Who Done It

Thesis- Mia Jensen
History- Jack Lucente
Evidence-Jack Lucente
Media- Mia Jensen
Work Cited- Jack Lucente

Work Cited

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050507-1,00.html
    Isaacson, W (2005, April 18) Why did we drop the bomb? Time

http://www.history.com/topics/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
    Unknown, History

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_US_drop_the_atomic_bombs_on_Japan
    Unknown, wiki answers

Media Page

News article after bombing.

http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us/videos/manhattan-project

video of the Manhattan Project

Mushroom cloud of the two Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped

Another News paper article describing the bombs damage

Shadow left behind after the bomb was dropped in Nagasaki

Victim of the atomic bomb

Evidence

     Dropping the two atomic bombs was the justified choice because the other option was invading Japan. Casualties were estimated to be about one million American soldiers and half a million British soldiers in the first invasion alone. The Allies warned the Axis of powers, in the pacific theater, that if they didn't surrender there would be prompt utter destruction. The Japanese wouldn't surrender, so harry Truman decided to drop the first bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. Even then the Japanese wouldn't surrender. So then we we dropped the second bigger bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered after that.
       Some people say dropping the bombs was unnecessary from a military perspective because Japan was defeated and ready to surrender. Japan may have been near defeat but we warned them before we dropped the bombs to surrender but they said they would fight until the end, and even after we dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima they still would not surrender. Then we dropped the second one on Nagasaki and the emperor decided to surrender, but there still military officials who thought they should keep fighting. So I would think they Japanese may have been defeated but not close to surrendering.  

History

     The Manhattan Project

      Even before the war in 1939 many American scientist became concerned with the Nazis research on nuclear weapons. In 1940 the United States government began funding its own atomic weapons development program. This top secret project was codenamed "The Manhattan Project"(for the engineering corps' Manhattan district).  Over the next few years scientist worked on producing the materials for nuclear fusion. they sent these materials to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a group of scientist led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a working A-bomb. Early morning July 16, 1945 was the first successful test of an atomic device at the Trinity test site.

Japan Won't Surrender

      Despite clear indications that they had little chance of winning, Japan vowed to fight to the bitter end. Between April and July 1945 the Japanese inflicted nearly Half the Allied casualties than they had in the past three years of fighting, proving that japan had become more deadly faced with defeat. in late July, Japans government rejected the Allies demand for surrender which put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with prompt utter destruction if they refused. If the United States went through with "Operation Downfall" (a massive invasion of Japan) there would be up to 1 million American casualties. In order to avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided to use the atomic bomb hoping that it would bring the war to a quick end.

The Atomic Bombs

      Hiroshima was selected as the first target. After arriving at the U.S  base on the pacific island of Tinian, the massive bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29. The plane dropped the bomb "Little Boy" by parachute at 8:15AM, and it exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima destroying five square miles of the city. After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Japan still refused to surrender. So on August 9,  Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 from Tinian. There where thick clouds over the primary target Kokura, This drove Sweeney to a secondary target, Nagisaki, Where the second larger bomb "Fat Man" Was dropped at 11:02AM. The topography reduced the bombs effect, limiting the destruction to 2.6 miles. At noon on August 15, 1945 (Japanese time), Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender in a radio broadcast. The news spread quickly, and "Victory in Japan" or "V-J Day" celebrations broke out across the United States and other Allied nations. The formal surrender agreement was signed on September 2, aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.     

Thesis + Intro

        The United States was justified in dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because if they weren't dropped it would have prolonged the war and cost countless more American lives. Also when the Japanese would conquer land they would kill and torture the innocent people there without care. Imagine what would happen if they brought war to the U.S mainland, Many innocent American could have died.  The innocent Japanese people didn't deserve it, but the nation asked for it, and it was in the best interest of the allied powers and the United States. It didn't look like the war was going to end soon even when we dropped the first bomb and demanded they surrender, they did not, so we dropped the second bomb, that's when they caved and surrendered thus ending WWII in the pacific.