History Debate:

It was Morally Justified that they dropped the atomic bomb.

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decision-to-drop-atomic-bombs
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First, the war in Europe was over, and the U.S. was supplying oil to Europe. If the Japanese war
didnt end in three months, we would have had a hard time sustaining the conflict to a successful
conclusion. Second, the best military estimates concluded that the Japanese would have lost
between 1 million and 3 million lives in an invasion of Japan, plus one-half to 1 million
American lives. Third, the Japanese government was asked to surrender and they consistently
refused, even when their industrial cities had been devastated. Finally, given the Japanese
culture, the people would have fought to the bitter end if the emperor required them to do so.
This is another version I've read of the pamphlet:
TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE:
America asks that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet.
We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man. A single one of our
newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2000 of our
giant B-29s can carry on a single mission. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and we
solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate.
We have just begun to use this weapon against your homeland. If you still have any doubt, make
inquiry as to what happened to Hiroshima when just one atomic bomb fell on that city.
Before using this bomb to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging
this useless war, we ask that you now petition the Emperor to end the war. Our president has
outlined for you the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender. We urge that you accept
these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better and peace-loving Japan.
You should take steps now to cease military resistance. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ
this bomb and all our other superior weapons to promptly and forcefully end the war.
EVACUATE YOUR CITIES.
ATTENTION JAPANESE PEOPLE. EVACUATE YOUR CITIES.
Because your military leaders have rejected the thirteen part surrender declaration, two
momentous events have occurred in the last few days.
The Soviet Union, because of this rejection on the part of the military has notified your
Ambassador Sato that it has declared war on your nation. Thus, all powerful countries of the
world are now at war with you.
Also, because of your leaders' refusal to accept the surrender declaration that would enable Japan
to honorably end this useless war, we have employed our atomic bomb.
A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power
to what 2000 of our giant B-29s could have carried on a single mission. Radio Tokyo has told
you that with the first use of this weapon of total destruction, Hiroshima was virtually destroyed.
Before we use this bomb again and again to destroy every resource of the military by which they
are prolonging this useless war, petition the emperor now to end the war. Our president has
outlined for you the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender. We urge that you accept
these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better, and peace-loving Japan.
Act at once or we shall resolutely employ this bomb and all our other superior weapons to
promptly and forcefully end the war.
Reasons why it was morally justified:
1. Not to do so would be the cause of countless Amrican and Japanese deaths in the otherwise
nesesary invasion.
2. This way, it ended the war swiftly with a relatively low death count.
3. Some say that the attacking of Civilian cities was not justified; that only military argets were
allowed. Unfortuantely, the Japanes had given themselves a reputation of never surendering. It
was part of their military mind set to win or die trying. Only the morale blow, that the civlian
bombings gave, would have affected them enough to sue for peace.
Point s for the debate:
1. The Point of the Bombs was not to kill people, but to end the war. Also, The Japaneese killed
more
Pamphlets from the USAF to the Japs
Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few
days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs.
These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military
goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to
prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with
Americas humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure
innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives.
America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved
the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the
oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can
restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that
only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed
ARGUMENT: America dropped the bombs on innocents.
DEFENSE: The intent was not to kill innocent people, but to end the war. America offered a
chance for Japan to surrender, but the Japanese refused. Hiroshima was a military center.
Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding centre, but it was not the original target. Kokura, and arsenal
town, was. But due to cloud-cover of Kokura,
Nagasaki was chosen.
The Target Committee at Los Alamos on May 1011, 1945, recommended Kyoto, Hiroshima,
Yokohama and the arsenal at Kokura as possible targets. The committee rejected the use of the
weapon against a strictly military objective due to the chance of missing a small target not
surrounded by a larger urban area. The psychological effects on Japan were of great importance
to the committee members. They also agreed that the initial use of the weapon should be
sufficiently spectacular for its importance to be internationally recognized. The committee felt
Kyoto, as an intellectual center of Japan, had a population "better able to appreciate the
significance of the weapon." Hiroshima was chosen due to its large size, its being "an important
army depot" and the potential that the bomb would cause greater destruction due to its being
surrounded by hills which would have a "focusing effect".
