The Pros And Cons Of Dropping The Atomic Bombs

If the bombs were not dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States would have lost at least one million American soldiers in a mainland invasion of Japan (Tucker, 5). That stated, dropping the bombs was the only viable option for sparing both American lives, as well as Japanese lives. The dropping of the bombs, albeit horrific, is justifiable because it saved millions of both American and Japanese lives, prevented the waste of valuable resources, and played a significant role in Japan's surrender. Dropping the bombs saved more lives than if the United States had done a land invasion (Walker, 5). If the war had been prolonged, the United States would have lost millions of lives (Tucker, 5); but the Japanese would also suffer. By prolonging the war, the Japanese would lose numerous soldiers' lives, but also its innocent citizens, due to starvation (Tucker, 6). The Japanese were already in the “dire straits”, they were on tight resources (Walker, 7). A land invasion would have made it worse for both sides. With both options sufficient lives would have been lost; However, with the Manhattan Project successfully creating an atomic bomb, it would have been a waste of time, money, and material resources to have it go unused.

Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.” (Alperovitz, 3). Curtis LeMay agreed, saying, “The war would have been over in two weeks… The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.” (Alperovitz, 4). The Japanese were practically defeated with limited resources (Alperovitz, 6); so the war would have ended quickly without a bomb (Walker, 7). Especially if the Soviets attacked, as Japanese leaders feared Soviet power (Alperovitz, 7). While some military leaders were against any use of the bombs, it was a necessary decision to spare many more casualties for Americans and the