How to End the War With Japan Using the Option of "Diplomacy" Essay

United State almost succeeded in forcing Japanese to surrender in World War II by using atomic diplomacy. Well, atomic diplomacy is a scenario where a nation uses nuclear warfare threats to gains it's diplomatic as well as foreign policy goals. Application of atomic diplomacy was first tested in 1945. Since its successful intervention, United States has sought to always utilize it as a non-military diplomatic tool. It was during World War II that Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union as well as the United States comprehensively researched on atomic bomb design to be used as the ultimate weapon for enforcing diplomacy. Lucky enough, by the fall of 1945, United States has managed to design and successfully tested one. August 6, 1945, US exploded an atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan. This atomic bomb destroyed the city within seconds and approximately 80,000 people were killed.

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Similarly, United States dropped another Bomb by August 9 at Nagasaki. Consequently, 40,000 people were killed. This was a great loss to Japanese. This forced Japanese Emperor Hirohito to unconditionally surrender World War II. This was referred as "new and most cruel" bomb ever witnessed in history. In line with this, Japanese Hirohito had earlier announced the invention of nuclear diplomacy six weeks after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the ambassadors had a long meeting with President Harry S Truman. In that meeting, Truman revealed that United States are anticipated to possess a powerful weapon. As result, President Truman postponed negotiations with Stalin. Truman wanted to confirm first if their atomic bomb was working or not.

Subsequently, the first bomb was tested in Alamogordo, N.M on July 17. Following this, President Truman and Stalin had a meeting. In that meeting, Truman supposed that August 6, there will be going to be a bomb that will fall on Hiroshima killing approximately 130,000 Japanese thus changing the world. According to Americans, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed simply to save costly Japanese invasion. Based on this, there was a need for America to make such steps even though it killed many people. Initially, the Japan invasion was scheduled to start on Nov 1 and it was forecasted that this was going to cause million Causalities. The first target area was Kyushu Island and then followed by a full invasion during spring of 1946.

Use of nuclear weapons by the United States to fight against Japan during World War II has been the subject of emotional debate for many decades. Generally speaking, some people had to question Truman, the US president of that time what prompted him to make such emotional decisions of dropping two atomic bombs at Japanese cities. According to historian Gar Alperovitz, though atomic bomb forced the World War II to end, Japanese leaders were in the process of surrendering before invasion that was planned to take place on November 1. For this reason, historian emphasized that the use of the nuclear bomb was not necessary. Based on this, many perceived that bombing the two cities was wrong for the US. In contrary, some believed that atomic diplomacy was moral and essential for ending the pacific war. However, atomic bombings meaningfully weaken the traditional interpretation of the Japanese surrender.

By the time the US exploded the atomic bombs in Japan's cities, German has already surrendered on May 8, 1945, thus ending the war in Europe. However, Japan did not accept unconditional surrender demands of the Allies even after the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. For this reason, the war continued harming more people and nations. United States, Germany China as well as the United Kingdom were not for this idea. This prompt US to look for ways of making Japan surrender the war. By doing so, they developed atomic bomb. Most of the people died immediately after nuclear bomb explosion. Additionally, others died later as a result of radiations illness, burns and other injuries.

Benefits of Atomic Diplomacy

People have a different perception on the use of atomic bomb. Even though there is a lot of criticism on US atomic diplomacy, it offered the following benefits. Firstly, bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought World War II to the end. Nevertheless, Americans up today partake moral reflection especially during nuclear strikes anniversarieson whether it was good to use atomic bomb. Over that period, the majority of Americans supported the notions but the impression has changed since then. Secondly, the effects of the bomb explosion were less compared that of Japan invasion. This is because the invasion was anticipated to kill million Americans and approximately quarter million British.

Comparing this loss with that of the atomic bombing, this was too much to bear. Thirdly, bomb explosion saved lives of many civilians. Giving time for Japanese to end the war would take longer and in the process, many civilians were going to be killed unnecessarily. Most noteworthy, ending the war liberated many civilians' workers who were forced by the situation to work in harsh environments. Actually, US could not have exploded Hiroshima and Nagasaki, millions of civilians, especially in Malaya, Singapore and Japan itself, were going to perish.

Drawbacks of Diplomacy

Despite the above-mentioned benefits, atomic diplomacy posed some drawbacks. Firstly, an atomic explosion killed many people both during and after the explosion and majority of those who died were civilians. Although there were deaths during the war itself, massive death following US bombing left many puzzled up to present date. It is believed that the US could have opted for another way of ending the war rather than using the Atomic bomb. Nonetheless, some believed that Bombing was an appropriate method to force Japan to surrender as other threats did not work for them. Secondly, Bombing was deliberated a war crime. Many organizations criticized this aspect claiming it was against humanity. Even Dr. James Franck who designed the bomb was against its use. Last but not least, the atomic bombing was perceived as an immoral act especially among American Christians.

Conclusion

Use of atomic bomb during World War II was against the wish of many. Up to date, use of atomic bombs by the US against Japanese during World War II remains the only occurrence ever witness in history. Correspondingly, most of the policymakers do not support the idea and that is why it prohibited in many nations. Although ended the war, many people were killed and even today, some Americans still mourn the incidence particularly during nuclear strikes anniversaries. The US could have looked for another modest way of ending the war relative to nuclear bombings.

Bibliography

Burr, William, and Jeffrey P. Kimball. "The National Security Archive." The Berlin Crisis 1958-1962: Guide and Index 2 (2015).

Harry, S. "Truman Library & Museum.(2009)." US strategic bombing survey: The effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, June 19 (1946): 11.

Hiroshi, Ichikawa. "Obninsk, 1955: The World's First Nuclear Power Plant and 'The Atomic Diplomacy'by Soviet Scientists." HistoriaScientiarum 26, no. 1 (2016): 25-41.

Melosi, Martin V. "The Cold War and Atomic Diplomacy: Deterrence, Espionage, and the Superbomb." In Atomic Age America, pp. 99-131. Routledge, 2016.