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson struck Kyoto from the list because of its cultural
significance, over the objections of Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project.
According to Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, Stimson "had known and admired Kyoto ever
since his honeymoon there several decades earlier." On July 25 General Carl Spaatz was ordered
to bomb one of the targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata or Nagasaki as soon after August 3 as
weather permitted, and the remaining cities as additional weapons became available.
At the time of its bombing, Hiroshima was a city of considerable industrial and military
significance. Even some military camps were located nearby, such as the headquarters of the
Fifth Division and Field Marshal Shunroku Hata's 2nd General Army Headquarters, which
commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics
base for the Japanese military. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an
assembly area for troops. It was one of several Japanese cities left deliberately untouched by
American bombing, allowing an ideal environment to measure the damage caused by the atomic
bomb. Another account stresses that after General Spaatz reported that Hiroshima was the only
targeted city without POW-camps, Washington decided to assign it highest priority.
The center of the city contained a number of reinforced concrete buildings and lighter structures.
Outside the center, the area was congested by a dense collection of small wooden workshops set
among Japanese houses. A few larger industrial plants lay near the outskirts of the city. The
houses were of wooden construction with tile roofs, and many of the industrial buildings also
were of wood frame construction. The city as a whole was highly susceptible to fire damage.
The population of Hiroshima had reached a peak of over 381,000 earlier in the war, but prior to
the atomic bombing the population had steadily decreased because of a systematic evacuation
ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack the population was approximately
255,000. This figure is based on the registered population used by the Japanese in computing
ration quantities, and the estimates of additional workers and troops who were brought into the
city may be inaccurate.
Hiroshima was the primary target of the first U.S. nuclear attack mission, on August 6, 1945.
The B-29 Enola Gay, piloted and commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets, was launched from
Tinian airbase in the West Pacific, approximately 6 hours' flight time away from Japan. The drop
date of the 6th was chosen because there had previously been a cloud formation over the target.
At the time of launch, the weather was good, and the crew and equipment functioned properly.
Navy Captain William Parsons armed the bomb during the flight, since it had been left unarmed
to minimize the risks during takeoff. In every detail, the attack was carried out exactly as
planned, and the gravity bomb, a gun-type fission weapon, with 60 kg (130 pounds) of uranium-
235, performed precisely as expected.
About an hour before the bombing, the Japanese early warning radar net detected the approach of
some American aircraft headed for the southern part of Japan. The alert had been given and radio
broadcasting stopped in many cities, among them Hiroshima. The planes approached the coast at
a very high altitude. At nearly 08:00, the radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number
of planes coming in was very smallprobably not more than threeand the air raid alert was
lifted. (To save gasoline, the Japanese had decided not to intercept small formations, which were
assumed to be weather planes.) The three planes present were the Enola Gay (named after
Colonel Tibbets' mother), The Great Artiste (a recording and surveying craft), and a then-
nameless plane later called Necessary Evil (the photographing plane). The normal radio
broadcast warning was given to the people that it might be advisable to go to air-raid shelters if
B-29s were actually sighted, but no raid was expected beyond some sort of reconnaissance. At
08:15, the Enola Gay dropped the nuclear bomb called "Little Boy" over the center of Hiroshima.
It exploded about 600 meters (2,000 feet) above the city with a blast equivalent to 13 kilotons of
TNT, killing an estimated 70,00080,000 people. At least 11 U.S. POWs also died.
Infrastructure damage was estimated at 90% of Hiroshima's buildings being either damaged or
completely destroyed.
There were 500,000 to 1,000,000 civilian deaths in Japan and 7,000,00 to 16,000,000 civilian
deaths in China (Which was pretty much only fighting Japan) The Japaneese were killing more
civilians than the Americains were and for no good reason.
2. Casualties caused by the bomb vs. the casualties caused by the otherwise neassary invasion.
Internet Links:
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https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-
studies/studies/vol46no3/article07.html
ARGUMENT: The Japanese wanted peace. But the Americans bombed them anyway.
DEFENSE: America asked for complete surrender, something the Japanese were unwilling to
give. America did not want to make peace because Japan had already stabbed them in the
back. Japan couldnt be trusted. They were negotiating, and suddenly, without declaring war,
Japan bombed America.
