Was the Atomic Bomb Justified? by Lauren Hanrion https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k Use the sources to determine whether or not you think the use of the atomic bomb on Japanese civilians was the best way to end WWII. en-us 2019-05-28 13:26:13 UTC 2023-07-13 22:52:38 UTC hello@padlet.com Ongoing Unpredictability of the "Enemy" hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364013674 Please watch the 3 minute video to see the effects of kamikaze. Think: How might the US military feel about these types of attacks?]]> 2019-05-28 13:31:22 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364013674 The Gyokusai Spirit hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364017648 In the Ken Burns documentary The War (2007), a veteran Marine pilot of the Okinawa campaign relates his thoughts at the time about invading the home islands:
By then, our sense of the strangeness of the Japanese opposition had become stronger. And I could imagine every farmer with his pitchfork coming at my guts; every pretty girl with a hand grenade strapped to her bottom, or something; that everyone would be an enemy.

The main argument in support of the decision to use the atomic bomb is that it saved American lives which would otherwise have been lost in two D-Day-style land invasions of the main islands of the Japanese homeland. It was codenamed Operation Downfall. There is no doubt that a land invasion would have incurred extremely high casualties, for a variety of reasons. 

For one, Field Marshall Hisaichi Terauchi had ordered that all 100,000 Allied prisoners of war be executed if the Americans invaded. Second, it was apparent to the Japanese as much as to the Americans that there were few good landing sites, and that Japanese forces would be concentrated there. Third, there was real concern in Washington that the Japanese had made a determination to fight literally to the death. The Japanese saw suicide as an honorable alternative to surrender. The term they used was gyokusai, or, “shattering of the jewel.” 

It was the same rationale for their use of the so-called banzai charges employed early in the war. In his 1944 “emergency declaration,” Prime Minister Hideki Tojo had called for “100 million gyokusai,” and that the entire Japanese population be prepared to die.
]]> 2019-05-28 13:41:24 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364017648 Would Japan really have been difficult to Invade? hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364020087 All of the military planners based their casualty estimates on the ongoing conduct of the war and the evolving tactics employed by the Japanese.   In the first major land combat at Guadalcanal, the Japanese had employed night-time banzai charges—direct frontal assaults against entrenched machine gun positions.  This tactic had worked well against enemy forces in their Asian campaigns, but against the Marines, the Japanese lost about 2,500 troops and killed only 80 Marines.

At Tarawa in May 1943, The Japanese modified their tactics and put up a fierce resistance to the Marine amphibious landings.  Once the battered Marines made it ashore, the 4,500 well-supplied and well-prepared Japanese defenders fought almost to the last man.  Only 17 Japanese soldiers were alive at the end of the battle.
]]> 2019-05-28 13:47:40 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364020087 Annihilation--Firebombing of Japan before Aug. 1945 hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364021312 Please click on the picture to zoom in. Notice the destruction of Japan's largest cities--Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe.]]> 2019-05-28 13:50:58 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364021312 Fighting the Traditional, Time-Consuming Way hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364022814 Another concurrent argument supporting the use of the bomb is that it achieved its primary objective of shortening the war. The bombs were dropped on August 6 and 9. The next day, the Japanese requested a halting of the war.  On August 14 Emperor Hirohito announced to the Japanese people that they would surrender, and the United States celebrated V-J Day (Victory over Japan).  Military planners had wanted the Pacific war finished no later than a year after the fall of Nazi Germany. The rationale was the belief that in a democracy, there is only so much that can reasonably be asked of its citizen soldiers (and of the voting public).

As Army Chief of Staff George Marshall later put it, “a democracy cannot fight a Seven Years’ war.” By the summer of 1945 the American military was exhausted, and the sheer number of troops needed for Operation Downfall meant that not only would the troops in the Pacific have to make one more landing, but even many of those troops whose valor and sacrifice had brought an end to the Nazi Third Reich were to be sent Pacific.

