Belle O’Hara

Mr. Sebestyen

Honors World Regional Geography 9

January 30, 2017

The Atomic Bomb is the most powerful weapon in the United States hands. We have

used it twice on Japan in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. After hearing all the

presentations, I think that President Truman made the right decision with dropping the atomic

bomb because if we didn’t use it we would’ve lost even more U.S. lives, the war could’ve

dragged on even longer, and Japan wouldn’t have stopped attacking us until they won the war.

If the U.S. didn’t use the Atomic Bomb, we would be endangering the lives of our

American soldiers. The alternative decision would’ve been to invade Japan, but many feared that

the invasion would suffer heavy American casualties. If America invaded, the Japanese would

fight back, causing high death tolls not only for us, but for Japan as well. Allies estimated about

250,000 U.S. deaths if we invaded the island. If President Truman chose to invade, some of us

probably wouldn’t be here, because of grandparents could’ve died in the attacks. We chose to

drop the bombs after Japan dismissed an unconditional surrender. Because we used the bombs

we were able to save more U.S. lives, and create peace with Japan more quickly.

When the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Japan they were already at 4 years of war

with them since they declared war after Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941. Before we dropped

the bomb Japan also dismissed an unconditional surrender, so invasions wouldn’t be enough to

make them surrender. If we didn’t drop the bomb, who knows how many years the war could’ve

dragged on to be. After dropping the first bomb, Japan still didn’t surrender which resulted in us
dropping a second bomb three days later. If they still didn’t surrender after the second bomb, we

weren’t afraid to drop a third on them to force a surrender.

Japan proved to us that they would do anything to get revenge on us after bombing Pearl

Harbor due to us imposing economic sanctions on them in response to their expansion. We cut

off all their rubber and oil, which is vital when fighting a war. They also had kamikaze bomber,

which are suicidal air attacks. The Japanese were so brainwashed by their emperor that they were

willing to commit suicide for their country. If we didn’t drop the bomb who knows what the

Japanese would’ve done to us, whether that means dropping more bombs or invading us causing

more American deaths.

In conclusion, I think that President Truman made the right decision for the country by

dropping the bomb on Japan. We saved thousands of American lives by not invading and by

preventing Japan from attacking us. Even though the bombs affected may Japanese lives, we

were able to end the war by using the bombs which helped all the countries involved in the war.