Hiroshima and Nagasaki the untold story Essay example
Hiroshima and Nagasaki the untold story On August 6th 1945, the first Atomic Bomb, Little Boy, was
dropped on Hiroshima, and three days later on August 9th 1945, the second atomic bomb, Fat Man,
was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan s industrial capital. The decision to use the Atomic Bomb against
Japan was a poor one considering the damage, the devastation, and the amount of people left dead,
injured, or suffering the loss of a family member or a friend, all for the sake of quickly ending the
ongoing War. When the Japanese had realized that they were the only ones left in the war, Germany
their ally, was already beaten out of the war and all efforts were now concentrated at them, the
Japanese began suing for a peaceful end to the war. ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The retention of the Emperor was crucial to the surrender, as the Japanese believed their Emperor was
a god, the heart of the people and the culture (Long). This Japanese belief is a part of a tradition that
dates back to 660 B.C. when the first Japanese Emperor, Jimmu, who according to legend was a
descendant of the sun god, Amaterasu. So there fore, according to the tradition, the emperor during
this time, Hirohito, was said to be a divine being. It is for this reason that the Japanese sued for peace
based on the Atlantic Charter of 1941 that was drafted up by Roosevelt and Churchill on August 4th,
1941. According to the Atlantic Charter, every nation could choose its own form of government, thus,
if Japan were to surrender based on these terms, they would be able to retain the emperor, their God
(Alperovitz). However, when the United States offered a peace agreement based on Unconditional
Surrender, the Japanese refused this offer as no provisions had been made for their Emperor. As Leon
V. Sigal states,
...one point was clear to senior [United States] officials, regardless of where they stood on war
termination... the critical condition for Japanese surrender was the assurance that the throne would be
preserved
(Alperovitz 31).
It turns out that the unconditional surrender clause of the peace agreement was the major factor that
hindered Japanese surrender at this point in the war.
... Get more on HelpWriting.net ...