Atomic Bomb - Research Paper Example

Miscamble C.S.C (Cambridge University Press, 192 pp.) This book focuses on the American use of the atomic bomb and how it affected the result of World War II by exploring the situation and context in which President Truman decided to use the atomic bomb. Miscamble uses archival research and latest scholarship to address the value of the decision to end the war and at the same time writes on the moral premise of such an act. The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: August 1945 by Dennis D.

Wainstok (Westport: Praeger, 1996. x, 180 pp.) In his book Dennis D.Wainstock, a teacher at the Salem–Tieyko University in Salem, West Virginia, discusses the political aspect and the implications of President Truman’s decision in the backdrop of the last year of World War II, when the Japanese were on the brink of conditional surrender. The author uses important sources e.g. Strategic Bombing Survey interrogations of leading Japanese officials to substantiate his argument. Atomic Tragedy: Henry L.

Stimson and the Decision to use the Bomb against Japan by Sean L. Malloy Atomic Tradgedy provides a distinct outlook of the situation in World War II and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. . In the August of 1945, towards the end of the World War II, the United States of America dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The estimated loss of life within four months after the bombing were more than 80,000 in Hiroshima and 60,000 in Nagasaki, with almost half of the deaths occurring on the first day only.

1 To date these bombings have been the only instance of nuclear weapon use in a war. Such an acute episode of mass killing along with its long-term radiological consequence is unprecedented in the wars of the twentieth century. In order to assess the necessity of such an act it is important to analyze the event in the military and political backdrop of the involved nations. In his book ‘The most controversial decision’ Miscamble provides a persuasive argument behind the rationale to bomb Japan.

Miscamble states in the book that “the time has come at long last to explode permanently the myth of a Japan ready to surrender.”2Although Germany had already surrendered Japan was providing fierce resistance to the Allied forces. The Americans had suffered huge losses in the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and now they had to prepare for more losses which would be incurred during the invasion of Japan. Many in America’s military regime were ready to bend their initial war aim and accept a conditional surrender by the Japanese but the latter’s minimum demand was that their emperor system should remain intact.

This was unacceptable to the Americans as President Truman believed that the root of Japan’s militarism was their imperialist government. Furthermore negotiations with the Japanese would take months which would provide Japan enough time to strengthen their