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This writer contends that the dropping of the atomic bomb was needed in order to end World War II, and defeat the Imperialist Japanese into unconditional surrender. Due to the brutality throughout the entire war and the unwillingness of the Japanese to abide by the Potsdam Declaration, there was not any other option. Without the usage of these nuclear weapons, there could have been half a million American casualties as well as all the lives of the Japanese soldiers and civilians if the war continued. The cruelty is proven from the war crimes committed by the Japanese. Not only were they acting in these ways to American soldiers, but to any body they felt like, including young women.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack on the United States, crumbling the navy fleet. The attack was without warning and the Japanese were showing no mercy, destroying everything they could. Over two thousand Americans died that day for no reason. The Japanese were allies to the Germans and brought the United States into World War II. Before that day dreadful day happened, President Roosevelt already had a project, known as the Manhattan Project, which was researching and developing atomic weapons.

The use of dropping atomic bombs on the two cities in Japan became, and still is one of the most controversial topics among historians. Many of the arguments cannot be resolved, because there is a lack of evidence that could help ones debate against the droppings. However, with the decision to drop the bombs being more complex, it brings along disagreement. In the book prompt & utter destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan, J. Samuel Walker discusses the issues that were occurring during World War II and Walker’s idea that “if Truman had in fact faced a choice between authorizing the bomb and ordering an invasion that would have cost hundreds of thousands of American lives, the decision to use the bomb would have been obvious.”[1]

Ronald Takaki in his book, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb, attempts to question the answer given to why the bombs were dropped; that it saved half a million American lives. Takaki makes some good points, but takes them to a whole new level making him look biased, for example, using the reasoning that Truman was just trying to make up for a bullied childhood. Takaki states, “Moreover, Truman had a secret, and, in time, he would show Stalin how ‘big’ he, Truman, was.”[2] In her book, The Manhattan Project and The Atomic Bomb:In American History, Dorren Gonzales has the same views as most historians. How thousands of young American soldiers were dying, and millions more were perishing around the world. With Japan not willing to surrender on America’s terms, there was no other choice except to drop the bombs, and save American and Japanese lives.

There are questions that will go forever unanswered in historian’s debate among Truman’s ultimate decision. Whether a person thinks it was morally or strategically wrong, there forever will be and have always has been somebody on the other side with a difference in opinion.

For many years physicists and the army worked together to create the ultimate weapon and to do so before Hitler and Nazi Germany and it all started with an idea. Leo Szilard, a Hungarian born physicist, thought that splitting an atom could potentially release enormous amounts of energy. The splitting of one atom would result in giving off particles that would split two other atoms, and so on. He thought that if billions of atoms fissioned in a chain reaction, powerful bombs could be created. Szilard recruited two other Hungarian physicists, Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller. Together these three men became convinced that not only was the development of a nuclear weapon possible, but that the German government was already doing research on such a weapon.

As a result of this, they decided that President Franklin Roosevelt needed to be aware of the danger, and the United States must begin its own atomic research project. In order for this to happen the men needed a trustworthy name that even the President knew and respected. The man they decided on was Albert Einstein. Szilard was an old friend of Einstein’s and found out he was spending the summer on Long Island. So Szilard made an appointment to meet with him on Sunday, July 16, 1939. As soon as Szilard explained the idea of how a chain reaction might be created, Einstein was very intrigued. He enjoyed the idea so much that he immediately agreed to do anything he could to bring this idea to the attention of the government.

Einstein wrote a letter to the President regarding the possibilities and dangers of an atomic weapon. Still, it was not so easy to get an appointment with President Roosevelt in 1939. Finally in October the President learned of the letter and the idea it held. The President stated, “This requires action.” A small committee was set up called the Advisory Committee on Uranium, which consisted of the head of the Bureau of Standards and representatives of the army.[3]

The three Hungarian scientists went to Washington to discuss the situation, but the military representatives were not impressed by a group of foreign scientists. They were not convinced that an atomic bomb could even be created at all, and that it would not make very much of a difference in war. In the end they agreed to a modest budget to fund further research into nuclear energy.

