ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by atomic warfare,

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the long-lasting struggle between protons and neutrons.

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All right, well, give this excerpt a read.

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[ mumbles ]

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Ugh. Give 'em hell, Harry.

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All right, and now the question:

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Besides forcing Japan to surrender, what was another

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primary goal of dropping the second atomic bomb?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right. Well, the first atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city

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of Hiroshima cost somewhere between 90 and 160 plus thousand lives.

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The second atomic bomb,

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dropped on Nagasaki a few days later, killed between

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60,000 and 80,000 people. Right here.

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Though the Americans reportedly used the first bomb to avoid

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a costly ground invasion of Japan,

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many historians believe the second atomic bomb was

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detonated for another reason.

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Let's see which answer reveals that train of thought.

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Was another primary goal of

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dropping the second bomb to A -

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eliminate Japan's future military capabilities?

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Well, with Hiroshima obliterated and Japan's allies defeated,

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the country's potential for future military capabilities

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was pretty much already gone. So it isn't A.

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Could a primary goal of dropping the second bomb have been C -

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thoroughly testing a new technological breakthrough?

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Well, the atomic bomb had already been tested on Hiroshima,

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and if they truly needed another test, the U.S.

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could've used other, less populated locations.

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So that knocks out C.

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Might the second bomb have been used to D -

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punish Japan for its participation in the Axis Powers?

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You know, with the Nazis and all those people?

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Well, while anger and racism against Japan were widespread

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at the time, there's little historical evidence to suggest

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the second atomic bomb was primarily an act of vengeance.

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So it's not D, either.

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Which means the primary goal of dropping the second atomic bomb

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was probably B - to demonstrate the extent of American power to the Soviet Union.

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Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union wanted to emerge

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from World War II as a global superpower,

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and most historians agree that dropping the second bomb

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was intended to intimidate the Soviet Union rather than

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to assure a military victory.

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So B is the correct answer.

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The use of the atomic bomb will always be controversial.

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Couldn't there have been a better solution?

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Yeah, like how about this?

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[ things clattering and breaking ]

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