Atomic Bomb Dbq Analysis

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. On August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Thousands died instantaneously while many more died from radiation exposure from the bombs. The use of the atomic weapons was unnecessary due to the fact the Japan’s military was greatly weakened and ready to surrender, thousands of innocent lives were sacrificed simply for political power, and there could have been alternatives to cease the war.
After their losses at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Japan’s military had weakened greatly. In Doc D, a Japanese soldier even admits that the Japanese were on their way to defeat. The Japanese had lost a large portion of their air corps and navy. They were rendered powerless in the skies and the water. In Doc C, you can see the Japanese desperation as they attack U.S. ships
They clearly wouldn’t have wished this horrific act upon themselves so why wish it upon someone else? Almost 70,000 civilians were killed instantly from the blast and thousands more were killed by crumbling buildings. The weeks following the disaster, many more innocent lives were lost due to radiation poisoning. The few that managed to live suffered severe burns, injuries, and mutations from the radiation exposure. In Doc L, Colonel Tibbets reveals that he thought he was doing more good than bad when he says “I have been convinced that we saved more lives than we took,” and in Doc I, President Truman states “We have used it against those who attacked without warning at Pearl Harbor…” In reality, the casualties from Hiroshima alone outnumbered those of Pearl Harbor considerably. They fought fire with fire to solve the problem, but it just created even more destruction that could have been