Dropping the Atomic Bomb

The Atomic Bomb in WWII

Should we have dropped them?

Dropping the Atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man on the cities of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a necessary act by the US forces. In order to save our soldiers lives and really many of the lives of the Japanese population.

All across the Pacific we had been fighting the Japanese soldiers that had no problem giving their lives for their country. The closer we got to the Japanese home islands the harder the Japanese fought. Until we reached the island of Okinawa, we didn't realize how fanatical the Japanese civilian population was. At Okinawa 21,000 Japanese civilians fought to the death along side the Japanese soldiers. On average, the Japanese casualties to American casualties were a ratio of about 4 to 1. Knowing this, American commanders estimated that it would take 1 million American casualties, just to get a foot hold on the home islands of Japan.

If the ratios held to be true, that would mean that the Japanese would loose some where in the area of 4 million people. That means that a total of 5 million people would die just for the US to get a foothold in Japan. When the two atomic bombs were dropped, the war with Japan was ended with only 140,000 casualties.

In the final aftermath, I believe that the atomic bomb should have been dropped. The difference in casualties for the invasion compared to the casualties from dropping the two atomic bombs, the difference was worth it. It ended the war a lot quicker and saved a lot of American and Japanese casualties alike.