ARGUMENT: America dropped the bombs on innocents.
DEFENSE: The intent was not to kill innocent people, but to end the war. America offered a
chance for Japan to surrender, but the Japanese refused. Hiroshima was a military center.
Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding centre, but it was not the original target. Kokura, an arsenal
town, was. But due to cloud-cover of Kokura, Nagasaki was chosen.
ARGUMENT: America bombed Japans most Catholic city, Nagasaki.
DEFENSE: America did not pull out a map and say, Hm I wonder which city is the most
Catholic city in Japan. Lets bomb that one! Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding centre and
wasnt even the first choice.
ARGUMENT: The CCC 2314 says: "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction
of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits
firm and unequivocal condemnation." A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the
opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or
chemical weapons - to commit such crimes."
DEFENSE:
Indiscriminate? How was this in any way indiscriminate?
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 2309 says: The strict conditions for legitimate
defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it
subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting,
grave, and certain;
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- there must be some serious prospects of success;
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The
power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of
those who have responsibly for the common good.
ARGUMENT: Japan didnt have the ability to attack America. They werent really a threat.
DEFENSE: They seemed to be causing enough damage during the war They may not have
had the ability to attack America directly, but we were still at war. One must remember that
America had been through this once with Germany in World War I. Instead of gaining a full
surrender from Germany, they left Germany alone, all be it with strict penalties. What wound up
happening was one man started the war all over again killing millions. America wasn't about to
give up before a full and complete surrender had been gained. Any campaign on Japanese soil
would have killed an insane number of men, many of them our own.
ARGUMENT: An atomic bomb was overkill.
DEFENSE: Japan was belligerent, not America. America made it very clear that unconditional
surrender was the only way. To say that this is overkill is rather absurd when you think about
how the lack of overkill on the last war killed millions. At that point America had to end the
war before they could sit back and decide how to make sure it didn't happen again.
ARGUMENT: An end does not justify the means.
DEFENSE: If someone was trying to kill you, and your only solution was to kill them, would
you call that an end to justify the means? This was war, not fighting with some kid down the
block. A war must be ended quickly, according to the Just War Theory. The bomb prevented it
from being prolonged and saved many lives. America offered surrender. They fought. Despite all
efforts, the Japanese would not stop. America was the one who was being assaulted. AND THE
CITIZENS WERE WARNED BY THE UNITED STATES TO GET OUT.

Source:
On August 1, 1945, five days before the bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. Army Air Force
dropped one million leaflets over Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 33 other Japanese cities warning that
those cities were going to be destroyed within a few days and advising the residents to leave to
save their lives. One side of the leaflet had a photo of five U.S. bombers unloading bombs and a
list of the targeted cities. The other side had the text. The English version of the leaflet is
included in an article at the CIA website, The Information War in the Pacific, 1945, by Josette
H. Williams. OWI stands for Office of War Information:
Front side of OWI notice #2106, dubbed the LeMay bombing leaflet, which was delivered to
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 33 other Japanese cities on 1 August 1945. The Japanese text on the
reverse side of the leaflet carried the following warning:
Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few
days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs.
These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military
goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to
prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with
Americas humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure
innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives.
America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved
the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the
oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can
restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that
only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this
warning and evacuate these cities immediately.
A little more then 200,000 people died from both bombs which is quite surprising in such
heavily populated areas.
There were 500,000 to 1,000,000 civilian deaths in Japan and 7,000,00 to 16,000,000 civilian
deaths in China (Which was pretty much only fighting Japan) The Japaneese were killing more
civilians than the Americains were and for no good reason.
Also this, Anna:
Pamphlets from the USAF to the Japs (That were dropped over the cities)
Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few
days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs.
These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military
goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to
prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with
Americas humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure
innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives.
America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved
the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the
oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can
restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that
only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed
ARGUMENT: America dropped the bombs on innocents.
DEFENSE: The intent was not to kill innocent people, but to end the war. America offered a
chance for Japan to surrender, but the Japanese refused. Hiroshima was a military center.
Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding centre, but it was not the original target. Kokura, and arsenal
town, was. But due to cloud-cover of Kokura,
Nagasaki was chosen.