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5
1
Drop the bomb Do not drop the bomb
Debate Score:6
Arguments:6
Total Votes:6
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 Drop the bomb (5)
 
 Do not drop the bomb (1)

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MrKlegarth(5) pic



Dropping the Atomic Bomb

Should the U.S. have used an atomic bomb against the Japanese?

Sources Here - http://www.dannen.com/decision/index.html

Examine these sources to support your arguement 

For this debate students must choose a side, for or against dropping the bomb.  Your decision must be supported with a 5-10 sentence explanation that uses information from the sources examined.  Each explanation should be unique do not copy someone else's arguement.  Along with providing an explanation you must reply to 2 other students that took the opposite side.  Be sure to use sources when critiquing their arguement.  

Drop the bomb

Side Score: 5
VS.

Do not drop the bomb

Side Score: 1
1 point

Though the cost to produce the bomb was exceptionally high, however at the time the US believed it was justified, because an invasion of the Japanese mainland would have caused horrifically high numbers of casualties at a time when the US had already incurred over 100,000 deaths in the Pacific War and also if the US won the war it would restrict Soviet influence afterwards.

The bomb was dropped in August 1945 and the Japanese surrendered in September.

Side: Drop the bomb

- The Japanese were clearly willing to fight to the end. Any invasion of the Japanese mainland would have resulted in a huge loss of life.

- The targeting of civilian was not uncommon behavior in this war.

- Tens of thoughts of Japanese civilians were already being killed by US bombers.

- The Japanese initiated hostilities by killing thousands of US service men and women in Hawaii.

Side: Drop the bomb

Absolutely, the Japanese we horrible during the war, they had it coming.

Side: Drop the bomb

As others have touched on, Japanese culture at the time did not allow for the idea of surrender.

Read about Operation Ten-Go, the last major Japanese naval operation during WWII. This operation took place well after a normal foe would already have conceded defeat and surrendered, and demonstrated the Japanese willingness to continually throw bodies and materiel against our forces, being willing to use Yamato, the pride of their fleet and the largest and most heavily armed battleship ever constructed in suicidal kamikaze missions.

And yes, it was intended as a suicide mission. Yamato and her escorting fleet were intended to beach themselves and operate as shore batteries and fortifications to help hold back the advance of US forces, until destruction, at which point the crew of the ships (which were primarily sailors, not ground troops) were to engage the US ground forces in a further delaying action.

If we had refrained from using Atomic weapons, there would likely be a lower death toll amongst the japanese, particularly civilians- but the state of their infrastructure, military, and economy by the end would have left the nation far more crippled than Fat Man and Little Boy did. I don't have hard data to support it, but I expect that disease and famine would have claimed as many or more lives in this scenario than the atomic weapons did, but that's pure speculation- no way to ever know now, really.

I can't imagine having to be the one to make that call. Talk about your lose-lose situations.

Side: Drop the bomb
1 point

The bombs should definitely have been dropped but not for any of the above reasons.

Rebuttal to some of the above statements:

Japan was ready to surrender. Out of oil. Out of metal. Out of weapons. Out of soldiers. Out of civilians.

US napalms killed far more civilians than the two bombs put together.

If the US wanted to end the war by killing more Japanese people, the bombs were not the most efficient method. They could have just continued carpet bombing.

There was no need for a ground war. US air superiority was apparent and also the reason the Japanese lost so completely.

Reasons to drop the bomb:

Show military superiority and gain leverage on a global scale.

Test WMD on populated city.

The event established the US as a superpower militarily and economically.

Justify funding of Manhattan Project.

Side: Drop the bomb

Well I found this same topic in Room4Debate so obviously the creator has taken it from there;Coming back to the argument,well definitely no;the reasons are given in points below:

1)Atomic bomb was too destructive a weapon at that point of time,infliction of injuries was severe.

2)Tons died of radio-poisoning,their locks were burnt to the skin,died of grievous injuries

3)Psychological damage to the survivors and to the later gens

4)America played out of the rule books

BOTTOMLINE:A senseless,vile display of power by a country which has already won the war.

Side: Do not drop the bomb