Hiroshima 1945 :rightorwrong?
At fifteen minutespasteighton themorningof
August6,lIN:;, anAmericanll2'Jbomberdropped
anatomicbombonthecityofHiroshima. Forty-
fivesecondslaterthebombexplodedill ablinding
flash. Am ush roo m- shaped cloudclimbedhigh
intotheskyabovethecity. Belew.whereHiro-
shimahadbeen,burneda balloffire. 11 wasumo
feetacross and thetemperanlrt'atitscente r was
100 milliondegrees. "Thewar'so va!..shouted
o ne ofthe bomber's crew. " My God," said
another,"whathavewedone?"
Pr esidentT rum anorderedtheato mi c bom btobe
used. III.' believe d that usin g it saved lives by
endin gthewarq uickly .Atth e rime. andsin ce.
people haw arguedfiercelyaboutw hetherhe was
righ t. Somebelieve that he was. Withoutl liro -
shima,theysay,theAmericanswouldhavehad to
in vad eJ apan to endthewar.Many morepeople
th an died at H iro shim a and Nagasaki, both
J ap anese and American, would eben ha vc been
killed. Otherpeopledo notaccept [hisreasoning.
They arg uethat theJ apanese g o vernment was
ready tosurrenderb eforethe bombings. More
than half a century after the destruction of
Hiroshim a.theargumentstillcontinues.J ap an 'sfirst setbackr-am o inM ay1'J-12. In theBattle
ofth e C or alSea. aircra ft fromAmer icancarr iers
drove back abig japanesein vasio n fleetth at was
thrvnrcningAustralia.lnj uncrhcjapancscsutf-red
a lleven worsedefea t. T he irmainbailieIll-t,tattacked
an impo rtant American basecalled Mid wayIsland.
Again American warplanesheat themoffw ithheavy
losses. In th e BattleofMidwaythejapaneselostlour
aircraftcarriersand man yoftheirbestpilots.
Bythe beginningof 19 -13theAmcricnnvamitheir
Australian and Britishallies hadagreedupo na long-
termplanto defeat the Japan ese.Theydecided on a
three- p ron gedatt ack.Fro m Aust raliaonepr o ng
'wouldpushnorth w ardstoward sJapanthrough the
Philippines.FromHawaii anotherpr on g wo uld
strike westwa rds throughrh e islandso f rhc centra l
Pacific.Finally,th e tWOPacifico ffemin'swould be
supportedbyadrivethrou ghHurma into the lan ds
that thejapan esehad conq ue redIIISoutheas tAsia_
25 TH EAR~EN.\l.Of1h:.\\OCHACYByJ UIll' 1 '-)-13,th e Pacificoffensiveshad begun.
Amer icanforcesadvancedto w ard sJ apanb y "island
hopping "-thatis, theycap tu redIsland sth atw ere
srrarcgicallv impo rta nt,butbypasse dothers.In the
rem aind erof1l)-1Jandthrou ghout 19 -1-1,Allied
for cesfo ug htth eirwayclose r to Jap anitself.In J line
I'N-1. anenormo us Ameri cantaskfo rcewon co nt ro l
o ftheimpo rt antM arian aIsland s. In Octob er
Ameri can tro o ps returnedto th ePhilippines an d
curoffJ apan fromitsconqucst sIIISoutheastAsia.
By 19-15 J apan wasw ithinrange of airattacks.
American b o m be rsmadedeva statin graid son its
cities. lnj unc theislando fOkinawa ,lessth an 375
milesfrom theJapanesecoast,felltotheAmericans.
Amer icantroopsp reparedtoinvadeJapan itself.
But theinvasionnevercame.O n Jul yIfl, 1 1)-15.
Alhedscientistsatworko n the Manhatt anProject
testedthew orld's firstatomicbomb. Eventheywere
shockedby th e result. Theyhadin ven ted the most
destructiveWl..'apon theworld had ever seen .On
Aug ust 6 anAmeri canbomberdro pped an atomic
bomb over rhcjapan csccity o f HIroshima.A few
d ayslate r,onAugust9,a seco ndato micbombwas
dropped onrh ccityo f Nag asaki .Bo th cineswere
devastatedand nearly~OO,OOOcivi lianswere - killed.
OnAug ust1-1rhejap an esegovernmen tsu rren d ered.
The SecondWorl dWar'waso ve r.107