The Nuclear Bombings of Japan refers to the deployment of two nuclear bombs in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of August, 1945. The intital explosion, fires and long-term medical effects killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people. Seen as the final act of World War II and the beginning of a new nuclear age, they remain an extremely controversial issue and remains the only known deployment of nuclear weapons in a war.
Debate
Debate has raged for nearly 75 years about the ethics, necessity, purpose and legality of the deployment of nuclear weapons against the Japanese Empire. Supporters of the nuclear bombings argue that:
- Japan would refuse to surrender, leading to a land invasion which would killed millions of people
- The bombings were necessary to take out key military targets
- Even if the bombings were unethical, they unintentionally showed the world of the destruction of nuclear weapons, the horrors of which scared the USA and USSR to never destroy eachother
Critics of the bombings argue that:
- Japan was already in the process of surrending, and the bombings were to intimidate the USSR and prevent them from taking all of Korea and China.
- The bombings were an act of terrorism as they intimidated the government via killing civilians
- The bombings could've been dropped in the ocean surrounding the cities, averting the deaths but still scaring the government
- An embargo could've militarily defeated Japan
Quotes by Supporters
"There are voices which assert that the bomb should never have been used at all. I cannot associate myself with such ideas. ... I am surprised that very worthy people—but people who in most cases had no intention of proceeding to the Japanese front themselves—should adopt the position that rather than throw this bomb, we should have sacrificed a million American and a quarter of a million British lives."[1] - Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the UK
Quotes by Critics
"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan." - Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet and representative of the United States when Japan formally surrendered
"The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all." - Major General Curtis LeMay, US 21st Bomber Command
“The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.… in being the first to use it, we…adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”[2] - Admiral William Leahy, President Truman's Chief of Staff
List of Supporters
- Harry Truman
- Lee Kuan Yew
- Winston Churchill
List of Critics
- Albert Einstein - Theoritical Physicist
- Gar Alperovitz - Historian
- Noam Chomsky - Historian, Linguist and Cognitive Scientist