Atomic Bombings

Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japan had begun their attempt to create an Asian empire. They seized Manchuria and moved into Indochina and were getting ready to attempt a take over in the Philippines and Malaya. Japan also had plans to seize smaller islands throughout the Pacific, such as Thailand, Borneo, Burma and the Marshall Islands. The reason behind Japan’s blatant plans for expanding their country’s rule was that the population was growing too large for the small islands of Japan; they lacked the resources and were importing nearly everything needed to support their economy. Because of their aggressive actions against these smaller nations, the United States imposed sanctions upon Japanese by not allowing the needed imports into Japan (Bard 130).
The Japanese attack on the American shores of Pearl Harbor came about due to Japan’s anger at the sanctions and the United States demand that they withdraw from China (Bard 130). The American President, Harry Truman, decided to retaliate and use the newly developed atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The thought at the time was that the United States attack on Japan was necessary in order to stop the Japanese from further expanding their conquest in the Pacific and any lesser action would not have sufficed. After researching the subject, I have come to disagree with this statement. Instead, it was unnecessary and unethical for the United States to use atomic weapons against a country that had been making attempts to surrender, whose naval fleets had already been destroyed, and who had no resources to conduct a full fledged war.
America did not exhaust all possible means for ending the war before launching those bombs. President Truman knew that the Japanese had been negotiating with Stalin and the Russians for months to help them negotiate an end to the war. The United States was aware of this because we had deciphered the Japanese codes (Freeman 2). Japan was in trouble at this time, their government was divided and their resources were diminished because they could not get supplies to their military due to the sanctions against them (Boyer 2).
The United States demanded total and unconditional surrender from Japan, but the Japanese wanted to keep their Emperor. They viewed their Emperor as a “divine being, a direct descendent of the goddess of the sun” (Raico 3). The Japanese people did not want to witness him tried as a war criminal and hanged.
Another often quoted reason for the need to drop the atomic bomb on the two Japanese cities was that is was crucial to save millions of American lives. However, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the allied Forces in Europe and future President of the United States stated that “Japan was already defeated and dropping those bombs was completely unnecessary” (Freeman 1). Even Chief of Staff to President Truman, Admiral William D. Leahy said that “the use of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan; the Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender” (Freeman 2).
Ethically America could not justify the retaliation against 200,000 innocent men, women and children. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a military base; we destroyed two cities full of innocent civilians. Our President tried to argue that the Japanese military was violent and brutal and therefore so was the entire country. Propaganda films were shown in theaters all over the United States that encouraged prejudice and racial hatred against the Japanese to help sway the American people to agree (Raico 1).
Even though Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, killing over 2000 people and nearly destroyed our entire Navel fleet, the United States should not have used the atomic bomb on innocent people in retaliation. This was unethical because no matter how devastating an attack on our country was, it does not call for the destruction and deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.


Sources:
Bard, Mitchell. World War II. Penguin Group: New York. 2004.
Boyer, Paul S. “Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity-Hiroshima.” Enotes. 11 Dec.
2008.
Freeman, Robert. “Was the Atomic Bombing of Japan Necessary?” Newscenter. 08 Dec.
2008. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0806-25.htm.
Raico, Ralph. “Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Ludwig von Mises Institute. 06 Aug. 2004.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/raico22.html.