Was dropping the atomic bomb on Japan the right thing to do?

Answer 1

Because it abruptly put an end to a bloody war which they started by bombing our Navy at Pearl Harbor. They were irrational fanatics, bent on expanding their empire and would have entrenched and fought to the death had we invaded. Countless thousands of American troops and those of our allies as well as Japanese troops and civilians themselves were saved by our action. We simply wanted the war to be "over" so President Harry Truman "explained" it to them in a language they apparently finally understood. I was 10 years old at the time and, in those days, we did not play "pussyfoot" war with our known enemies as our dysfunctional liberal politicians prefer us to do now. After being effectively defeated and driven back to Japan, the Japanese military refused to surrender and the Japanese Emperor was encouraging his private citizens to protect their homeland from invasion. The rest of the world considered that the Japanese efforts to take over the islands of the Pacific were unacceptable, especially since they had been so ruthless and deceitful. When Japan refused to surrender, even after severe bombing of the major cities, it was calculated that between 750,000 to 1,000,000 troops would loose their lives in an effort to invade Japan, and that at least as many Japanese citizens would die as well. Just forgetting about the Imperial attempts to take over the Pacific was not an option. The world demanded that the Japanese war machine be dismantled to avoid a second round in a few years. The league of nations had made that mistake with Germany at the end of WW1, and Germany rebuilt and tried to take over Europe again by invading other European nations in WW2, so most of the world did not want Japan to have a second chance. After looking at the number of probable deaths, it was determined that invasion was not a good idea. At about the same time, the Manhattan project had successfully tested a nuclear device. The military was given an opportunity to end the war without the loss of any more Allied lives. It was decided that if the citizens of the U.S. were to discover that the military had been forced to invade Japan and we had lost a million soldiers at a time that we had a device that would end the war without any further loss of life, the nation would have become enraged at the military and the government, and justifiably so.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, this is not a "yes/no" answer. Dropping the bombs was an inhumane act that killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens. No rational person can consider that dropping those bombs was a good thing, but... Japan had been defeated in their attempt to take over the Pacific and their militay had been either killed, sunk or pushed back to the main island. There was no possibility for Japan to win that war, yet the Emperor and his generals refused to surrender. The Allied forces had learned a valuable lesson at the beginning of WW2, Germany had been defeated in WW1 and had turned around less than 20 years later to begin their renewed conquest of Europe. The Allies were not about to allow that to happen again. After Germany was defeated following WW2, Allied forces "occupied" the nation for a long time, meaning that they had no ability to build a military and they were watched carefully. The Allies were not about to allow the Germans to start another World War. The Allies intended to occupy Japan as well. There was not going to be another opportunity for Japan to invade the islands of the Pacific. It was a well known fact that Japan just wanted the war to die down and just fade away, to allow them an opportunity to rebuild, then they would invade the islands again. The Allies on the other hand required unconditional surrender but Japan wanted to turn it into a long bloody war if anyone wanted to invade the main island. Japan wanted to make it a problem for the Allies, killing as many westerners as possible. They were looking for the best possible terms of surrender, but the west demanded unconditional surrender. The west had a few options: Should we have sent our soldiers into a blood-bath in an attempt to force the surrender of Japan, or should we have said "it's not worth it" as the Japanese wanted? Without the bomb, those were the only available options. The decision to use the new (at that time) technology was not an easy one, but did we want to fight the same war again in fifteen to twenty yeare? Or optionally, did we want to loose another million soldiers in our attempt to force the surrender of Japan? Like I said, there was no "right" decision, but that was the only decision that made sense under the circumstance. The wholesale death of so many Japanese was horrible, but there weren't any other options available.

Answer 3

It was not right !! The reason AMERICA drop the ATOM BOMB in Hiroshima was to show the World their POWER !!!!!

War In Europe had ended Germany Surrendered ! And Japan was the only country left fighting. It would have surrendered sooner. There was no need of US dropping that ATOM BOMB in JAPAN.

Answer 4

Opinions differ; even before the bomb was used, some of the scientists who had worked on it thought that a demonstration of the bomb's power (in an uninhabited location) would have been sufficient to force Japan's surrender.

This may or may have turned out to be the case; note that Japan did not actually surrender until after the second bomb was used on Nagasaki.

It's also possible that continuing the war with conventional weapons would have resulted in a greater loss of life on both sides.

Answer 5

There is no true answer to this question. Any answer you get will only be an opinion not fact. Do you think it was right to sacrifice all of the life in the bombing? Or was it okay to let Japan invade the US? Millions of Americans or hundred-thousand of Japanese people.

Answer 6

Whether dropping the atomic bomb to end WW2 was the right thing to do is a matter of opinion. Some people will say it was and others will say it was not.

Answer 7

No, it was not justified to drop an atomic bomb on Japan

Answer 8

Yes.