Controversial and Sensitive Topic: Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan
The issue and ethics surrounding whether the US is justifiable for dropping the bomb on Japan is a controversial and sensitive topic. Some believe Japan deserved to be bombed after what they did to the US in world war 2, but others believe the US should never be forgiven for killing many innocent lives and for survivors to have ongoing health issues. The US wanted to seek revenge on Japan after the Pearl Harbour attack, but the bombs killed over 200.000 Japanese people and more with lifelong medical complications, and Japan was about to surrender so the bombs were unnecessary.
United States' decision to drop the atomic bomb is a very questionable issue. Was their act justifiable or not? Many factors need to be taken into consideration. The US wanted to seek revenge on Japan after they attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941. 18 US ships had sunk, 188US aircraft were destroyed and 2403 people were killed. Japan attacked Pearl Harbour to disable the US from interfering with Japan when they planned to take over South East Asia. the US originally used the atomic bomb as a threat in order to make Japan surrender and stop taking over other countries. America wanted to prevent the war before Russia could enter to stop Russia from taking Japan and spreading communism. The US saw the atomic bomb as a great way to finish the war once and for all and to put Japan back in their place.
The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ruined hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens' lives, these people did not personally attack pearl harbour or do anything to interrogate the US. because of the use of this bomb, there was a terrifyingly large number of casualties as well as long-term medical impacts. Exposure to such radiation increased the risk of cancer in survivors as well as the risk for terminal illnesses. The very few who survived were need to be tested every few months to years to see if cancer had developed and if the radiation had affected their health. Young people are faced with a higher risk and women were at a greater risk than men. Although not yet discovered through research and observation, birth mutations could be a possible outcome of exposure to such radiation and may be noticeable in the near future with new generations to come. These completely innocent Japanese people did not deserve to be killed and the survivors should not have to live with lifelong health risks that they then pass onto their children, essentially wiping out and then endangering a whole generation and more to come.
When the atomic bomb hit Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945, the Japanese were almost ready to call it quits and surrender, meaning such a weapon was not necessary to put an end to the war. The Japanese military was close to the end of their winning streak and didn’t need two atomic bombs filled with an explosive equal to 15,000 tonnes of TNT to stop their doing. “The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell because the Japanese had lost control of their own air.”-- Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Pacific Fleet. The Americans believed that Japan was set to take over the world and needed to be stopped immediately but if the US had done a little more investigating into the matter so many lives would have been saved and would have realised that Japan would have stopped sooner or later. More than 60 of Japan's cities had previously been destroyed due to conventional bombing. So more destruction was clearly unnecessary, inhumane and unethical.
To sum this large part of World War 1 up, America should not be justified to drop atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The USA's decision does not have enough support to back it up, 200,000 innocent normal people had died by this one act and many more were left with lifelong medical complications, and Japan was close to surrendering at the time the bomb was dropped so a weapon with this much power should not have been used or ever to be used again.
