The day the eath caught fire

A detailed Summary of The day the eath caught fire

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the end to the world largest armed conflict. Many debates have surfaced over the ethics of such an attack. The bomb itself caused massive amounts of casualties while the unknown effects of radiation caused many more deaths amongst the survivors of the blast. Was such a destructive weapon really necessary? Thousands of American lives would have been lost in an all out invasion of Japan. The atomic bomb offered a way to spare the deaths of American soldiers. The cites chosen, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were not random cites, but legitimate military targets. And what of the Japanese wiliness to go all the way? The Japanese had been developing chemical and biological weapons at Unit 731. They planed to use there weapons on the coastal cites of the USA. Despite the ghastly effects of the Atomic Bomb, it offered the best choice for America to a quick and easy defeat of Japan. President Truman, who authorized the use of the atomic bomb, made a wise decision under the circumstances of the war.

There were several conventional methods that were suggested to bring Japan to its knees. The most likely was an invasion of the island of Japan itself. The Japanese were the most tenac

Why Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Did these cities hold more than innocent civilians? Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ligament military targets. Hiroshima was a city of considerable military importance. It contained the 2nd Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops. To quote a Japanese report, "Probably more than a thousand times since the beginning of the war did the Hiroshima citizens see off with cries of 'Banzai' the troops leaving from the harbor." The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great war-time importance because of its many and varied industries, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials. The narrow long strip attacked was of particular importance because of its industries. Some may say the advent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being legitimate military targets does not constitute the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. You have to realize for a moment, that WWII was total war, which meant anything goes as long as it helps your side win the war. The killing of innocent civilians was nothing new to any of the powers fighting in WWII including America. In fact the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki was not as devastating as conventional bombing raids over Tokyo or to previous bombing raids over European cities. Civilian casualty, thought immoral, happens as a byproduct of total war.

"Japan's biological weapons program was born in the 1930s, in part because Japanese officials were impressed that germ warfare had been banned by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. If it was so awful that it had to be banned under international law, the officers reasoned, it must make a great weapon." The Japanese were will to go to any lengths to defeat the Americans including, breaking international law to do it. The Japanese were developing chemical an

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Approximate Word count = 1343
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History