Hiroshima/Nagasaki Thesis and Introduction

Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, ca. 1942
(Photo by Sharkey, taken at the Peace Park in Hiroshima August 2010)

Now known as A-bomb dome. August 2010
(Photo by Sharkey, taken at the Peace Park in Hiroshima August 2010)

 Dropping the atom bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an unjustified and criminal act.  On August 6 and 9, 1945 the United States dropped two atom bombs on the Japanese industrial cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, destroying the cities, killing over 200,000 people, contaminating million more, and accelerating the surrender of Japan and the end of WWII  (Wikipedia, 2011). Yet, the destruction of these two cities, and the civilian casualties did not actually change the outcome of the war, nor saved millions of lives, like some said.  Actually, by the Summer of 1945, Japan was already on its knees and ready to capitulate, even before the bombings Lewis 2010).  The bombings were not justified:  They were mostly a show of strength by the United States, meant to frighten future enemies and to impress current and future allies.  They were a warning, a "Don't mess with us" sign, a message not just to Asia, but also to Europe and its leaders, and most of all to the Soviet Union.

Anti-Japanese progaganda,
a U.S. Army official poster
(Source: Wikimedia Commons--public domain)

Japan had to be the target of the first atom bomb attack, because such attacks on Europe would have found more opposition in the US government, and among the citizens.  Instead, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had caused deep American hatred for Japan, and the little opposition by white Americans to the internment of Japanese Americans (Tataki, 1996) had lead the US Government to assume American support for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.