Was the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb Justified?
Was the dropping of the atomic bombs justified? I have carefully selected six different sources which are either for or against the USA dropping the bombs on Japan. I have tried to find ones which support or oppose the dropping for their own separate reason. Source 4 is against the dropping of the bomb. It is an eye-witness account from a five year old girl; I think this is a reliable source because a five year old girl has no reason to lie about the events. It is sad because a girl of that age should not have to witness or go through so much pain and suffering. It makes the Americans look like murderers of innocent people. Source 9 supports the dropping of the bomb. It was written by Harry Truman (American President at the time); it is likely to be bias because the president would not want his country or him to look bad in dropping the bomb. His reasoning for dropping the bomb was that he didn’t want the people of his country to be harmed by the Japanese, ‘General Marshall told me it might cost half a million American lives.’ This is a good argument because no-one would want to risk that many people’s lives from their own country unless they were extremely callous. Source 11 opposes the bombing. I was from an interview with the secretary to the Japanese war minister; it may be bias because he may feel pressured into commending his boss’s opinion, it is also possible that he may have lost someone in the bombing and would therefore be against it. ‘Our food supply would run out, then our weapons.’ He goes on to say that the Americans could have won without the use of the atomic bombs or killing the thousands of Japanese civilians. This makes America look very bad because the death of so many people was