Autonomy and Responsibility The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bombs on Ja

Autonomy and Responsibility The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan Along with being a world superpower comes a long list of resposiblilities. One such responsibility is the decision of how to deal with other nations when they get out of line. People will always point fingers at who they think is at fault when a nation has to go to war with another. One such example of this is when the United States was brought into the Second World War because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. By becoming involved in World War Two, the U.S. had to fight Japan, which led to the most important decision of the century. This decision was whether or not to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This decision was mainly placed on the shoulders of President Harry Truman. Truman did not jump to the idea of using the atomic bombs on Japan right away. In fact, he and other military officials came up with a few strategies for invading the Philippines initially (1, 17). Some military officials first proposed creating a blockade in the Pacific with carriers (1,18). Another plan was a two-phase amphibious assault on the island of Kyushu (1,18). In this plan the first landing would be followed by a larger second invasion (1,19). With this plan, though, it was estimated that Japan would not surrender until late 1946 (1,21). Also, it meant the use of British troops, and Great Britain could not afford to spare any because of the campaign in Europe (1,21). This meant that far too many lives would be lost on both sides, with a startling amount of half a million on the American side. By now the idea of using the first atomic bomb on Japan was being born. Due to the difficulty of fighting the Japanese in the Philippines, partially because of... ...deal world no bombs would be needed at all because there would be no wars,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.but lets face the fact that that will never happen. There will always be conflicts between nations that can only be resolved through war. Works Cited 1)Fogelman, Edwin. Hiroshima: The Decision to Use the A-bomb. New York: Scribner. 1964. 2)Lifton, Robert Jay. Hiroshima in America. New York: Putnam's Sons. 1995. 3)Sherwin, Martin J. A World Destroyed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1975. 4)Skates, John Ray. The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb. Columbia: University of South Carolina. 1994 5)Hiraoka, Takashi. "Hiroshima" August, 1998. Online posting. 5 Feb. 1999 < http://www.igc.apc.org/napf/hiroshima98.html>. 6)Bernard, Tony. "Atomic Bombs" 1995 Online Posting. 3 Sep. 1997 < http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/City/ABombDamage/01.html>