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To what extent were the Americans ethically justified in the dropping of the atom bomb?

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To what extent were the Americans ethically justified in the dropping of the atom bomb?

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Key:
Politics
red
US officials
yellow
Surrender and preparations of japan
green
Realities of bomb
blue

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“[Her interview or story] has never before been broadcast in the US”

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“My dad told us, he said, ‘now you’ve got to forget all of this. It’s going to make you very sad and the experience must be extinguished from your mind’”

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“The skin just peel off. Some of them you could see the bone. Their eyes were closed. The nose bled. Lips swelled and the whole head started swelling… keep on vomiting until they die, blood rushed out and that was the end of them”

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Kaleria Palchikoff Drago -  NPR Interview, Seeing the Horror of Hiroshima

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Kaleria Palchikoff Drago -  NPR Interview, Seeing the Horror of Hiroshima

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Primary Source

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“In deciding to use this bomb I wanted to make sure that it would be used as a weapon of war in the manner prescribed by the laws of war. That meant that I wanted it dropped on a military target”

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“We gave the Japanese three days in which to make up their minds to surrender, and the bombing would have been held off another two days had weather permitted”

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“We could wait for a miracle but the deadly tragedy of a better war crowded in on us. We labored to construct a weapon of such overpowering force that the enemy could be forced to yield swiftly once we could resort to it. It was the primary aim of our secret and vast effort”

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When Stalin was told of a “new weapon of unusual destructive force” he hoped the US “would make good use of it against the Japanese”

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Primary Source
Pages 416-426

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By July 1945, the US firebombing raids had gutted more than 40% of 66 urban centers in Japan, Japan still had 2 million soldiers and 10,500 with 5,000 kamikazes ready to defend

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End of war was in sight since the assault on Saipan 15 June 1944. This was the Japanese Absolute Zone of National Defense. Koiso Kuniaki then was unable to stop the American advance toward his homeland and left before he would accept the prime minister position in 8 months

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Epicenter reached 5,400 F and equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT,

One atomic weapon equal to five hundred B-29’s in a conventional raid

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Atomic bombs gave Japanese peace advocates a tangible reason for wanting peace

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Japanese believed the US would land again in Kyushu so they planned out the beaches of entry and prepared a 900,000 strong army in northern Kyushu. A landing there would have been a “nightmare”

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May, Michael Perry and Astore, William J. -Atomic Bomb: Was the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justified?

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May, Michael Perry and Astore, William J. -Atomic Bomb: Was the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justified?

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Secondary Scholarly Source

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Churchill and Roosevelt had announced the demand for Japan’s unconditional surrender at Casablanca in 1943. This declaration was repeated at Potsdam in Germany by Truman in 1945. After the Hiroshima was hit with the first A-bomb, the Japanese were given three days to surrender but did not, so Nagasaki was hit

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Japanese responded to Potsdam Declaration with a statement surrounding the term mokusatsu “to kill with silence, take no notice, or treat with silent contempt”

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In a Gallup poll from June 1945, 70% of Americans said they wanted the emperor to be hanged for war crimes and Japan destroyed completely for Pearl Harbor

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Japanese ambassador to the US, Hiroshi Saito announced in 1934, “Japan will commit national suicide, if necessary, to pursue her plan of establishing peace in the Far East”

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Libby, Justin H, - The search for a negotiated peace: Japanese diplomats attempt to surrender Japan prior to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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Libby, Justin H, - The search for a negotiated peace: Japanese diplomats attempt to surrender Japan prior to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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Secondary Scholarly Source

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"The opprobrium might follow an ill considered employment of such force" -Marshall

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In the last 4 days of the war, 1,000 American bomber planes killed more than 15,000 more Japanese, some after the surrender

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"'if the project succeeds, there won't be any investigation. If it doesn't, they won't investigate anything else'" -Stimson

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the memoranda frequently said 'after the bomb is used' or 'when it is used' and never 'if it is used'

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Bernstein, Barton J. -The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered

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Bernstein, Barton J. -The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered

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Secondary Scholarly Source

pages 135-152