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Atomic Bomb This report is about the Atomic Bomb, what it demolished, and
what were different opinions on the war. Of course there were many different
opinions, ranging from we didn’t have to do it. To it was the only thing that
seemed possible to get the war stopped. And others wonder why it had to be over
civilian homes and work places. Roosevelt knew all about the bomb. The bomb was
under a top-secret name called. THE MANHATTEN PROJECT! Albert Einstein and other
nuclear physicists persuaded Roosevelt to set up a program for a bomb of such
destruction before the Nazis did. 12 days into Truman’s reign as President he
was notified of the top-secret bomb. And was asked what he wanted to do. He
decided to drop the bomb as we all know. Henry L. Stimson Sec. Of War was the
chief advisor to Roosevelt about the bomb. After F.D.R died and Truman took
over, Truman had to rely strictly on what Stimson told him about the bomb since
Truman eventhough he was V.P knew nothing about the new bomb being developed.
As
I read Stimson, Roosevelt and Truman had all been for dropping the bomb. Ralph
Bards was Under Secretary of the Navy at the time was for dropping the bomb but
he thought that Japan deserved some type of warning 2-3 days before actually
dropping it. After the bomb was dropped he said that Japan would have made peace
with giving them warning and in turn we “gave them all the tremendous things we
gave them in those 5 days…Participation in the war”. Eisenhower did not like
that idea of using the bomb. He didn’t like the fact that the U.S would initiate
such a devastating weapon.. On April 12, 1945 Truman was told that Roosevelt had
died, shortly after he found out about the bomb. He never said if it was right
or wrong. After talking to Winston Churchill Prime Minister of England he made
the decision after Churchill said if it would help end the war then go for it.
On August 6th 1945 at 8:09 a.m. the first of 2 Atomic Bombs was dropped on
Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb devastated many millions of Square miles. Killed and
burned many people. Hiroaki Ichikawa was 5 years old at the time and he said
that People were so badly burnt that skin was hanging right off their bones.
After many children had been quoted and in which I just read, the crew of the
bomber plane said that he expressed awe and shock. The flash blinded some of the
men after the bomb exploded. Crewman Carry could only say “Holy Moses what a
mess”. “My god” Said another crewman. “ What have we done”. “ This war is over,”
shouted one man. Yet one crewman could only say “Good God could anyone live
through that down there. As the plane made its long trip back to its base one
crewman wrote to his son and this is basically what he said. This isn’t meant to
read until your older but now one single plane can destroy and devastate a whole
city. A journalist said that Truman never actually said yes to drop the bomb. He
described it as a little boy on a toboggan. He never was really given a chance
to say yes. But he never uttered the words no don’t do it. Basically what he was
trying to say was that Roosevelt and the people that knew about it before Truman
were already making the decision.
Many people ask if Japan was properly warned.
People say that if Japan knew that the U.S would drop such a devastating bomb
they would have surrendered right then and there. But they say if the U.S had to
drop the bomb they should have done it in a less populated area that would have
just shown the enormous power of the bomb. I think that the bomb was the right
thing to do. Maybe it shouldn’t have been dropped on such a populated area but
you can’t second-guess what they did. They had to get this war over. This isn’t
the first war that civilians have been killed in war. A lot of people who say
that the bomb was the wrong thing to do doesn’t think of what the Japanese did
to the U.S. They killed and sunk many ships in their air raid in Pearl Harbor. I
think that the Japanese deserved some warning. After all the Japanese did give
warning of the Pearl Harbor attack. It was probably the right thing to do at the
time. After the bomb was dropped and all the devastation was seen I think that
everyone that was a part of building or the decision to make the bomb felt
extremely bad. I don’t think anyone realized the true devastation of this bomb.
Terry Kimble
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