Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

The citizens of Japan were unhappy by the decisions made by the emperor to continue the war and often revolted against the government and officials. Finally, the atomic bomb helped to shorten the war because the continuation of the war effort was low. Many of the production factories had either been blown apart from past bombings or had been destroyed by the two atomic bombs. The two industrial cities had suffered the losses of torpedo and steel factories along with other industrial sites that would have increased their war effort. The atomic bombs had left the Japanese economy crippled. The atomic bomb had surely shortened the length of the war against the Japanese.(Feinberg, pp. 15-27).
             The number of lives that were to be lost had a great influence on the dropping of the atomic bomb. If a ground invasion of Japan was to be held in the replacement of the bomb, an estimated half a million soldiers would have been slaughtered in a bloodbath. (Yass, Marion, "Hiroshima", 1972, p. 64.) The loss of lives to the American people is important. Firstly, the atomic bomb would limit the amount of the estimated American deaths at 500,000, to a minimal, since a ground invasion wasn't necessary. This would also prove to be less costly if a war on the ground was at hand since military vehicles, technology and personnel would be lost. Next, the atomic bomb would lessen the amount of Japanese deaths. Even though the bomb had killed over 70,000 people in Hiroshima, and 40,000 people in Nagasaki, it would probably be less than the estimated amount of 300,000 to 1,000,000 military personnel and civilians lives. (Saskatoon Public School Division, "Overall Allied Strategy Against Japan", World War II, 2002, p. 2-3) This would prove to be a more dramatic loss than that of the dropping of the atomic bomb. Finally, the Americans have already lost many American lives trying to control islands that the Japanese had invaded earlier.