A Moral Question

The Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 created a lot of questions as to whether it was really necessary to drop the Atomic bomb in order to win the war against Japan. The US decision makers argued that it was the only way to end the war immediately. It indeed ended the war, but at a cost of an estimated 80,000 civilians dead in Nagasaki alone,  and not to mention the aftermath of radiation .

Would the US have won the war without the Atom bomb? No doubt, America would have still won the war. But , knowing the ferociousness of the Japanese soldier, the war would have dragged on for months, or even years, inflicting heavy casualties on both sides. Without the Atom bomb, the US would have to invade Japan, and this time the Japanese would be fighting for the defense of their homeland. They would have fought to the death.

No doubt, Japanese casualties alone would have been more than the number of casualties inflicted by the Atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Civilian deaths would still be unavoidable because of the use of bomber planes to daily drop conventional bombs on military targets, and that would be the same Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to my mind, is a necessary evil. It killed thousands, but it also spared more thousands of lives that would have been lost.

Second Atomic Bomb dropped in Nagasaki

After the Bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese War Council still refused to surrender, despite seeing the magnitude of the devastation of Hiroshima. This prompted the United States to drop a second bomb, this time in Nagasaki, a center of shipbuilding industry, and therefor a military target.

Atomic cloud over nagasaki

The date was August 9, 1945. The American B-29 bomber nicknamed "Bock's car". The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m.,  the explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000 or maybe more, not counting more deaths due to radiation.

This finally convinced the Japanese War Council to accept the unconditional surrender of Japan . But it was not an easy desicion. Despite the devastation on Nagasaki, the members of the Council was still divided. Emperor Hirohito, upon the the request of two Council members who were eager to end the war, finally decided that in order to save the Japanese race from total annihilation , Japan was to surrender unconditionally.

Today in History : Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima

On this date, August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber nicknamed Enola Gayand piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, commander of the 509th Composite Group,  dropped the world's first Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. The bomb, the first of its kind, was so powerful that  almost 90% of the buildings were destroyed. An estimated 80,000 people were instantly killed, 35,000 injured and another 60,000 , as a result of radiation,were dead in the weeks to come.

The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 15 kilotons (the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT). The devastation of Hiroshima. however, did not convinced the Japanese to surrender.