43 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
The **Nuclear Bombings of Japan** refers to the deployment of two
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nuclear bombs in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the
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6th and 9th of August, 1945. Seen as the final act of [World War
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II](World_War_II "wikilink") and the beginning of a new nuclear age,
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they remain an extremely controversial issue.
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## Debate
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Debate has raged for nearly 75 years about the ethics, necessity,
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purpose and legality of the deployment of nuclear weapons against the
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Japanese Empire. Supporters of the nuclear bombings argue that:
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- Japan would refuse to surrender, leading to a land invasion which
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would killed millions of people
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- The bombings were necessary to take out key military targets
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- Even if the bombings were unethical, they unintentionally showed the
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world of the destruction of nuclear weapons, the horrors of which
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scared the USA and USSR to never destroy eachother
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Critics of the bombings argue that:
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- Japan was already in the process of surrending, and the bombings
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were to intimidate the USSR and prevent them from taking all of
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Korea and China.
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- The bombings were an act of terrorism as they intimidated the
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government via killing civilians
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- The bombings could've been dropped in the ocean surrounding the
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cities, averting the deaths but still scaring the government
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- An embargo could've militarily defeated Japan
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### Quotes by Supporters
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"There are voices which assert that the bomb should never have been used
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at all. I cannot associate myself with such ideas. ... I am surprised
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that very worthy people—but people who in most cases had no intention of
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proceeding to the Japanese front themselves—should adopt the position
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that rather than throw this bomb, we should have sacrificed a million
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American and a quarter of a million British lives."\[1\] - Winston
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Churchill, Prime Minister of the
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### Quotes by Critics
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1. hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1945/aug/16/debate-on-the-address\#S5CV0413P0_19450816_HOC_43 |