Szilard asked for $6,000 to construct a graphite-uranium system for producing a nuclear chain reaction. After some arguing the committee finally agreed and the money slowly arrived. The uranium board was in no hurry because it did not feel the urgency that the physicists did. The countries of the scientists were overrun by the Nazis, but the United States was not at war. The possibility of entering the war was emerging yet the attitude in America was still very strong against getting involved. The committee still did not really understand the science behind a nuclear weapon. In their opinion there seemed to be no reason to rush this program and waste money to develop a weapon that might not be needed or even work. Then some events occurred that changed that thought.

Hitler was sweeping across Europe dominating anything that came in his path. The possibility that Hitler might soon have access to the most powerful weapon in the world was very frightening. Then the attacks on Pearl Harbor happened. Even before the U.S. entry into the war, the pace of research had increased. In November 1940 the government gave $40,000 to construct a system suggested by Szilard but designed be Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist. The system was based on the use of uranium and graphite.

Work began at Columbia University but was soon shifted to the University of Chicago. The University’s Stagg Field, is where construction took place to build the atomic pile for the experiment. This was conducted in a major city area, but Fermi was convinced that the reaction could be controlled and posed no danger, except to those conducting the experiment. The experiment took place on December 2, 1942. Long control rods, plated with the element cadmium were set up so they could be inserted into holes in the graphite bricks and withdrawn when required. The graphite would slow down the neutrons emitted by the uranium and the cadmium would absorb them. As the control rods were withdrawn, however, fewer of the neutrons from the uranium would be absorbed, resulting in greater fission, meaning more atoms splitting.[4] The basic principle of a self-created chain reaction had been demonstrated, after that it was all engineering.

The army had been involved since June 1942, and by fall the secretary of war realized that someone was going to have to be in charge. The man that was chosen was Colonel Leslie Groves. This was not an assignment Colonel Groves wanted, he wanted to be out fighting the fight with his men. Groves had been in charge of all military construction and was completing his biggest and most visible job, the Pentagon. As deputy chief of construction for the entire U.S. Army, Groves had heard something about the Manhattan Project, but just like everybody else, he doubted that it would be decisive in winning the war. While building the Pentagon, he spent more in a week than the entire budget for the project. Soon thereafter, he became General Groves and was described as being a tough guy.

Groves did not care for people who were not like him and more liberal, which is how most of the scientists working on this project were. He had a tendency to treat Nobel Prize winners like they were in the army. He did not really understand the science behind this experiment and did not act as if he did. So he needed someone to supervise the scientific side of it. He had some people in mind, but none of them were available. Finally Groves found someone, Julius Robert Oppenheimer, a 38-year-old physicist who was already working on the bomb.

The distinction between Groves and Oppenheimer was obvious, starting with appearance. Groves was tall and heavier and Oppenheimer was taller and thin, only weighing in at 135 pounds, by the time he finished his work on the bomb he was at 113 pounds. Groves did not smoke, rarely drank and disapproved of both. Oppenheimer was the complete opposite, smoking five packs a day and had a love of martinis. Even their backgrounds were opposites. Groves was and army “brat,” who was the straight-laced son of a Presbyterian chaplain. Oppenheimer came from a wealthy but nonobservant Jewish family. He was educated at New York City’s Ethical Culture School and some of the best universities in America as well as Europe. Groves was not a bigot, but had a gut level distrust of Jews, particularly nonreligious Jews like Oppenheimer. He did not think they had strong moral values.[5]

Although they had a lot of differences they were both extremely egotistical. Oppenheimer was an absolute genius; everyone acknowledged that even though he had not won the Noble Prize. He was a theoretical physicist rather than a practical experimentalist. Then there was politics. General Groves completely and utterly hated the Nazis, but he did not think much more highly of Communists. Oppenheimer never had any interests in politics until the devastation of the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler. These two cataclysmic events changed him. He became a passionate left-winger. He contributed too many left-wing causes, and spoke at meetings. He was never a Communist, however his brother, sister-in-law, former fiancée, and wife all had been. So were many of his closest friends.

