The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

History must be learned and understood so past events do not happen again. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are these types of events. By the time Truman took office, Japan was nearly defeated. There were people in the Japanese government trying to find a way to end the war. However many believed the Japanese would fight to the bitter end. This is the same thing many Americans would do if people landed on our coast to fight. Our government did not want this war to be drawn out and we were still losing soldiers due to Japanese submarines and suicidal “kamikaze” attacks. Even though Japan might agree to a negotiate peace with conditions, after twelve years of Japan military aggression against China and over three and one-half years of war with the United States our leaders were reluctant to accept anything less than completed surrender. Many Americans had an intense hatred towards Japanese’s more than the Germans. There were many reasons for this feeling, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the horrible acts committed by Japanese soldiers, mistreatment of American prisoners and especially for racial reasons. This could be seen even in the United States with the camp many Japanese Americans were placed in during the war. Not to say some punishment was not deserved the question continues to be if the atomic bomb was the right and ethical thing to do. This continues to be a controversial issue even today. Many historians argue that it was necessary to win the war and sav...

The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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