect American lives. We were just doing what we thought was best for the United States and American citizens.
In addition to saving American lives, the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, ended the war, saving the United States a lot of tax payer money. Money that the American people could have used toward their families, city growth and restoring the already damaged military resources. By ending the war early we saved money in the form of weapons, ships, planes, ammunition and gas. War is expensive and takes a lot of financing to keep going.
The war did a lot for our country’s future power ranking. Before the war, we were not seen as a serious threat to other countries. Developing the atomic bomb gave the United States more power in the world. People no longer wanted to go to war with us because of the weaponry we had. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a demonstration to the world as to the damage our weapons could inflict. It scared the other countries around the world into believing that we were a major power and they didn’t want to challenge us in war. In turn, that kept our country out of war for many years, saving countless American lives and dollars in resources.
After the bombings, other countries were expending their resources to copy the United States by trying to create their own atomic bomb. These countries were wasting millions of dollars and time trying to create something that we had already accomplished. In the meantime, we were advancing ourselves into space travel, new inventions and economic advancement instead of in the military, which was already very strong.
Our government’s actions and decisions in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reinsured American citizens that we were a strong country. A government that did not have a majority of its citizens believing they had them in their best interests quickly became more trusting and respectful of those making the decisions.
In conclusion, I believe America’s choice to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved many American lives, made us an instant world power and caused the U.S. great economic advancement. The bombing kept us out of countless wars, and saved us millions of dollars in expenditures. It is sad that so many innocent Japanese lives had to be taken to end the war, but Japan started the war by killing many of our innocent Americans. They could have prevented the confrontation from happening by choosing not to bomb Pearl Harbor. We were not the aggressor in this conflict, but instead reacted to defend our country and its people. It was the duty of our government to save American lives. I believe the decision to drop the bombs did just that