Instead of being put in jail for the duration of the war, he was being offered what was probably the most security sensitive position in the country, which he quickly jumped at. When General Groves appointed him as the project’s scientific director, almost everyone was astonished. Groves saw something in Oppenheimer that overcame all the possible objections, he saw that Oppenheimer desperately wanted the job, that he had the utmost confidence in the project, and that he would do anything he possibly could in order for the project to succeed. Unlike some of the Manhattan Project scientists Oppenheimer always treated General Groves with respect. He would explain the scientific principles to Groves more clearly than anyone else had, and if he still did not understand, Oppenheimer would explain them again.

There was one idea of Oppenheimer that Groves liked very much. In 1942 the scientists of the Manhattan Project were scattered all over the map, working out of different laboratories, some at Chicago others at Colombia, and the rest at other universities. Morale was low, because communication was so difficult. Security was a nightmare for Groves with everyone being so spread out. Oppenheimer presented the thought of a unified separate laboratory to focus solely on the weapon itself. The laboratory could be built in some isolated place, which would help maintain security, but still allow the scientists to talk freely with on another.

General Groves was pleased because he had been thinking along the same lines. He thought most scientists talked too much, but at least if they were all in one place, surrounded by barbed wire, they could be watched. At one point, Groves suggested that the scientists could be drafted, wear uniforms, and become subject to military discipline, Oppenheimer agreed. He even reported to San Francisco’s Presidio for his army physical.[6] Other scientists were not as willing to start wearing uniforms and saluting. Some threatened to quit the project, and the idea of drafting the scientists into the army was tossed.

Oppenheimer used his charm to cajole some of the best scientific talent in the country to join in the search for this weapon. The next big task was to find a location for his laboratory, called “Site Y.” He already had a place picked out in his mind, but remained quiet. This site had to have good transportation, a sufficient supply of water, a local labor force, and a moderate climate for year-round construction and outdoor experiments.[7] It also had to be at least two hundred miles from any international boundary, but west of the Mississippi.

A number of sites in the Southwest were explored. None of which Oppenheimer was very fond of. At one point he made a suggestion of going back to Albuquerque through the town of Los Alamos. He knew this area very well and owned a small ranch about fifty miles away. This had been the spot where Oppenheimer had already picked out in his mind. They arrived at the Los Alamos Ranch School, which housed sons of wealthy families of the East. Groves saw that it could be easily fenced and liked it right off the bat. The area around it was full of beautiful views of the land, which would be a lure for the scientists. It was a perfect setting to develop this ultimate weapon.

General Groves called Washington that night to begin purchasing the land. The school was more than happy to sell out, and the deal was complete within the week. The next month thousands of construction workers moved in and began working. At that point Oppenheimer was traveling around the country meeting with the best scientists and trying to get them to sign up for the project by telling them that they would be working in the mountains of New Mexico, an area that was absolutely breath-taking, and how the work they would be doing would end the war.[8] His tactics worked well in that he got some of the best to agree, including Enrico Fermi.

Los Alamos officially opened on April 15, 1943, with about fifty scientists there. Groves greeted each of them with a handshake and a lecture about how if they failed he was going to have to go to Congress and justify wasting all of the money.[9] The Manhattan Project had begun. As these scientists were working hard to quickly develop these nuclear weapons, the United States was deep into World War II.

America had declared war on Japan, December 8, 1941, the day following the malicious attacks on Pearl Harbor. Soon thereafter, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. By 1942, American troops were fighting in different areas of the world. Just like the scientists on the home front, they were hard at work battling overseas. Not only were they trying to defeat Hitler and the Axis power, America had a personal vendetta with Japan.

In early May, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby, and sever the line of communications between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, intercepted, and turned back Japanese naval forces, preventing the invasion. Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier bombing on Tokyo, was to seize the Midway Islands. America was not equal in strength to the Japanese, but they relied on the support of land-based planes from Midway and Honolulu. The fighting started June 4, 1942. Japanese planes left their carriers and hit the island target. American planes retaliated by seeking out the invasion force. For four days, heart-wrenching fighting raged on. A group of American torpedo bombers kept their attack going until they had all been shot down.

