Effects of the WWII Atomic Bombs :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Effects of the WWII Atomic Bombs   Two Sources      When the atomic bomb went make over Hiroshima on Aug. 6th, 1945, 70,000 resides were ended in a flash. To the American people who were weary from the long and brutal war, such a drastic measure seemed a necessary, even righteous way to end the madness that was World War II. However, the madness had just begun. That August morning was the day that heralded the dawn of the atomic age, and with it came more than just the loss of lives. According to Archibald MacLeish, a U.S. poet, What happened at Hiroshima was not only that a scientific breakthrough . . . had occurred and that a great part of the cosmos of a city had been burned to death, but that the problem of the relation of the triumphs of modern science to the human purposes of man had been explicitly defined. The entire globe was now to live with the fear of total annihilation, the fear that drove the cold war, the fear that has forever changed world politics. The fear is real, more real today than ever, for the ease at which a nuclear bomb is achieved in this day and age sparks fear in the hearts of most people on this planet. According to General Douglas MacArthur, We have had our finishing chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japanese citizens in August, 1945, as a means to bring the long Pacific war to an end was justified-militarily, politically and morally.           The goal of waging war is victory with stripped losses on ones own side and, if possible, on the enemys side. No one disputes the fact that the Japanese military was prepared to fight to the last man to harbour the home islands, and indeed had already demonstrated this determination in previous Pacific island campaigns. A weapon originally developed to contain a Nazi atom ic project was available