Hiroshima And Nagasaki

Hiroshima And Nagasaki

At approximately 8:15 am, 80,000 Japanese citizens died, 69,000 were injured, and more than four square miles of Hiroshima was completely destroyed. Three days later at approximately 11:02 am, one and a half square miles of Nagasaki was demolished, instantly killing 39,000 and injuring 25,000 (The Atomic Bombings). The dropping of the two bombs ended World War II, but opened another door leading to the Cold War which greatly affected the American society.
In the late 1930’s, Japan’s militaristic government wanted more control in Asia and in the Pacific. When Japan went to war with China, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was very displeased and even sold weapons to China. Japan brutally began to invade China and tried to continue spread their control east. Since FDR didn’t agree with what Japan was doing, he decided to boycott certain important goods and cut off the shipments of oil.
Japan now had 3 options to deal with this. They could either surrender to America, sit down to negotiate, or go to war. In the Japanese culture it would be disgraceful to surrender and would cause their leaders to lose face. Therefore surrender was not an option for the Japanese. For President Roosevelt negotiation wasn’t an option. Therefore Japan was left with one more option, war (Woods 180-181).
On December 7th, 1941 Japan attacked America’s navel base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.   That day alone 2,323 men were killed, 150 planes were destroyed, 1 battleship was sunk, plus 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, and 7 battleships were put out of action. The next day the United States declared war with Japan.
Two years earlier in 1939, Albert Einstein, a German Jew who took refuge in the US, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt warning him that the Germans were developing a uranium bomb. He also advised Roosevelt about the possibilities and dangers of this particular weapon. The president and US leaders established a secret program to develop an atomic before the Germans could (Claypool 52)....