What led to the dropping of the Atomic Bomb in World ar 2?

Answer 1

The United States, in its war with Japan, had to clear the Japanese from many islands across the Pacific Ocean to reach a point where it cut Japan off from its resources and then could directly attack Japan.

While doing this, the U.S. suffered enormous casualties against the Japanese in Tarawa, Guam, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other islands. The Japanese burrowed into caves and tunnels, and fought fanatically.

The people of the U.S. were getting tired of the war and the sacrifice they were making. Aside from material sacrifices such as rationing, everyone had friends or relatives who had died battling the Nazis. Now more were being killed in the Pacific.

The casualties for the Pacific battle were high. In Iwo Jima, for instance, 4 out of every 10 marines sent to attack the island was killed. Also, the battle of Leyte Gulf in the Phillippines saw the Japanese use of over 2,000 Kamikaze (Divine Wind) aircraft, which were laden with bombs and rammed into ships by their suicidal pilots. The Kamikazes damaged or sank almost 50 U.S. ships. This was staggering, considering most of the pilots had little training and many of the aircraft were of poor quality, and even included training aircraft.

Facing the invasion of Japan, estimates were that if the Japanese mainland was as costly to invade as Okinawa had been, per mile, that it could require millions of U.S. lives to pacify them.

On top of all this, analysts were growing worried about the surprising power the Soviet Union was displaying as it drove into Germany. The U.S. is a strongly capitalist country, and many powerful people there had been frightened of communism since it became a movement during the first world war. At the time, the Soviets were helpful allies of the Communist Chinese. Looking at maps, this created an intimidating red blotch on a large part of the world's surface.

There was also a lack of consideration for the Japanese, who were seen to have "broken the rules" by making their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor without declaring war first. Propaganda during the war painted the Japanese as sub-human animals. Generally, at the time they were seen by many as being more monstrous than the Germans.

There is great controversy as to whether the atomic bombs should have been dropped. It's said that the Japanese were already wanting to surrender, and simply were looking for a face-saving way to do it. It's unknown whether this is true, and if so, whether the Truman administration knew this. And, even if they had heard this, whether it was reasonable for the administration to rely on it.

The dropping of the atomic bombs told the Japanese that the U.S. had a way to wipe them out without spending millions of lives. At the same time, it announced to the Soviet Union and communist China that the U.S. had the power to stop them if they got too aggressive.