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It killed thousands. It turned two beautiful cities into piles of rubble. It ended a war. The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Days later, WWII was over. Was this the best solution? Did we spare lives by ending lives? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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Transcript

00:02

We need quick The atomic bomb an ethical dilemma This

00:09

is hiroshi here in japan before eight fifteen a m

00:12

august six nineteen forty five and this is your ocean

00:15

just minutes later So what happened Well an atomic bomb

00:19

him us dropped one on hiroshima and another on nagasaki

00:24

three days later Why did the united states dropped these

00:26

bombs The intentions were not inherently evil In fact we

00:31

were in some ways merciful hoping to bring an end

00:33

to world war to soothe question what would have happened

00:37

in the united states Nearly all of the politicians managing

00:42

things in world war two had personal experiences in the

00:45

terrors of world war Just two decades earlier world war

00:48

one was a brutal war Trench warfare mustard gas hand

00:52

to hand combat millions died painfully Japanese army demonstrated the

00:58

lengths to which they would go for victory with kamikaze

01:01

pilots intentionally flying their planes into american naval vessels as

01:04

bombs With the european theatre over on the horrors of

01:08

the holocaust weighing on politicians hearts united states wanted to

01:11

end the conflict with japan as soon as possible policymakers

01:15

were willing to go to great lengths to prevent any

01:17

More young americans from dying they had a clear means

01:20

to end the war fast It wass there was one

01:24

stern and clear warning to the japanese There would be

01:27

prompt and utter destruction if they did not surrender and

01:30

japan never responded the alternative was grim Most estimates show

01:35

that if america continued to fight hundreds of thousands of

01:38

american lives would be lost And while most believe that

01:40

the us would eventually win it was only a question

01:43

of at what cost By dropping the atom bomb it

01:46

is likely that many more japanese were killed then would

01:49

have been if us fought a traditional war But vast

01:52

numbers of american lives and much suffering were saved in

01:55

a process The us president harry truman made the decision

01:58

to drop the bomb It is the only time in

02:01

history that nuclear weapons have been deployed in warfare Japan

02:04

officially surrendered on september second nineteen Forty five cities of

02:09

hiroshima and nagasaki were completely destroyed So what do you

02:12

think was the u s right or wrong in dropping

02:15

the atom bomb was the intention of ending world war

02:18

two and preventing more fighting in death on the battlefield

02:21

Justification Would you have dropped the bomb Shmoop amongst yourselves 00:02:25.35 --> [endTime] Let us know what you think

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