When the atomic bomb went off over Hiroshima on Aug. 6th,

1945, 70,000 lives were ended in a flash. To the American people who

were weary from the long and brutal war, such a drastic measure seemed

a necessary, even righteous way to end the madness that was World War

II. However, the madness had just begun. That August morning was the

day that heralded the dawn of the nuclear age, and with it came more

than just the loss of lives. According to Archibald MacLeish, a U.S.

poet, "What happened at Hiroshima was not only that a scientific

breakthrough . . . had occurred and that a great part of the

population of a city had been burned to death, but that the problem of

the relation of the triumphs of modern science to the human purposes

of man had been explicitly defined." The entire globe was now to live

with the fear of total annihilation, the fear that drove the cold war,

the fear that has forever changed world politics. The fear is real,

more real today than ever, for the ease at which a nuclear bomb is

achieved in this day and age sparks fear in the hearts of most people

on this planet. According to General Douglas MacArthur, "We have had

In short, fear is part of the human condition and those

bomb, we sent out the official "go ahead" for the rest of the world

proposal wholly outweigh any military advantage."

hance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable

invasion of Japan, and-not incidentally-save several times more than

whole world is always in danger of nations from time immemorial. For

Finally, we can never forget the maxim of Edmund Burke: "The

superior or more powerful weaponry-not only to defeat Japan but to

ultimately, to drop the atomic bomb. We should expect political

a probably attainable goal. Its accelerated development has been

solution to the Jewish problem," and the Communists' ten of millions

More recently, there was Hitler's genocidal six-million-death "final

which we had vainly hoped to avoid. We could no longer "do nothing"

or nuclear age, and while the source and the judgment deserve respect,

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1514
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)