Document 3
"The face of war is the face of death; death is an inevitable part of every order that a wartime leader gives. The decision to use the atomic bomb was a decision that brought death to over a hundred thousand Japanese.
"But this deliberate, premeditated destruction was our least abhorrent alternative. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Japanese war. It stopped the fire raids, and the strangling blockade; it ended the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies. In this last great action of the Second World War we were given final proof that war is death."
Secretary of War Henry Stimson
Why did Stimson think the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a terrible thing to do but better than any alternative?
He thought it was terrible but a better alternative maybe he feels that although yes, its a bad thing it avoids land warfare. This way it is kind of just taken care of. Its almost as if it was leaving a statement..
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He thought that the atomic bomb was terrible because it killed hundreds of thousands of people, but it was better than any alternative because it ended the war almost instantly. Ending the war with the atomic bomb saved a lot of time.
ReplyDelete(SFJV)He fell like dropping the bomb would end the war quicker and it would save U.S. lives but after the fact that he dropped the bomd he know it was wrong to kill 80,000 people in one swope.
ReplyDeletehe thought it was terrible even though we were using the army to take over but in the end he felt dropping the bomb was necsary
ReplyDeleteStimson thought that the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a terrible thing to do, but better than the alternatives because he believed that in war, death is inevitable. This belief brings up his thought that ending the war instantly with the bombs would be better than losing more U.S. lives and wasting more time. Even though he felt remorse about the taking of so many innocent lives, he believed it would be better than dragging out the war and losing many more people. Since war is a no-win situation as far as death, he was saying that a quick death to many innocents and soldiers would be better than more deaths on the U.S.'s part.
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Stimson thought that using the atomic bomb was a bad thing because it ended over hundred thousand lives in Japan. He thought it was better than any other alternative because it put an end to the US fighting with Japan. Stimson said, "It stopped the fire raids, and the strangling blockade; it ended the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies." I think that Stimson definably had a hard time with letting the atomic bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because, either way lives were going to be taken. But, when it comes to war you have to take your country first.
ReplyDeleteThe way the bomb almost instantly ended the war makes many people think it was the only option left. Innocent civilians (not even the ones fighting) were killed because of that bomb, yet there was belief that it was the best alternative to completely wipe out and end the war.
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He thought that the atomic bomb was bad because it killed hundreds of thousands of people. but he thought it was better than any other decision. it Ended the war almost instantly and saved alot of lives
ReplyDeleteStimson thought the atomic bomb was terrible because it killed so many people all at once. It was better than any alternative because it was an easy way to utimately end the war.
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Approximately 500,000 Purple Heart medals (awarded to those wounded or killed while serving
ReplyDeletewith the US military) were manufactured in anticipation of the invasion. However, no one knows
for sure how many Allied or Japanese casualties an invasion would have resulted in. There have
been many estimates over the years.
Casualty Estimate US/Allied Casualties
Joint Chiefs of Staff
(April 1945) Operation Olympic Wounded: 347,000
Operation Olympic Dead/Missing: 109,000
Operation Coronet Wounded: 744,000
Operation Coronet Dead/Missing: 158,000
TOTAL: 1,200,000
William Shockley
(July, 1945)
research director at
Columbia University's
Anti-Submarine Warfare
Operations Group Wounded: 1,300,000 to 3,200,000
Dead: 400,000 to 800,000
Total: 1,700,000 to 4,000,000
US casualties have been extremely high in previous battles of the Pacific War such as Iwo Jima.
As a result, extremely high casualties were expected during Operation Olympic
Document 2: Excerpt from Senjinkun Military Code
The Instructions for the Battlefield Senjinkun was a pocket-sized military code issued to soldiers in the Imperial Japanese forces on 8 January 1941 in the name of then-War Minister Hideki Tojo.
“The destiny of the Empire rests upon victory or defeat in battle. Do not give up under any circumstances, keeping in mind your responsibility not to tarnish the glorious history of the Imperial Army with its tradition of invincibility.”
because
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