Moral Considerations and the Atomic Bomb

This paper will discuss the ethical considerations which went into the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in the Summer of 1945. The first part of the paper will examine the background of the Second World War in the Pacific theater, particularly looking at the Allied insistence upon Japan's unconditional surrender and the brutal nature of the combat operations compared to those in the Western European theater. The second part of the paper will examine the physical and military condition of Japan by the summer of 1945 and discuss whether Japan was already defeated militarily. The third part of the paper will discuss the decision on the part of the American military and political leaders to use nuclear weapons, focusing on the particular decision-making process and the attitudes of the American leaders towards Japan and nuclear weapons. The final part of the paper will critique the decision-making process.

By the Summer of 1945, the Pacific war was in its fourth year and both sides were fatigued. Although ground operations were not nearly so large as those in the European theater, air operations on the part of the United States in the Pacific nearly equaled those in Europe, and naval operations were considerably larger. The Pacific war was also different from the war in Western Europe in one other important respect: it involved levels of brutality rarely seen in warfare since the end of the Thirty Years War

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blished, consisting of Stimson (who was the Chairman), Secretary of State Byrnes, Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard, Assistant Secretary of State William Clayton, and three scientists who had taken part in the development of the bomb: Vannever Bush, James B. Conant, and Karl T. Compton. An advisory panel of scientists was also formed, consisting of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Arthur H. Compton, Ernest O. Lawrence, and Enrico Fermi. The Interim Committee would eventually decide how use of the atomic bomb would affect problems of domestic and international control of atomic energy; but it never seriously debated whether the use of nuclear weapons against Japan was necessary or justified. Such questions were left up to the policymakers, and President Truman in particular. The Committee simply debated how nuclear weapons were to be used against Japan; use itself was a "foregone conclusion." In fact, the most important cabinet members, Stimson and Byrnes, were already counting on the use of nuclear weapons to bring an end to the war without an invasion. The only debate centered on the possibilities of warning the Japanese prior to the attack or exploding a nuclear weapon in an uninhabited area as a demonstration of its power
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6455
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page)

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