The Americans lost one carrier, the Yorktown, one destroyer, and more than one hundred planes.[10] It was a small price to pay to defeat the Japanese Navy, who had forced a battle with a strong advantage. Although the Japanese had the advantage the Americans defeated them. Instead of threatening Hawaii and the United States mainland, Japan was on the defense for the first time. From that moment on, America began to gather force, and moved persistently towards the islands of Japan. The Battle of Midway was one of World War II’s most critical battles. The tides had been turned from then on out. Everything before Midway was successful for the Japanese, but everything following that was a failure.

In early June, Japan put their operations into action, but the Americans had already cracked the Japanese naval codes in late May. They were fully aware of the Japanese plans and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Americans planned their next move against Japan’s positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily against the island of Guadalcanal. Both plans started in July, but by mid-September the battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw to the northern part of the island. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides, with heavy commitments of troops, and ships in a battle, that was an attempt to wear down the enemy by constant fighting. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops.

Back in the United States, in July 1943, a physicist named Seth Neddermeyer created the theory of implosion. He proposed that the plutonium should be surrounded by a layer of explosives. The scientists continued working, but in early 1944 the difficulties in getting enough quantities of fissionable material increased. General Groves had taken a big risk by building a secret factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The factory was only producing tiny amounts of pure uranium 235. Oppenheimer was told he could count on enough uranium for only one bomb by the summer of 1945. Another factory was created in Hanford, Washington, this one produced plutonium 239. It was estimated that this plant would produce enough plutonium for more than one bomb by 1945.

The two types of nuclear weapons being developed were the uranium bomb and the plutonium bomb. The scientists knew the uranium bomb would work without being tested prior to being dropped. However, with the plutonium being newer and more complicated, they knew it absolutely had to bed tested before usage.

In the battle for air superiority, the Americans emerged victorious, in part because the marines kept the ground from attack. The Japanese bombed the Lunga Point perimeter as often and furiously as they could, usually coordinating air attacks with other operations, but never closely enough. The timing of the air attacks became predictable. The marines even ate by the Japanese air attack clock. They would get two meals a day, not because a shortage of food, but of the lunchtime bombings.[11] Skipping the meals and the stress created major fatigue on the troops. The main question was who would control the night and the surface waters around Guadalcanal. Up until November 15, it was the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Beginning in 1944, the Japanese introduced a new defense mechanism. The Americans called them Kamikazes. They followed several critical and strategic defeats for Japan. Kamikazes were suicide attacks by military aviators, against the Allied ships, in the closing stages of the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Their main goal was to destroy as many warships as possible. Kamikaze pilots would attempt to intentionally crash their aircraft, often loaded with explosives, bombs, torpedoes and full fuel tanks, into Allied ships. The aircraft's normal role was converted to a manned missile, in a desperate attempt to increase the accuracy over a normal bomb. The goal of crippling as many Allied warships as possible was considered critical enough to warrant the cost of a trained aviator and his aircraft.[12]

In May 1944, while the soldiers battled on, the scientists as well as the military started searching for place to test the bomb. The location had to be isolated from any populated area and close enough to Los Alamos to allow easy movement of the equipment. After finding a spot in an area called the Jornada del Muerto, construction started in November.

The important Japanese base of Saipan fell to the Allied forces on July 15, 1944. Its capture provided bases, which enabled U.S. air forces, to strike the Japanese Home Islands. After the fall of Saipan, the Japanese predicted that the Allies would try to capture the Philippines. In August 1944, it was announced by a news agency that a flight instructor was training pilots in Taiwan for suicide missions. Kamikazes were the most common and best-known form of Japanese suicide attack during World War II.

