The Atomic Bombs of World War 2

The Atomic Bombs of World War 2

The Atomic Bombs of World War 2
Ryan Borek

World War II was a war no one expected to be as gruesome and painful as it was. The actions performed during the war were of such magnitude that those who survived were torn for their lives, their children suffering much the same effect, as the ripples of time crashed down upon the shoulders of the men and women forced into a battle for their futures, as well as millions of others. The unfair burdens pressed down on the unwilling participants of this war ended in more than just their pains and suffering, but the pains and suffering of hundreds of thousands of others, although this was unjustifiably unable to be altered. President Truman was forced to use extreme force against seemingly insurmountable odds in the shape and form of a never forgiving, never ending enemy: The Empire of Japan. His decision to drop two atomic bombs on the major civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while atrocious, were required to end a continually draining war, of which there was no foreseeable end.
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan…We...adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages." This sentiment, originally expressed by Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II, is one currently expressed by many people able to view the war and that particular action through the glasses of nearly sixty years and hundreds of other philosophers. One must remember that during the time, there was no other choice but to wait, costing further more American lives, something which was not an acceptable option.
"We believe that…an early, unannounced attack against Japan [is] inadvisable. If the United States would be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, [and] precipitate the race of...