Blog #10B The Right Reasons?

Many people will look back at the use of the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, and with perfect hindsight, question the wisdom of dropping the bombs. The critics will point to Cold War and the creation of over 40,000 nuclear bombs just by the Soviet Union and the United States alone between 1945-1991. The critics will point to the current spread of nuclear weapons to rogue countries like Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Furthermore, there's no clear location on dozens if not hundreds of nuclear warheads lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But, many people, including respected historians, will assert that the bombs ended the war. Would Japan have surrendered w/o the destruction of two whole cities? Possibly. But, when faced with the prospect of dozens of Okinawa battlefields, President Truman agreed to their use. He had hoped to avoid the death of countless hundreds of thousands of Allied and Japanese soldiers.

So, in 150 words, looking over your notes for Okinawa and how that influenced the decision to drop the bomb, do you think the U.S. dropped them for the right reasons? Or did the eventual consequences listed in the first paragraph outweigh the end of the war? Explain why.