atomic bomb

1. Whether dropping the atomic bomb to end WW2 was the
right thing to do is a matter of opinion. Some people will say
it was and others will say it was not.
However, I am here today to justify my opinion. That it was
right to drop the bomb. Lets start of with some basic
information. On August 6, 1945, a single bomb was dropped
on Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people immediately and about
60,000 more within six months. On August 9, a second
atomic bomb that ultimately killed about 70,000 people was
dropped on Nagasaki.
Firstly, 1) Dropping the atomic bombs saved millions of
lives. The estimated casualties for America were 1,000,000
dead. The estimates for Japan were 10,000,000 dead.
100,000 died to the bombs. That means that 10,900,000
lives were saved. As Spock said, "The needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few." Over 10 million lives are
worth more than 100 thousand.
2) The Japanese could have prevented all civilian casualties.
Before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, 700,000
leaflets were dropped warning of the bomb. The entire city
could have been evacuated. Instead, the Japanese spit in
our face and evacuated only children. Also, the second bomb
could have been prevented if Japan had surrendered after
the first one. They should have known that we would drop
the bomb again if we dropped it once already. It was their
own Samurai code that led to the second bombing. They
choose victory or death. They were reluctant to surrender.

2. We had no choice but to bomb.
3) Hiroshima was a military hotspot. The Japanese 2nd army
was based here. Also, Hiroshima was big in war industry.
4) Bombing happens in war. We were ready to invade
Japan. We were going to bomb them anyway. What's the
difference between 10 thousand bombs falling in bulk upon
the city, and one massive bomb destroying it all at once?
Either way, it's razed to the ground.
The radiation should be gone by now. The radiation outside
of the plant at Chernobyl is cleared up, and that expansion
happened awhile after the bombs. That land is cleared.
Civilians have often been wounded and killed in bombings.
What about the bombing of London? Berlin? When did the
Japs bomb us? I'll tell you. They flew tiny hot air balloons up
with bombs. The balloons would fly over America, and
eventually pop releasing the bomb. These weren't targeted
at the military. They were meant to attack the civilians. A
few were killed/ wounded. A thought occurred to me. You
are worrying about civilian loss of life. Are you aware what
the Japs did to the conquered peoples? They made life a
living hell for them. The Japanese occupation was so bad
that we released the Philippines from American control, the
Bataan death march that took place in the Philippines. That
was just plain cruelty.
Finally I see it as revenge to the pearl harbor bombing.

3. At the time however, a very good military reason for use of
atomic weapons was the Japs use of kamikazes. The Japs
used kamikazes beginning during the invasion of the
Phillipines up thru Battle of Okinawa - in all that time they
deployed about 2500 kamikaze planes which sank approx.
forty or fifty ships but damaged about two hundred. A ship
damaged in Jap waters usually had to be towed by another
ship all the way back to Hawaii (one damaged ship equaled
two ships lost from the fleet). The kamikaze was a
completely new and terrifying weapon to Americans. By
1945, the Japs had poor pilots but very good single engine
aircraft - inclduing a 400 mph Nakajima fighter and a 600
mph rocket kamikaze. All in all the Japs had five thousand
kamikaze aircraft hidden in mountain airfields waitng to be
used against the US landing fleet. They had lost their best
pilots but had much improved kamikaze attack tactics. Can
you imagine the effect of five hundred kamikaze strikes on
the American thousand ship invasion fleet? Also: Okinawa
was a Jap home island. Battle of Okinawa casualties: fifty
thousand Americans, one hundred thousand Jap soldiers,
one hundred thousand Jap civilians. Without the atomic
bombs (which killed prob. a quarter of a million Japs),
perhaps a million Americans would have been casualties,
millions of Jap soldiers, and millions of Jap civilian militia
would have died in an invasion.