In December 1944, General Groves traveled to Washington D.C. and met with President Roosevelt. They had a meeting discussing the project. Groves told him that by the summer of 1945, the U-235 will be ready, and does not need to be tested. He also said that they anticipated a trial of the plutonium bomb around the same time. The pressure at Los Alamos was very heavy in 1945. Soon though, Niels Bohr arrived, and participated in many discussions, offering solutions to some of the technical problems that needed to be solved. His main contribution was more psychological, than scientific. In April, the Oak Ridge plant produced enough uranium 235 for a single bomb. It was then shipped off to Los Alamos, where Rudolf Peierls built the bomb by hand.[13]

The battle of Iwo Jima was one of the fiercest fights of the war. The Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily equipped, with huge bunkers, hidden artillery, and eleven miles of tunnels. The battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands, where the soldiers harshly defended their land. Before the Marines stepped foot on the island, American naval crafts used nearly everything available to shell the island. Although the bombing was consistent, it did not discourage the Japanese defenses, since most of the Japanese were hidden and protected from the shelling.

Many were sheltered by Mount Suribachi itself. The first wave of Marines was not hit by Japanese fire right away. It was the plan of the Japanese to hold fire until the beach was full of Marines, and equipment. Many of them, who landed on the beach in the first wave, figured that the naval firing of the island had killed all of the Japanese troops that were expected to be defending it. Marine patrols began to advance inland in search of the Japanese. Most of the hidden bunkers and firing locations suddenly lit up, and the Marines took hit after hit, as tons of men were shot down by the machine guns.

The Marines faced heavy fire from Mount Suribachi at the south of the island. It was extremely difficult for the Marines to advance, because of the inhospitable terrain, which consisted of volcanic ash. This ash allowed for neither, a secure footing nor, the construction of defensive foxholes to protect the Marines from fire. In the days after the landings, the Marines expected a banzai attack during the night. This had been the standard Japanese final defense strategy in previous battles against enemy ground forces in the Pacific.

The fighting was extremely fierce. The Americans' advance was stalled by numerous defensive situations. They were ambushed by Japanese troops that occasionally sprung out of the tunnels. The Marines learned that firearms were relatively ineffective against the Japanese defenders, and instead used flamethrowers, and grenades to flush out Japanese troops in the tunnels. With the landing area secure, more troops, and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields, and the remainder of the island. Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death.

On March 18, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa began. This was the largest battle in the Pacific during World War II. The battle had one of the highest casualties. The biggest reason for the battle was to gain a major island close to the main Japanese islands. The Allies were beginning to surround Japan, and Okinawa would serve as a base for the planned invasion of the mainland islands.

Japanese staff officers on Okinawa felt that their headquarters had abandoned them, and that they would be overwhelmed, and destroyed by the Americans. The Japanese had used kamikaze tactics, but for the first time, they became a major part of their defense. Between the American landing on Easter Sunday, and May 25, seven major kamikaze attacks were attempted, involving more than fifteen hundred planes. The U.S. Navy sustained greater casualties in this operation, than in any other battle of the war. While no major Allied warship was lost, several fleet carriers were severely damaged. General Buckner decided to proceed immediately with the second part of his plan, which was to attack, and capture northern Okinawa. The land was very mountainous, and wooded, with the Japanese defenses concentrated on a twisted mass of rocky ridges, and narrow valleys. There was heavy fighting and the Americans were at a disadvantage. The Japanese knew these lands, and all the hiding spots. The Americans were going into this battle blind, not knowing anything about the land. In addition to all the fighting, they encountered suicide bombers, and even Japanese women armed with spears. The island fell on June 23, 1945, though some Japanese continued fighting.

During the Battle of Okinawa, a tragic event occurred in the United States on April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt had died. In his fight to defeat the Axis power, he unfortunately did not get to see the end. Even though he passed, the war still went on, and so did the Manhattan Project. Vice-President Harry Truman became President, and on April 25, was visited by Henry Stimpson, the Secretary of War. This meeting is where Truman learned about the atomic bombs for the first time.

Also in April, the Japanese government had prepared a war policy called Ketsugo. These plans would prepare the Japanese people psychologically to die as a nation, defending their homeland. Even children, including girls, would be trained to use improvised lethal weapons, and encouraged to sacrifice themselves by killing an American invader. In order to train the children to kill, soldiers attended schools on how to use weapons, such as bamboo spears.

