Why was it necessary to drop the atom bombs during world war 2?

Answer 1

The Atomic Bombs were dropped on Japan to end WWII without invading the Japanese main islands. Invading would have resulted in a massive loss of life on both sides. This is a very controversial subject with valid arguments for and against invasion presented by each side.

After firebombing 67 Japanese cities, on July 26, 1945, the US called for Japan to surrender with the PotsdamDeclaration. Japan ignored that request. Then on August 6, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and on August 9, on Nagasaki. Six days later, on August 15, Japan announced surrender and Truman issued an order to stop atomic bombing unless he personally authorized more. On August 18 another bomb arrived in San Francisco to be flown over to Tinnian by Colonel Tibbets but was returned to Los Alamos (this probably could have been dropped around August 25), then on September 2, 1945 Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender, ending the war (Germany had signed an Instrument ofSurrender on May 7, 1945).

Answer 2

Simple answer: To force a surrender.

Japan had attacked sovereign nations in Asia and the Pacific and had coordinated their efforts with the German aggression in Europe in hopes that the Allies would be incapable of fighting on two fronts. The Allies pushed back and eventually surrounded Japan, preventing imports and causing serious problems for the Japanese people.

Even after the Allies had destroyed the Japanese fighting abilities, the emperor and his generals refused to surrender. They realized that they had lost, but wanted to rebuild their military and try again, just as Germany had "tried again" following WW1, resulting in the war in Europe. The emperor and his generals knew that the Allies were hesitant to invade Japan because estimates were that approximately 1 million Allied soldiers would have lost their lives, and that those soldiers would hesitate to fight against Japanese citizens who were willing to face rifles and bayonets, armed with nothing more than pitchforks and swords.

But the Allies refused to allow anything less than an unconditional surrender, and when the emperor refused, the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The emperor still refused, even after a warning that a second bomb would be dropped.

The emperor finally agreed to a surrender after the bombing of Nagasaki, but even then, the emperor had to consider it for several days.

Allied resources had been depleted, everyone was exhausted from fighting a long war, and the Atomic bombs were actually more humane than starving the people of Japan and sending in soldiers who would face peasants with pitchforks.

It was the only way the Allies could force the Japanese to surrender. Unfortunately, there have been far too many people who want to re-write history.

Answer 3

The dropping of the bombs saved about a million lives of both Allied and Japanese. The Japanese would not have given up, it is not in their culture, they would have fought on men, women and children. The use of the atomic weapons showed to the Japanese that it would take only one plane and one bomb to level a city.

Answer 4

• To convince Japan to surrender as soon as possible and avoid the planned invasion scheduled to start late August or early September. Battle projections suggested the invasion plan would take at least another year and cost about 1,000,000 lives on each side before Japan would admit defeat. The bombs cost less than a tenth the lives of the invasion plan.
• If the US had not used the bomb, eventually the question would have surfaced in Congress and the Senate "Why did we spend $2,000,000,000 during the war developing a new weapon that could have avoided the invasion of Japan and prevented the loss of so many lives, then not bother to use it?". Truman would have really been raked over the coals in hearings about this!

Answer 5

To get a quick end to the US-Japan war.