Jessica Heskett 1

Should America Have Dropped the Atomic Bomb to End the War?
The savagery of WWII was well known and kept in our memory so as to
make sure we do not regress back to that state of violence. The United
States managed to stay out of the war for the first two years, but an attack
from Japan threw them in. Though the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drove
the U.S. to enter the war, there were things to be settled with the Germans
in Europe. The atrocities the Germans committed in Europe were not
forgotten, but the Japanese were at the forefront of the American mind.
The American government leaders looked for a way to get themselves
ahead in the warand that came in the form of the atomic bomb. In 1939,
Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt stating that he found a
source of uranium in the Belgian Congo which could be used to make an
atomic bomb. After Roosevelt read the letter, he quickly gathered a group to
make the atomic bomb and code named it the Manhattan project. The
project was exceptionally expensive at a cost of $2 billion and required a lot
of taxpayer money. The dropping of the atomic bomb was necessary
because of the perils of war the American combatants were experiencing,
the governments prudent thinking, and the guaranteed efficacy of the
bomb.

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As previously stated, the horrors of WWII were obvious to the ones who
experienced it. Going into WWII, the American combatants had a strong idea
of how war was to be conducted. Though their combat techniques were not
what one would consider indicative of a Gentlemans War, there was still
an etiquette with which combatants approached the fight. The American
military was first blindsided by the attack on Pearl Harbor and then
blindsided by the way in which the Japanese combatants fought. This initially
resulted in high losses for the American military.
The Japanese combatants fought in a Kamikaze way. They were
determined to kill as many combatants as they could in the shortest amount
of timeeven if that meant killing themselves too. The goal of this style of
fighting was to incite fear and to coerce the Americans into making a treaty.
Entering the war, the Japanese were aware that they were unlikely to win;
however, they were so enraged by the way America had treated them that
the reality did not matter. They stood a small chance of winning, so long as
the war was shortand they hoped for just that.
In the Japanese effort to achieve their goals, many people perished
along the way. In the famous battle of Okinawa, the Japanese combatants
attempted to fight off the Allies and maintain their island of Okinawa. During
the battle, more than 300,000 Okinawans inhabited the land. As the battle

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proceeded, the Japanese used the Okinawans as shields. Though this was
not the sole contributor to Okinawan death during the battle, it was a large
part and decimated the population by 150,000 citizens in 2.5 months. This
form of fighting disgusted the Allied combatants because citizens were to be
protected, not sacrificed.
Throughout the war, the American leaders were faced with difficult
decisions: how much loss of life is too much and how much could they push
their people before they broke down. Toward the end of the war, the leaders
recognized that war was clearly taking its toll on the American people. The
only solution was to find a way to end the war before too much damage was
done. A statement had to be made to put the fire back in the American
people and threaten any country that was willing to attack them. This
statement was made in the form of the atomic bomb.
In 1944, the Japanese changed their tactics to gain successful
outcomes. They accomplished this by setting up their defensive lines on the
opposite side of where the Allies were invading. This led the Allies to be
drawn to the center of the island where the Japanese could surround them
and execute a merciless assault. The American combatants were not
accustomed to this type of fighting style and it worried them. The
governmental leaders were concerned that this type of fighting would carry

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on to the Japanese home islands, should they attempt to launch an
offensive. Unfortunately, the only way to end the war was to invade the
Japanese home islands and defeat them. The leaders weighed the options
and found it to be a too much of a risk. The only way to put the war to a
finish would be to use something as drastic as the atomic bomb.
Over the period of the war, tensions grew more and more between the
United States and the Soviet Union. In the beginning of the war, the Soviet
Union made the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Germany, making them an
Allied enemy; then Hitler broke the terms of the pact and the Russians joined
the Allied side. However, relations were never quite the same between
Russia and the United States as they were between the United States and
England. Toward the end of the war, the popular opinion was that the
Russians were not to be trusted. This idea manifested itself when the United
States did not tell Russia about the atomic bomb. Though it was not the
leading reason for the detonation of the atomic bomb, the U.S. had a point
to prove their superiority to Russia, and the bomb was an effective way to do
that.
It is possible the people who suffered most in the war were the ones
who were left home: the families. Specifically in America, the women had to

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go to the factories to help the war effort. This was not typical of the women
of this time; therefore, it was difficult to keep up with a job and take care of
the kids. One must also keep in mind that the father was gone at war during
all of this time, effectively making these women single mothers. In a society
unaccustomed to single mothers, this was a hardship to bear. Writing letters
was a way for the women to have some communication with their loved ones
while away at war, so most women turned to this comfort. The women were
often not notified of their husbands deaths until a significant amount of time
after the fact. In the article The Price of Victory, there is a passage on
Ryland and Edith Howard. This passage illustrates the point of how women
often wrote their husbands without knowing of their demise. Edith continued
to write her husband until 3 weeks after his death, when she was notified.
The main question going through the American leaders minds was
whether or not the American family could sustain this war. The women and
children were already growing weary. The government was not sure if these
families would be able to continue for the amount of time that it would take
to conquer Japan during the U.S. invasion. The sensible solution to bring the
family back together was to drop the bomb and force the Japanese to
surrender.

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The emotional and monetary toll the war took on the United States is
known. The country incurred constant cost from having to replace
ammunition and arms, to having to provide food for the soldiers; the
Manhattan project cost a surprising 2 billion dollars. If the government did
not use this expensive technology, it would have been a monumental waste
of money. Money was tight and the funds for this project came from the
taxpayers of America. It would have become a large scandal, had the
government not used the bomb. Estimates of American war causalities range
from 90,000-400,000. Regardless of the correct number in that range, the
loss of these individuals was a blow to the American people . Had the war
continued, there was no telling how many more would have fallen in the
coming months or years.
The atomic bomb was the greatest piece of war technology the United
States had ever created. It was an indiscriminate killer that took human error
out of the equation. Since the atomic bomb was so powerful, it would
destroy anything in its path. It was unlike any of the American war bombs
prior to it. All it had to do was be dropped and targeted for a certain area. It
would then proceed to destroy everything in its radius; however, this came
with a price. Though it was exceptionally effective at annihilating people that

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was also its downfall. The bomb was unable to tell combatant from civilian
and it destroyed everyone in its path.
The detonation of the atomic bomb was necessary to end the war.
WWII was disputed as the worst act to have occurred in modern human
history. In 1945, the cost of war truly started to hit the American people.
WWII was cruel and it needed to cease. Between 1944-1945, 250,000 people
died under the Japanese empire every month. Had the United States
foregone the usage of the atomic bomb, how many more lives and families
would have been irreparably damaged?