The scattering of these military resources across Japan, and their careful disguise, would provide the Americans with no opportunity to destroy them from the air. The Ketsugo policy placed heavy dependence on suicide attacks on American troops, and their warships. For this reason, several thousand Japanese aircrafts would be modified for suicide attacks. Other methods of suicide attacks, included dynamite-filled crash boats, guided human torpedoes, guided human rocket bombs, and specially trained ground suicide units carrying explosives.

In addition to all of these, the invading Americans would have to face a civilian population drilled in guerilla war tactics, who would rather die than be captured by an American. The Americans had every reason to be deeply concerned when they learned about Japanese plans to defend the home islands by massive suicide attacks. The Kamikaze suicide attacks on Allied ships at Okinawa had alone produced a horrendous amount of casualties.

In May 1945, the war in Europe ended with the surrender of Germany, and the death of Hitler. America was very happy, but they still had a battle to face in the Pacific. Many of the men who battled over in Europe were shipped over to the Pacific. America also found out that the Germans did not have an atomic bomb or anything close to it. Nevertheless the race to finish it was still going on. After the defeat of Germany, the Imperial Army started pulling back to get ready for the American invasion.

The goal at the beginning of the Manhattan Project was to beat Hitler. With the fall of the Third Reich and the death of Hitler, nobody at Los Alamos or Washington considered stopping. There was still the war in Asia, where it was clear that the Japanese were defeated, but were not willing to give up until the last man was killed. Stalin, Churchill, and Truman agreed to meet in Potsdam on July 15, to discuss Europe and the war in the Pacific. General Groves set the target date for the test to be on July 16, so Truman could have the knowledge of having an atomic weapon in his hands. The meeting was held off until July 17.

The plutonium did not arrive until May 31 from Hanford. Before this, nobody had ever seen the material before. Up to that point it was all theory. The bomb existed only in notes and calculations. The plutonium core was taken to Trinity on July 12. The next day the core was driven to the base of the one hundred foot tower, built to drop the bomb. On July 15, lots of observers began to arrive. They were going to watch the test about twenty miles away. General Groves was concerned about possible saboteurs. He thought the Japanese might launch a parachute assault, and he ordered a team to guard the tower before the scheduled test.[14]

The testing was ready to go, everyone got into their designated positions. The countdown began, a one-minute warning rocket and siren went off. At 5:29 A.M. on July 16, 1945, the bomb was dropped, and the sky lit up. The bomb had worked, and for the first time in history, nuclear weapons had been created. On July 26, the Potsdam Declaration was created. This outlined the terms of surrender for Japan as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. The agreement stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face prompt and utter destruction to the Japanese, and its people.

After the success at Trinity, bombing raids occurred over Japan. As the number of American lives soared, and Japan showed signs of admitting defeat, the Americans finally decided strike, with the bombing raids. These raids were devastating to the cities, because houses were made of wood and rice paper, so the fire would spread rapidly, destroying homes, and killing people. The raids soon stopped. However, instead of persuading Japan to surrender, the Japanese government was able to use the air raids to create more hatred towards the Americans, and strengthen the spirit of the Japanese people to fight to the death as a nation.[15] When the Potsdam Declaration was made, Truman sent a warning out to Japan, that if they did not surrender unconditionally, they would face utter destruction. The Japanese rejected the Declaration, and so the plan to drop an atomic bomb was constructed. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was released over the city of Hiroshima. The bomb destroyed the entire city, and killed massive amounts of people. The Japanese still did not surrender, so three days later, the second bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki, again destroying the entire city and people. On August 15, 1945, the emperor of Japan surrendered.

Throughout the duration of the war, the Japanese were known for their malicious and brutal acts, like the deadly program of testing out experiments to help develop biological-warfare ability, and making thousands of non-Japanese women provide sexual services for the soldiers, plus many other things. Cannibalism was something the Japanese not only did to other countries, but to each other. In most cases, Japanese soldiers were the victims in places like New Guinea towards the end of the war, when their supplies got cut off. There were also incidents when Allied soldiers and the local citizens would fall victim. Japanese soldiers referred to the Allies as “white pigs” and the locals as “black pigs.”[16] The condition of a persons scalp indicated that Japanese soldiers tried to remove the brains of the victims, but were interrupted before they could finish. A majority of times, the Japanese soldiers did not have time to dispose of the disfigured body or cooked remains.

