The bombing of Hiroshima has experienced much controversy ever since it was dropped. It was not necessary to win the Pacific war, however the dropping of the bomb had other motivations besides winning the Pacific War. Some of the other motivations included keeping Russia out of the peace agreements and using the bomb as a diplomatic weapon.

The Atomic Bomb was originally developed by Roosevelt in secrecy so when Truman assumed the presidency he had no idea that it was even being made and no idea of the devastation that this weapon could deal.[1] Truman felt an obligation to use it since it was Roosevelt who had ordered it to be made and he was just stepping in for Roosevelt, who the people had really elected.

The bombing of Hiroshima was not necessary for many reasons, one was that the Japan economy was on the verge of collapsing from the war and the Japanese were ready to surrender under thee right terms. However the Japanese did not surrender because America demanded it be an unconditional surrender and the Japanese wanted to find a way to surrender without being completing humiliated and try to save some reputation. The Japanese did not want an unconditional surrender because they feared that they would lose their emperor. The emperor to the Japanese people was a god who they worshipped and to lose him would ruin their political system and monarchy.[2] Also the Japanese army was about to collapse as their army kept was getting pushed back and the allies had cut off their supply route, causing the armies to be without supplies and food, the Japanese navy was no longer capable of fighting, their shipping had come to a halt, and the city of Tokyo had been fire bombed which had killed hundreds of thousands of people.[3] The Japanese were only days away from agreeing to the surrender.

The war could have been over earlier if Truman would have agreed to modify the terms of surrender, but Truman refused. The main reason he refused was popular opinion of the people in the United States of hatred toward the Japanese and that they were to surrender with no terms. The Americans showed hate towards the European nations as they were misled, but the Japanese were viewed as a barbaric nation and the Americans viewed their emperor as a brutal leader. Truman feared that if he modified the terms of surrender there would be a political backlash. But even after the bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese had surrendered, Truman allowed Japan to keep their emperor, meaning the atomic bombs could have been avoided if the Truman Administration had modified the terms of surrender.

Truman faced two sides of the argument in deciding whether or not to drop the bomb.  One side of the argument was that they had spent so much money, time, and effort to let the bomb go to waste and not be used. Also this side said that they would be criticized if they had a weapon which could be used to end the war and save many American lives. Then there was the other side that said this bomb would be used to kill without warning and not only military men but also innocent civilians. They also said that the same amount of destruction could be caused through firebombing as they had done to Japan. In the end Truman sided with dropping the bomb.

Although the original reason the Truman administration agreed to use the Atomic Bomb was that if they didn’t use it they would have to storm each Japanese island individually, and on each island every person would fight to their death to protect their emperor, which was estimated to cost half of a million American lives. This was not true, both Truman and General George Marshall knew the estimate rate of casualties was much lower, in fact at a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff he was told that is the first thirty days of fighting there was no reason that the casualties should exceed more than those of Luzana, thirty-one thousand casualties, and that overall it would cost many tens of thousands of lives, but lower than the original estimate.[4]

Fat Man (Nagaski) Little Boy (Hiroshima)

The bomb was used for military purposes but it was just as much used for political and diplomatic issues, such as to keep Russia out of the peace settlement, and scare the Russians with our new weapon. After Germany had surrendered it had been planned that Russia would enter into the Pacific War, the allies knew that this would increase pressure on Japan and cause Japan to surrender sooner.[5] However as the time when the Russians would join grew closer, the Truman Administration decided that they did not want Russia to enter into the war. But it was too late to tell the Russians that we did not need them to enter the war and Stalin wanted the Russians to get into the war at the last minute so they would be able to reap the benefit also. The Truman Administration wanted to keep Russia out of the war so that they would not get part of the peace settlement, by using the atomic bomb America could win the war before the Russians entered. It is even proven that this was one of the atomic bomb’s goals when the Truman Administration told China to delay their negotiations with Russia, so it would delay the Russians in entering the Pacific War.[6] The bomb was also used as a method to impress the Russians and intimidate them in a way. The bomb was seen as not only a military weapon but also as “a diplomatic lever that could be employed to thwart Soviet ambitions.”[7] The bomb was also used to intimidate other nations of the horror of the weapon when nuclear stockpiles were much larger, to make them reconsider before using one. The bomb did work as to intimidate Stalin for trying to claim joint occupation of Japan and other areas, but in the long run it would lead to the nuclear arms race and the cold war.

