What was the argument about dropping the atomic bomb?

Answer 1

it would prevent high casualties that would be caused by an invasion of mainland Japan

Answer 2

The reasons were many. One is that there was a tremendous loss of life during the battles of the war and the longer the war went on the more lives would be lost. The Dropping of the bomb was not thought about lightly. It was taken in account how many lives would be saved by bringing the war to a quick end. There were paper leaflets, written in Japanese, dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki for days prior to the bombs being dropped. They told the people and the Government that the bombs would be dropped and that the devistation would be terrible. The Japanese government chose not to believe them and continued with the war. They could have evacuated the populations out of the cities but did not. Dropping the bombs was terrible and I hope that we never have to do that again but it did save lives by shortening the war.

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ppl give many reason buts its more simpler.

-the war with Germany was already over & japans army was already crushed but they did not want to unconditional surrender.

-the soviets were in preparation to attack japan.

-to avoid japan surrendering to the soviets and becoming communist u.s. dropped the bombs so they would surrender to us.

keep in mind USA and the USSR were the only superpower at the time, and USSR was Allie to Germany at the start of the war & even invaded Poland.

and you cant deny that japan is a good strategical position if we ever were going to go to war with soviets.

Answer 3

The higher command had it's views and the President had another one. Here is what was going on.

General Dwight Eisenhower - I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of "face".

Robert Oppenheimer (He was in charge on creating these weapons talking with Tibbets, the pilot in charge of dropping the bomb) - Your biggest problem may be after the bomb has left your aircraft. The shock waves from the detonation could crush your plane. I am afraid that I can give you no guarantee that you will survive.

Deke Parsons - The bomb you are going to drop is something new in the history of warfare. It is the most destructive weapon ever produced. We think it will knock out almost everything within a three-mile radius. No one knows exactly what will happen when the bomb is dropped from the air. Even if it exploded at the planned altitude of 1850 feet it might crack the earth's crust. The explosion's flash of light would be much brighter than the sun and could cause blindness.

Now, the President stated that the weapon will end the war and save lives so he went on and ordered the attack.