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Pearl Harbor and the Atomic Bomb

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On December 7, 1941, 180 Japanese combat airplanes headed towards Pearl Harbor, the American naval base in Hawaii. Even though many of those pilots were veterans from previous air battles over China and Mongolia, none of them had ever flown so far for such an important mission. As soon as the bombs were dropped, and ships sent torpedoes to their assigned targets, the American navy began to sink “at their moorings." Within the next thirty minutes the Japanese aircraft made another lap around the base to finish up those who were still alive, and by 9:30 AM almost 700 American soldiers were killed and 18 ships were destroyed. With such a surprise and grand attack like this one, the Japanese military forces expected the United States to agree on negotiations they had set out, when faced with a sudden defeat. However, their expectations were wrong, and American President Truman declared war on Japan. Americans had to fight the Japanese in a war that was later referred to as the Pacific War. Unfortunately, the “Great Industrial Nation” such as the United States was not prepared for the Pacific War. During that year (1941), the United Stets were producing armor and sending troops to Britain and that meant that full mobilization and training of its troops would take a lot of time, which for the United States was unacceptable. This led to the decision to use their “winning weapon” in order to win this war quickly and ensure the defeat of the Japanese forces. On August 6, 1945 the city of Hiroshima was hit by the uranium bomb known as “Little Boy”, and few days later another plutonium bomb known as the “Fat Man” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Beside massive casualties and severe property damages, the two bombs brought “sheer terror” that placed a fear into people’s lives. Although the bombings of the two cities were initially set out to be a military mission, the majority of deaths involved civilians. On top of that the numbers of deaths we know do not include those who passed away later on from being exposed to the cancerous and deadly radiation produced by the bomb. Even before the Pearl Harbor incident, the relationship between the United States and Japan was not on good terms. The United States had imposed some trade sanctions on Japan over China, due to the previous Japanese invasion in China during 1931 and 1937. Although many suggest that revenge played an important role for why the cities were bombed that is not the case; it was not a primary motive that brought the USA into the war. When the Americans landed on the lands conquered by the Japanese they were faced with firm resistance, because it was a cultural norm that the Japanese fight to the death. For Truman, it was clear that if the Japanese soldiers fought in this type of manner (to the death, and by using suicide bombers, known as Kamazi pilots), while refusing to surrender, it would bring huge losses to the allied forces. Truman was mostly concerned about the American soldiers who would have to give up their lives in Japan. Their sources were informing then about the military situation in Japan, and what was cle

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