Enola Gay (plane used to drop the atomic bombs)

It was said that the Interim committee had all agreed that the use of the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible, the bomb should be used on a military target surrounded by other buildings including civilian and non military businesses, and the bomb should be used without warning, and it would need to be a clear day so the target could be seen.[8] This was only the view of a few of the scientists that were involved in producing the bomb, however many of the scientists believed that the repercussions of dropping the bomb would outweigh the military advantages of using it and that after this first bombing it would start and uncontrollable nuclear arms race.[9] These scientists would rather drop a warning in an uninhabited area to give a warning to the Japanese and show the power and devastation it would cause the Japanese to surrender in fear of what the bomb might do.

The choice of target went through many considerations there were Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kokura, and Niigata.[10] Each of these cities was not previously bombed and was protected from future bombing raids until the choice had been made. Nagasaki was not one of the original choices. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the two chosen and were said to be military targets when in fact the civilians outnumbered the military by almost five times.

The dropping of the bomb over Nagasaki was not necessary. The bombing of Nagasaki was pushed up two days because of the weather forecast that it would be cloudy and rainy on the original date of the drop. One of the requirements for dropping the bomb was that it would be clear so that they could see the target when dropping the bomb. However if the bomb had been dropped on the original date it would not have been needed because the Japanese had already surrendered. Also the new drop date allowed for no time for the word of the destruction at Hiroshima to travel to the emperor.

However the bombing were not as bad as it was made out to be, if the bomb had not been dropped on Hiroshima it would have been fire bombed anyway just as Tokyo had and been, and there would be just as many casualties. There are good arguments on both sides of the choice of whether it was a good choice or a bad choice. Those that said it was a good decision said so because it saved many American lives and intimidated others in the use of nuclear weapons. Those that said it was a bad choice said so because it gave no warning to the civilians and killed many of innocent people.

            The atomic bomb in history was supposed to be used to intimidate other powers from using such a weapon as well as keeping Russia from trying to spread its communism. However all the bombing did was lead to controversy and the United States to become the only country to use a nuclear weapon. The dropping of the atomic bombs also lead to one of the scariest moments in history, in which a nuclear arms build up began in the cold war.

The Atomic Explosion Nagasaki after the bomb

Hiroshima after the atomic bomb Emperor Hirohito

1.        Lifton, Robert Jay. Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial. New York City, New York: G.P. Putman’s Sons. 1995, 151

2.        Nobile, Philip. Judgment at the Smithsonian. New York: Marlowe and Company. 1995, 53

3.        Nobile, Philip. Judgment at the Smithsonian. New York: Marlowe and Company. 1995, 67

4.        Takaki, Ronald. Hiroshima: Why America dropped the bomb. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1995, 23

5.        Nobile, Philip. Judgment at the Smithsonian. New York: Marlowe and Company. 1995, 39

6.        Morton, Louis. Decision to use the Bomb. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Printing Press. 1986, 498

7.        Hogan, Michael J. Hiroshima in History and Memory. New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. 1996, 13.

8.        Morton, Louis. Decision to use the Bomb. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Printing Press. 1986, 501

9.        Morton, Louis. Decision to use the Bomb. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Printing Press. 1986, 495

10.     Nobile, Philip. Judgment at the Smithsonian. New York: Marlowe and Company. 1995, 42

Hogan, Michael J. Hiroshima in History and Memory. New York: Press Syndicate of the    University of Cambridge, 1996.

Lifton, Robert Jay. Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial. New York City, New York: G.P. Putman’s Sons. 1995.

Morton, Louis. Decision to use the Bomb. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Printing Press. 1986.

Nobile, Philip. Judgment at the Smithsonian. New York: Marlowe and Company, 1995.

Takaki, Ronald. Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. Canada: Little, Brown, and Company, 1995.