Summary

In 1945, toward the end of World War II, President H. Harry Truman ordered the United States to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in an attempt to get them to surrender.  These two atomic bomb explosions are the first and only usage of nuclear weapons in world history.  The first occurred on August 6^th, 1945 at Hiroshima, and the bomb was named “Little Boy” and then the second on August 9^th, 1945 at Nagasaki where the bomb was named “Fat Man”.  These intense bombings killed 90,000-166,000 citizens in Hiroshima and 60,000-80,000 in Nagasaki.  Not only were many Japanese citizens killed due to the flame burns, horrific flash or falling debris, but many suffered months later because of burns, radiation disease and other injuries and sickness.  Through this devastating event, Japan unconditionally surrendered on August 15 to the Allied Powers.  The Instrument of Surrender was then signed on September 2, ending the War in the pacific once and for all.

Thesis

The United States was justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because it put an end to the war, saved an estimated one million American military and civilian lives, and displayed the militiristic might of the United States.