Against Atomic Bomb

Atomic Bomb

After the death of FDR, Truman took the presidency and the decision of whether or not drop the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945 was laid on his shoulders. What Truman untimely decided to do has been a debated subject over the years. But nothing justifies the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the atomic bomb caused devastation among the Japanese, hurried the Cold War into beginning, and because the United States could have found and alternative to dropping the bomb.

When “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima and “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki the United States did not know the effects the bomb would have on the people of Japan. According to the Chairman of the wartime Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William D. Leahy, “Bomb is the wrong word for this weapon. It is not an explosive. It is a poisonous thing that kills people by its deadly radioactive reaction, more than by the explosive force it develops.” This is proven to be true because most of the people who lived in areas surrounding zone got some sort of cancer. The people living in the zones immediately hit by the bomb were either killed on impact or devastatingly burned. Leukemia was a common side effect cancer caused by the radiation in the atmosphere. When the decision was made to drop the bomb the US did not know how much radiation would be emitted simply because they had no clue it existed. Not knowing this was a mistake because in the long run Japan would not be the only nation affected by it because the radiation will go up into the atmosphere and get distributed throughout the planet. Women who were pregnant were also affected greatly because due to the radiation some of the children were born with mutations.

By dropping the bomb we hurried the Cold War when Russia boosted their bomb research and development. The development of the bomb was a threat to the U.S.S.R. because it demonstrated that America was a force to be reckoned with and that the U.S.S.R. was not the only major military force in the world. Because of this the Soviet Union began to make their own bombs and this eventually turned out to be an arms race that lasted over forty years (1947-1991). Not only that but the people in neither the USSR or America could feel safe due to the fact that both nations had weapons of mass destruction pointed at each other. Also the dropping of the bomb did nothing to help the relation between the two nations because there was no way