Admittedly, dropping the atomic bomb was a major factor in Japan’s decision to accept the terms laid out at the Potsdam agreement otherwise known as unconditional surrender. The fact

Most appalling was that of the 50 million deaths, no less that one-fifth represented cold-blooded murder. Those 10 million victims had been exterminated as undesirables for racial, religious, political, or other reasons (A.G.H. pp 692). World War II completed the undermining of Europe’s global hegemony that had been started by World War I. Thus, the two wars had a similar significance for world history. There were significant differences, however, that are of prime importance for the contemporary scene. The Nazis and the Japanese militarists were infinitely more destructive of the old orders in Europe and Asia than the Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgs had ever been. The Germans had overrun the entire continent of Europe, and the Japanese, the whole of East and Southeast Asia. But these vast empires were short-lived. They disappeared in 1945, leaving behind two great power vacuums embracing territories of great economic and strategic significance. It was the existence of these vacuums, as much as any ideological considerations, that was responsible for the outbreak of the cold war and the inability to conclude a general peace settlement immediately after 1945.

There were several conventional methods that were suggested to bring Japan to its knees. These included a naval blockade, an extensive aerial bombardment or an invasion of the island of Japan.

In the unconditional surrender that the United States presented the Japanese government it was demanded that the Emperor be removed from his god-like state of power. Some historians criticized this clause because they felt it might have prevented the Japanese government from deciding to surrender before the atomic bombs were dropped. The Emperor was so highly revered in Japan that his removal would only occur under the most dire of circumstances. The Japanese military leaders would never have allowed this to happen without direct intervention by the Emperor. Even if the United States had agreed to allow the Emperor to stay in power the Japanese would have not agreed to surrender. It was defeat, not the terms of the defeat that the Japanese military leaders so vehemently opposed. The American public wholeheartedly backed the unconditional surrender of Japan. "A Gallup Poll in June had shown that a mere fraction of Americans, only 7 percent, thought he had should be retained after the war, even as a puppet, while a full third of the people though he should be executed as a war criminal." (p.112) In respect of the American lives sacrificed, nothing but unconditional surrender would have sufficed. "Unconditional surrender was an objective too long established, too often proclaimed; it had been too great a rallying cry from the time of Pearl Harbor to abandon now, Byrnes insisted. Truman had reaffirmed it as a policy in his first speech to Congress on April 16." (p.112) In addition to these factors a negotiated peace would be tantamount to political suicide. "Politically it would be disastrous, Byres was also sure." (p.112) The very idea of negotiation with Japan seemed deplorable of the American.

Air power offered American forces a method of remaining relatively unscathed against the fanatical Japanese military while laying waste to entire cities. This was possible because while Japanese ground forces remained strong, air defenses had been severely weakened. This gave American bombers free reign over the skies of Japan. American bombing raids over Japan were inflicting massive amounts of casualties and causing tremendous damage to Japanese cities. In fact the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki was not as devastating as conventional bombing raids over Tokyo or to previous bombing raids over European cities, most notably Dresden. "In March, 1945, our Air Force had launched the first incendiary raid on the Tokyo area. In this raid more damage was done and more casualties were inflicted than was the case at Hiroshima." (p.99) Therefore it is very plausible that had the atomic we

Some topics in this essay:
Hiroshima Nagasaki, President Truman, James Conant, Hiroshima Plus, President Truman's, According McArthur, World War, Soviet Union, Wake Guam, Southeast Asia, atomic bomb, hiroshima nagasaki, world war, cold war, claypool 1984, dropping atomic bomb, japanese military, dropping atomic, unconditional surrender, war ii, war japan, world war ii, claypool 1984 pg, fat hiroshima nagasaki, atomic bomb japanese,