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The Tough Decision - Dropping the Atomic Bomb

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By 1945, America had already been in the war for almost two years. Over 60 million deaths had already occurred which was 2.5 percent of the world population, yet the United States had yet to add a quarter of a million lives to that rising statistic. On August 6, 1945 an American air force soldier flying a B-29 housed a weapon of mass destruction called the Uranium bomb. As it was dropped on 8:15 that rainy Japanese morning, the pilot: Abe Spitzer, described the explosion below as the end of the world (Abe Spitzer from atomic readings). Before this point, other alternatives were possible for the ending of WWII. In the decision of the dropping the atomic bomb, the costs completely outweighed intended the benefits, and was an unethical decision due to the possible alternative methods and mass destruction that occurred. In the final months of WWII Germany had already surrendered and so it was the allies versus the final Axis Power country, Japan. There were two main alternative methods in ending the war without dropping the atomic bombs. The first being that America had the ability to literally starve the country (doug-long.com). From July to August of 1945 there were American navy ships surrounding the country and would not allow any or little imports or exports to be shipped. So with this, Fleet Admiral William Leahy believed that it was enough to make japan surrender because of starvation. He also believed that with the conventional bombings in the cities, japan was very close to surrender (doug-long.com). The second alternative method was simply to be patient. Results of the United States strategic bombing survey showed that if America had just waited, japan would have surrendered eventually without America deploying any actions (debate.org). To show this point the dropping of the atomic bombs took place on august 6th and 9th, yet the Japanese only surrendered on the 15th, which was shortly after the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria. T

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