Persuasive Essay Example on Dropping The Atomic Bomb

On August 6, 1945 tragically, the city of Hiroshima was bombed. The bombing was due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Shortly after the bombing, Japan surrendered from the war. To this day, it is widely debated on whether they should have been bombed and both opinionating sides have their own valid reasonings. Many people believe that they should because they believe it is the main factor in winning the war and the damage done would have been worse if they had not bombed Hiroshima. Despite this, the citizens and more importantly the families should not have to suffer due to the actions of their government. The damage done to the people they care for and where they have called home all of their life is unimaginable and unforgettable. Many people were left traumatized and had to continue to live with the horrors of the bombing. On that account, the families of Hiroshima should not have been bombed.

In addition, the citizens of Hiroshima should not have had the bombed dropped since they should not have to face the consequences caused by the actions of their government. They were fearful for an abundance of time as if they were animals waiting for their slaughter. John Hersey exemplifies this in his text by stating,¨ Mr. Tanimoto, like all his neighbors and friends, was almost sick with anxiety. He had heard uncomfortably detailed accounts of mass raids on Kure, Iwakuni, Tokuyama, and other nearby towns; he was sure Hiroshima’s turn would come soon..¨.(Hersey 1) As proven, the audience can see that the citizens of Hiroshima were scared and extremely nervous. One day they are completely fine and the next day they are scared out of their minds due to an action that their government made. Every day their mind was poisoned with the thought of having their homes and families obliterated. Although a statement made by AMERICAN EXPERIENCE proves otherwise,¨Leaflets dropped on cities in Japan warning civilians about the atomic bomb, dropped c. August 6, 1945¨. (American Experience). Although this statement demonstrates that they were supposedly warned one may never know due to the reputation of the American Government and how harsh they were during the war. Hiroshima should not have been bombed.

Furthermore, another reason that exemplifies why Hiroshima should not have been bombed is that it left many people traumatized. Hersey demonstrates this once again by stating,¨It would be impossible to say what horrors were embedded in the minds of the children who lived through the day of the bombing in Hiroshima. On the surface, their recollections, months after the disaster, were of an exhilarating adventure.¨. It is quite unimaginable being a child during the bombing. No person should have to endure seeing their family pass away, more importantly, no child should see this. All the memories will forever haunt and follow them. Although the Smithsonian Magazine believes otherwise by stating,¨ Survivor Shosho Kawamoto, for instance, proposed to his girlfriend more than a decade after the bombing.¨. Many people who have to endure trauma do not normally move on with their lives so quickly and happily. If they were to do so it is most likely because they are trying to forget what happened to them. The World may never know the secrets and memories that survivors hold within them and due to how catastrophic their trauma there it is unfair to state that the survivors who lived through this had no trauma. Leading to, that the citizens of Hiroshima should not have been bombed.

Finally, the amount of damage done was so enormous and incomparable to anything else. This is proven when Karl Compton states,¨At Hiroshima the atomic bomb killed about 80,000 people, pulverized about five square miles, and wrecked an additional ten square miles of the city, with decreasing damage out to seven or eight miles from the center. At Nagasaki, the fatal casualties were 45,000 and the area damaged was considerably smaller than at Hiroshima because of the configuration of the city. Compare this with the results of two B-29 incendiary raids over Tokyo. One of these raids killed about 125,000 people, the other nearly 100,000. Of the 210 square miles of greater Tokyo, 85 square miles of the densest part were destroyed as completely, for all practical purposes, as being the centers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; about half the buildings were destroyed in the remaining 125 square miles; the number of people driven homeless out of Tokyo was considerably larger than the population of greater Chicago. These figures are based on the information given us in Tokyo and on a detailed study of the air reconnaissance maps. They may be somewhat in error but are certainly on the right order of magnitude.¨.(Compton 1). The audience can now drastically see the amount of damage done and the damage done to pearl harbor is very incomparable considering the number of casualties each place had. Although The Davidson Institute of science proves that for the amount of damage done Hiroshima quickly came back and the damage was not as grave as people thought by stating,¨In Hiroshima, within a two-kilometer radius to ground zero, the "Little boy" destroyed all buildings, within a three-kilometer radius or more, most of the buildings remained intact, including public facilities such as the railway station. The restoration process took approximately two years and the city's population, which had dwindled to about eighty thousand after the bombing, doubled in a short time.¨. (davidson.weizmann.ac.il). Although the physical damage that was done was not as grave as people thought, Nobody knows how this affected families and for how long these people had to suffer. The damage dealt was quite noticeable and the damage done towards the people was even worse. They should not have been bombed.

To conclude, the citizens of Hiroshima have been through many obstacles since and during the bombing of Hiroshima. They had a grand amount of damage done to the place were they called home and it will never be the same again. They had to face the consequences of the actions of their government and they did not deserve to go through that because they had no play whatsoever in what their government was doing. Nobody deserves to go through the traumatizing event of a bombing in their home. The memories will forever follow you and most people are not strong enough to deal with that. Therefore, the citizens of Hiroshima should not have been bombed.