Why was bombing of hiroshima necessary?

Answer 1

Those that make this claim believed that the continued saturation bombing with emphasis on the firebombing of Japan's cities, was a certain way to bring the war to an end.

However, the Japanese military culture of " fighting to the death for the honour of the Emperor " meant possible millions of American deaths recapturing every little island from suicidal Japanese forces before even reaching and invading the main Japanese homeland islands.

The military leadership realized this cost in American lives was totally unacceptable. Consequently, the Japanese were informed that America had a secret super weapon that would be used if they did not immediately surrender.

The Japanese military leaders squabbled amongst themselves for an entire week about how best to negotiate a surrender so that they would not lose possession of all the islands and territory they had captured. Their greedy scheming led to catastrophic results.

America took this lack of any answer to mean that her warning was being completely ignored by the Japanese, and decided to demonstrate this new super weapon capable of such immense destruction.

Answer 2

There are many arguments for and against the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of August 1945, but the most obvious reason for it not being necessary was that there were other ways to end the war.

However, the U.S. were limited to what they could do. They couldn't send soldiers into Japan to fight on their terms, as it was a totally different type of warfare to any the U.S. marines had been trained for, and the estimate result of this would end in about 1,000,000 American casualties.

The bomb was originally built to use against Germany, but they had already left the war and therefore the Americans had a weapon they had spent £2,000,000,000 on, which was a huge amount of money to waste if they didn't use the bomb. Therefore Japan was an enemy country, so they wanted to use this against them. Also, this money had come from citizen's tax money, and the American population would be furious if they found out they had spent tax money towards something that wasn't going to be used.

Many people would argue that it wasn't necessary because there were other ways of ending the war, but from the U.S. point of view, there wasn't another way. They couldn't handle an uprising from the people who paid taxes for this bomb to be built if they didn't use it.

From the American's perspective, this was the only way to end the war quickly, save American lives and gain Japanese territory before Russia.

Answer 3

Yes because Truman decided this when he BELEIVED the use of atomic bombs on Japan was nesesscary primarily for the reasonshe always gave: We have used it in orderto save lives of thousands and thousands of young American boys.

For starters, the question was "why was bombing of Hiroshima necessary" and not "why do you think...". I think a better question would be, "Was bombing of Hiroshima necessary." And if you get on that line of questioning, you should also ask yourself if bombing of Nagasaki was necessary. Getting past that, if you do your research, it is evident there are compelling reasons for why it was NOT necessary. It's interesting to note that Truman used the words "American boys", which we can all agree means American soldiers. True they were boys at one time, but last time I checked enlistment at the time didn't include minors. So it was necessary, in Truman's mind, to slaughter actual Japanese BOYS, GIRLS, and tens of thousands of CIVILIANS in order to save American SOLDIERS. There are camps that say that Japan was already on the brink of defeat despite the a-bomb and others that say that Japan was preparing to defend its cities until it's last dying breath... like anything else in history, the final verdict is up to us to determine... and it is quite plausible that the only people who know the full story are either dead or not talking. That leaves it to us try to piece together the story from de-classified military documents and "first-hand" recollections from people who were there or knew something relevant about the situation.

But even putting all that aside for now, there was also evidence that the American military was preparing an even greater atrocity had the Manhattan project not been successful. A highly organized and devastating CHEMICAL warfare plan was being set into motion as a contingency. Remember that lovely buzzword WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction, those elusive little devils we could never catch Saddam with, and who we are now saying that crazy ol' Kim Jong Il is stockpiling)? Chemical weapons are part of that group. Had we gone that route, estimates put deaths in the millions, with an equal amount of injuries. So if you consider what COULD have been... maybe that's why the a-bomb was necessary... to appease war lord...err... President Truman's bloodlust and pre-emptively quash an even greater atrocity.

Answer 4

Neither were necessary. While in college in Tokyo I asked Japanese this question and learned much. Most cities were devastated by '45 and one or two more by some type of 'new' bomb didn't mean anything. The U.S. had be guaranteed by USSR that they would declare war on Japan w/i 90 days of Germany's defeat. The USSR began moving troops to borders near Japan at Germany's capitulation. Japan feared retribution from Russians who were still angry for losing the Russo-Japanese war of '04 - '06 and the resulting loss of territory & treasure. This was to be the Soviet's retribution (and eastern boudary against aggression). Japanese were terrified of being overrun by the Soviets and chose the lesser of two bad options: Americans. The US wanted to use the terror of the bomb to win dominance over the Soviets. Ethnic hatred played an important role in creating sub-human 'japs' who were sent to concentration camps in the US whether they were US citizens or not and the target of atomic bombing as civilian collateral. Propoganda portrays the choice as bomb vs. a million US casualties in an amphibius landing. Japanese leaders knew of bomb potential and feared the Soviets more than any weapon and rushed into the American sphere. The U.S. has then used Japan as the westernmost wall of our defense.
Yes. The bombings killed just over 100,000 Japanese and they surrendered, whereas if Japan had been invaded (Which was due to happen within weeks), the death toll would have easily stood over 1 million. Both Allied and Japanese militaries agreed on this after the end of the war.

Answer 5

It was done to save the lives of the thousands of Allied servicemen who would otherwise have been killed in a direct invasion of Japan itself. And it cost a lot less in greenbacks as well.

Answer 6

Yes it was indeed needed, but sadly that was the only way to bring world war 11 and the Japanese to their knees. You must remember that Japs would prefer death to surrendeing any day.

Answer 7

The bombing was needed to kill innocent civilians in the name of justice