Was the dropping of the atomic bomb a good idea?

Answer 1

The United States did not go to war over the atomic bomb. We used it to end a war. During WWII there was a race to build the bomb, originally it was going to be used on Germany but Germany fell. Japan however continued to fight on with tenacity Japan showed no signs of wanting to surrender they were conducting many suicide attacks, even to the point of training its civilian citizens to attack invading Americans with sharpened sticks. If America had invaded the main island of japan as was planed the loss of human life (both American and Japanese) would have been astronomical so it was decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to let them know we had weapons of mass destruction and we would use them. After the second bomb was dropped Japan surrendered. Although the bombs were dropped on cities and many civilians were killed many many more would have been killed had the United States conducted a conventional invasion. There is also a twist to the this in the Japanese also had an atomic weapons program. Historians dispute the readiness of the Japanese bomb and certainly the German plutonium sent to them was surrendered by the U boat carrying it to the Americans before it reached them. However there is evidence they did have some uranium and credible plans for a bomb. At best case they were a year away at worst case the US beat them to the draw by 11 days, targets included the US Pacific fleet or the West coast cities.

Answer 2

It depends on opinion but it seems that it is justified because the atomic bomb killed around 400 thousand people but if we sent in the troops needed to conquer japan we would have taken around 1 million casualties. Also the Japanese would have lost more people because they would fight to the last man and there is a lot of people in Japan. So sometimes you have to pick the lesser of two evils.

Answer 3

At the end of World War II, few questioned Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most Americans accepted the obvious reasoning: the atomic bombings brought the war to a more timely end. They did not have a problem with over one hundred thousand of the enemy being killed. After all, the Japanese attacked America, and not the other way around. In later years, however, many have begun to question the conventional wisdom of "Truman was saving lives," putting forth theories of their own. However, when one examines the issue with great attention to the results of the atomic bombings and compares these results with possible alternatives to using said bombs, the line between truth and fiction begins to clear. Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan was for the purpose of saving lives and ending the war quickly in order to prevent a disastrous land invasion.

Answer 4

The reason for using the Atomic Bomb in WWII was to prevent an invasion of the Japanese homeland. If the U.S. would have invaded the Japanese homeland there would have been more casualties both American and Japanese and WWII would have lasted longer. People say the U.S. should have never have dropped Atomic Bombs because the Japanese didn't drop A-Bombs on them, but the Japanese would have if they could have.

Answer 5

Atomic bombs are tools and as tools they can not be either good or bad. What can be good or bad are the people using them and the uses they are put to.

Answer 6

for some reason it was really great idea to drop the atomic bomb at japan why would they start the us. they knew tht thy couldnt stop or hanle the u s in the first place..

Answer 7

Some say yes because it stops impending war between the U.S. and Japan, but some people simply feel it was over-kill and fire bombs should have been used.

Answer 8

Some people think so, others disagree.