The Pros And Cons Of Atomic Bombs

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The Nazi “Thousand-Year” Reich fell abruptly on May 7, 1945 when Germany surrendered, creating peacetime throughout Europe. However, for America the war in the Pacific was only getting deadlier. American soldiers and citizens were weary from four years of slow and bloody war, yet the Japanese military was still refusing to give up their fight. American forces occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima and intense firebombing was an almost daily occurrence in many Japanese cities. The mainland of Japan was the remaining piece of once a strong and vast Empire. America was then faced with several difficult decisions, each one would forever change the world as they knew it. Their options were simple, invade Japan, begin a naval blockade, wait for the Soviet…show more content…
One alternative could’ve been a demonstration much like the Trinity Test, to Japanese officials or ambassadors. Although the U.S. and Japan had no diplomatic relations after Pearl Harbor, an arrangement could have been secretly made, possibly through the Soviets. At this point of the war the Japanese communicated briefly to the Russians, trying to arrange some form of reconciliation with the U.S. After the war, the United States conducted numerous atomic bomb tests on several small atolls in the Pacific (Coakley, pg. 523). A site could’ve easily been prepared in 1945. If representatives of the Japanese government and or military, could have seen the bomb, it might have been enough to convince them to surrender. If it did not work, the U.S. would state that they tried to warn the Japanese, and some justification would having been given. However, if the Japanese had agreed to a demonstration and the bomb didn’t work, it could’ve made the United States look arrogant and weak. A failed demonstration might even increase the Japanese will not to surrender. Also, at the time the U.S. only had two bombs left. If the demonstration failed to convince the Japanese to surrender, only one bomb would remain. Obviously, by wars end one bomb, was not enough to force surrender. A third argument is that a demonstration would eliminate the American’s element of surprise, and the Japanese might use American POWs as human shields. In the end, President Truman rejected a demonstration of the atomic bomb to Japanese officials. He believed there was no guarantee the Japanese would surrender if the test succeeded, and he felt that the Japanese should not know of America’s secret weapon (Coakley, pg.

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