It was believed that the war would have been prolonged by 6 months to a year by NOT using the atomic bomb.
]]> 2019-05-28 13:54:38 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364022814 Survivors Recall the Horrors of the Bombs hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364030077 Please watch the video below to see the effects of the bombs on civilians. ]]> 2019-05-28 14:13:05 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364030077 William Guarnere's discussion on the atomic bombing hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364030923 We were on garrison duty in France for about a month, and in August, we got great news: we weren’t going to the Pacific.  The U.S. dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, the Japanese surrendered, and the war was over.  We were so relieved.  It was the greatest thing that could have happened. Somebody once said to me that the bomb was the worst thing that ever happened, that the U.S. could have found other ways.  I said, “Yeah, like what? Me and all my buddies jumping in Tokyo, and the Allied forces going in, and all of us getting killed?  Millions more Allied soldiers getting killed?”  When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor were they concerned about how many lives they took?  We should have dropped eighteen bombs as far as I’m concerned.  The Japanese should have stayed out of it if they didn’t want bombs dropped. The end of the war was good news to us.  We knew we were going home soon.]]> 2019-05-28 14:15:31 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364030923 Potsdam Conference--"We Warned Ya, Japan" hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364075324 The Pamphlet pictured was dropped onto Japanese cities from American planes, warning the Japanese that we would do something very serious to them if they did not surrender.

THINK: to what extent do you think the civilians had the power to make choices regarding the end of the war?]]> 2019-05-28 16:13:52 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364075324 Treatment of American Prisoners of War (POWs) hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364076218 Use the link to understand the feelings of vengeance (perhaps) that Americans felt with treating Japan differently than Nazis.]]> 2019-05-28 16:16:37 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364076218 Panic in Asia--Use of Comfort Women hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364076898 Captives were forced to give themselves to Japanese soldiers all day and night. Numerous women died from injuries.

Only recently did Japan acknowledge the experiences of these women and apologize.

The picture attached is one of few images we have of comfort women. Think about ethnicities, ages, etc.
]]> 2019-05-28 16:18:46 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364076898 Panic in Asia, Pt. 2--Unit 731 and medical experiments hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364077205 Explore the website provided to see the medical experiments that the Japanese were conducting on hundreds of thousands of people. ]]> 2019-05-28 16:19:42 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364077205 Think: To what extent do you punish civilians for what the government controls? hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364078638 2019-05-28 16:23:21 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364078638 Image 1 hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364080113 Scenes from an artist who survived the bombing--"Men, Women, and Children crawled to the river for relief from the burns...As they crawled, skin fell off like a glove."]]> 2019-05-28 16:27:38 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364080113 Image 2: Atomic Bomb Victims hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364081185 The survivors of the bombs, called the Hibakusha, dealt with lifelong health issues. Also, society rejected them as they were seen as "diseased"--this meant they were rejected for jobs, love, and relationships. At first, the government did not assist these people with rejoining society.]]> 2019-05-28 16:30:15 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364081185 Many of the bomb victims were not actually Japanese. hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364081189 Please read the article to see how the Koreans and Chinese felt about the bombing.]]> 2019-05-28 16:30:16 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364081189 Would the Japanese really have fought back like we thought? hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364082405 Please watch the video clip (warning: graphic) regarding how the Japanese felt when the Americans invaded Saipan. Note: It is nothing like the narrative of the "Japanese fighting spirit" that you've known about.]]> 2019-05-28 16:34:14 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364082405 The Japanese attempted to surrender to the US and Soviet Union several times. hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364083858 By April, 1945— Japan actually WANTED to establish an end to the war. Was already having discussions in Moscow with the Soviet Union (our ally) to do so.

  -The Japanese knew they didn’t stand a chance against an invasion   from the Soviets, and met to negotiate.

-They didn’t want the “unconditional surrender” that Americans had asked of them. 
 
 Instead, they countered our demands.]]> 2019-05-28 16:38:59 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/364083858 Urgency to End it All hanrionl https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/435407459 Many of the factors you see below were occurring for the duration of the Pacific Theater. One might argue that there was a "sense of urgency" to end the war so that these atrocities would not continue. ]]> 2020-01-23 21:52:52 UTC https://padlet.com/hanrionl/ld7zlrr8z53k/wish/435407459