The Sad Truth of the A-Bomb

The following is an essay on whether or not the United States of America was right to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

August 6, 1945. An American Boeing-B29 named Enola Gay is carrying a bomb. The bomb is nicknamed Little Boy. It is no ordinary bomb. It has a destructive power never before seen by the world. Enola Gay glides low over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Little Boy, having now been dropped from the B-29, falls through the air, getting ever closer to Hiroshima. Soon, a chain reaction begins, detonating the bomb. The beginning of the end for Hiroshima. In a few minutes, the town is reduced to rubble, and in a few days, the same goes for Nagasaki. But should the United States have dropped the atomic bomb in the first place? Of all possible ways to bring an end to the struggle against Japan, they chose one that was the most destructive, brought an end to civilian lives and became a sought-after weapon following the war. Here are some of the reasons why America was wrong to drop the bomb.

It is estimated that 250, 000 Japanese civilians were killed as a result of the atomic bomb. Ordinary people going about their lives, not expecting that within seconds they would be killed or suffer from burns and their towns ruined in mere minutes. Their lives did not deserve to be destroyed just because they were citizens of a country that was at war with the United States. It defies logic that they, innocent, everyday people doing normal things, should have to lose their life to a shocking new weapon.

We should also consider that there were other, less devastating means of bringing about a Japanese surrender, considering their losing an empire and the possibility of the Allies finally invading Japan. When the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Japan came to an end and the Soviets invaded Japanese-controlled Manchuria, it was clear that Japan was not capable of continuing to fight for much longer. Therefore, the use of the atomic bomb to end the Pacific War was unnecessary.

One last, important reason against the atomic bomb was what followed after the end of the Pacific War. The next 45 years was the period known as the Cold War, and at the centre of it was the atomic bomb. Events such as the Berlin Wall, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Eastern European countries, as well as the danger of a communist country in the Caribbean island of Cuba, just a swim from the US, worsened relations between the Soviet Union, which now had possession of the atomic bomb, and the Western Allies, and increased the chances of an all-out nuclear war between the two.

It is incorrect to say that this is merely revenge for the air attacks on Pearl Harbour and Northern Australia, as well as treatment of Allied POWs. You cannot possibly compare the dropping of the atomic bombs, which wiped two Japanese cities from the face of the Earth and ruined civilian lives, with the Japanese air raids, which only damaged buildings, nor can you compare it with the Japanese treatment of POWs, which were soldiers fighting against the threat, not innocent civilians.

Hopefully, this has helped you understand that the atomic bomb is one of the worst things to have happened to the world. Yes, they could have invaded us. Yes, what the Japanese did to our cities was wrong. Yes, their treatment of POWs was wrong. But no, none of those statements make the dropping of the atomic bomb right.

The End

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