Relations between Japan and the U.S. were anything but good before, during, and after WW2. Tensions were high even before the beginning of WW2. In 1931, Japan was seeking to find raw materials to fuel its growing industries, so it invaded the Chinese providence of Manchuria. By 1937, Japan controlled large parts of China, and war crimes against the Chinese people were common. In 1934, Japan ended cooperation with many of the big powers across the world. Japan was criticized by the U.S. and many other world powers.
Relations only worsened when Japan took control of Indochina, intending to capture oil from rich areas in the East Indies. The U.S. responded to this by placing an embargo (ban or trade on activity with another country) on scrap metal, oil, and aviation fuel going to Japan, and stopped Japanese assets in the U.S. The U.S. commanded Japanese forces to withdraw from areas in China and Indochina. Japan began to plan an attack on Pearl Harbor by April 1941.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed the U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor, officially bringing the U.S. into WW2. Japan sunk many ships, destroyed hundreds of planes, and killed thousands of people. Japan’s goal was to weaken the U.S. fleet, and they almost succeeded. The American people were shocked and angered. During the war, the U.S. hopped from Island to Island. The Japanese were good fighters and every fight was more costly and claimed more lives. The last major battle was the fight in Okinawa, it lasted 3 months and took at least 100,00 lives.
President Roosevelt (the president during the war) passed away in on April 12, 1945, and President Truman was now in charge of how to end the war. The president and his advisors thought of invasion but it would be too costly. President Truman had heard of the Manhattan Project, a secret scientific effort to make an atomic bomb. After a successful test of the bomb, Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration and demanded a surrender of the Japanese government, warning them of “prompt and utter destruction.” Eleven days later there was no reply. The President decided to drop the bombs. On August 6, Enola Gay took a route to Japan and dropped a bomb on Hiroshima at 8:15 pm. In the first few minutes, there were about 80,000 deaths, and thousands of others died from radiation sickness. On August 9, we dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki. 39,000 people were killed and 25,000 were injured. Japan then surrendered to the United States.
In my opinion, I think that we were right in dropping the bombs. They attacked us first, killed many people, and damaged lots of our equipment. They also refused to surrender when the war was over. I can see both sides, but I believe we did what we needed to do.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/decision-drop-atomic-bomb
Q1. Do you think we should have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Q2. Do you think President Truman did the right thing?
Replies
I believe that they made the right choice to bomb them. They managed to attack us first which started the bombing. President Truman saw that was the only option they had. Many people were killed with the bombing, but also many people were killed in Pearl Harbour. So I feel as if President Truman made the right choice.
I agree with you. They attacked us first and the President saw that bombing was the only option.
1.) I don't think we should have bombed them due to innocent people dying, it almost feels like genocide because we bombed them, due to them just being a part of Japan, just because Japan is against us, does not mean, the citizens are against us.
I can see your point. However, I do not believe that we committed genocide in any way, shape, or form.
Do you think we should have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Yes, I think we made the right choice by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We made the right choice because they were in the wrong. They were invading and stealing goods from other countries. They also bombed pearl harbor killing many people and destroying many planed and ships.
I believe that it was the best option to bomb them. Although violence on top of violence is a risk that could make things worse, the U.S had to one-up Japan or they would continue to attack us and not surrender.
I can see how there was definitely risk when we bombed Japan, but it all worked out in the end.
Do you think we should have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Yes I think that If we didn't do anything about them attacking us then the people of the USA would have been outraged and would have shown other countries that they can do anything to use without reprocutions. Do you think President Truman did the right thing? yes
Do you think that we should have bomed hiroshima and nagasaki? I belived that it was our right to bom them because they were in the wrong when they started boming us first so we had every right to do the same to them by boming them.
I agree with you, they started it first and we had to end it.
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