Essay on "Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

Essay 10 pages (2010 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

In that light, it is hard to argue against bombings that would bring a stop to murderous and/or genocidal tyrants like Mussolini, Hitler or Hirohito (Glover 2000). There are also the concepts of proportionality and discrimination when it comes to war. For example, the taking of a city may be of the utmost importance but doing so by leveling it with a bomb would not normally be the best course. One could point to Fallujah during the latest Iraq war. The city was ridden with terrorists but the United States military did a door-to-door campaign rather than just annihilating the whole city (Stewart, 2014).

In the end, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki got the desired point across and thus was probably the right move. However, nearly a quarter million people died as a result of those bombs and that is a lot of civilian-only blood that was spilt. To be sure, there were morale and governmental affects with those bombs but the targets of those bombs probably could have been different but with the same result. Regardless of all of that, the Japanese brought the United States into World War II via the attack on Pearl Harbor and the country was (vaguely) warned about the bombs before they were dropped (Herken, 2015). What was done is not a solution that would fit with most situation but it got the job done with Japan. It is telling that it has not happened since even though some countries (and despots) are threatening otherwise.

Conclusion

While it is regrettable that so many civilians died in World War II, the Axis powers had to be stopped by any means necessary ... and that is what it took. It is not morally accepted to do anything like that now and it is interesting that both the United States as well as the "villains" of the world have not resorted to the same. Russia and a few other countries have posed some threats about the subject but they surely know what would happen if they were obtuse enough to follow through on those threats. What was different in the 1940's is that only the United States had the faculties to do what they did and that has irrevocably changed since then. Further, the purpose of the war is to win it and the Japanese, Italians and Germans of those day were in no position to preach to the United States about morality. Even if what the United States did was the lesser of two evils, it was still better than what the opponents were doing and playing by the rules when the other side is not (e.g. terrorists) becomes foolish at some point. Ultimately, what the United States did does fall under just war theory because of what they were responding to.

References

Glover, J. (2000). Humanity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Herken, G. (2015). Five myths about the atomic bomb. Washington Post. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-atomic-bomb/2015/07/31/32dbc15c-3620-11e5-b673-1df005a0fb28_story.html

Stewart, J. (2014). Remembering Fallujah 10 years later. MilitaryTimes. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2014/11/07/remembering-fallujah-10-years-later/18648409/ READ MORE

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