The soldiers would remove the bodies of Allied soldiers from an area where fierce combat was taking place, and brought them to a safer spot to prevent the Allies from recovering the bodies. It was not just on the Allied soldiers that the Japanese acted with cannibalism, but also on Chinese and Indian Muslims who were prisoners of war. Some more carnage occurred with Unit 731. This was the secret biological warfare unit which part of its research was experimented on humans. During World War II, the Japanese used biological weapons against the Chinese. They sprayed cholera, typhoid, plague, and dysentery pathogens. This was done in retaliation after the first United States air raids on Tokyo and Nagoya. The aircrafts landed on airfields located in China, this was seen as them collaborating with the Allies.[17]

Unit 731 used tons of Chinese people for experiments, many of whom had retaliated against the Japanese. They also performed frostbite experiments on prisoners of war. They would be tied up outside, in weather that some nights would reach below zero, along with that, parts of their bodies would be sprayed with salt water in order to induce frostbite. Their arms would be hit with hammers, in order to see if they were frostbitten. Following this, they would be immersed in hot water of ranging temperatures, in order to determine how recovery from frostbite could best be facilitated.[18] Other victims would undergo surgeries and amputations without anesthesia. The anesthesia would not be used because they considered it to affect the results. In some victims, animal blood would be injected into their bodies.

Not only did the Japanese treat other countries with such disrespect, but they were even worse with American soldiers. Japan prides itself on being respectful to the dead, but the Japanese were like vultures when it came to the dead Allied soldiers. They would dismantle them, even going so far as to cutting off their penis' and sticking it in the dead soldiers mouth. They had no disregard for any human kind other than themselves, and the emperor.

The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaski, was needed to stop the Japanese, and save half a million American lives. The Japanese were not willing to surrender unconditionally, and were ready to fight to the very end. After the bloody and devastating Battles of Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, President Truman did not want to go into another battle, and lose hundreds of thousands of American lives. To the Japanese, surrender was not an option, they viewed it as disgraceful. With that in mind, they were willing to keep on battling until every last citizen was dead. Although the casualties from the two bombs were large, they do not compare to the amount of Japanese who would have died if the whole population of Japan kept fighting the war. America was not involved in World War II, until the Japanese slyly attacked Pearl Harbor, without any mercy. They starved, tortured, and killed American prisoners of war, along with innocent people from different countries. To save many more young men from being killed and tormented, and many young women from being raped, the bomb was dropped. The Japanese were a poison killing the world, a poison that needed to be stopped, by any means necessary.

[1] J. Samuel Walker, prompt & utter destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan (North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 109.

[2] Ronald Takaki, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995), 113.

[3]Daniel Cohen, The Manhattan Project (Connecticut: The Millbrook Press, 1999),19-20.

[4] Cohen, 27.

[5] Cohen, 34.

[6] Cohen, 38.

[7] Cohen, 40.

[8] Cohen, 42.

[9] Cohen, 44.

[10] Joanna Bourke, The Second World War (United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2001), 92.

[11] Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett, A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World W r (Massachusetts: The Belknap of Harvard, 2000), 213.

[12] Murray, 512.

[13] Cohen, 69.

[14] Cohen, 77.

[15] Cohen, 100.

[16] Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors (Colorado: Westview Press, 1996), 114.

[17] Tanaka, 138.

[18] Tanaka, 139.

Bibliography

Bourke, Joanna, The Second World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Bradley, James, Flags of Our Fathers. New York: Bantam Books, 2001.

Cohen, Daniel, The Manhattan Project. Connecticut: The Millbrook Press, 1999.

Gonzales, Dorren, The Manhattan Project and The Atomic Bomb: In American History. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2000.

Murray, Williamson, Millett, Allan, R. A War to Be Won. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000.

Takaki, Ronald, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.

Walker, J. Samuel, prompt & utter destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004.