Published On Jul 21, 2023
A review of the academic debate for and against the use of the bomb, and whether it was in fact the deciding factor in the Japanese surrender. Views presented do not necessarily represent my own.
The dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have traditionally been held to be the cause of the end of the Second World War in the Pacific, with the justification that the surrender of Japan saved more lives in the long term than the bombs themselves cost.
Source List
Bird, Kai, and Martin J Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Kindle Edition. London: Atlantic Books, 2009.
Monk, Ray. Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Kindle Edition. London: Vintage Books, 2013.
Giangreco, D. M. Hell to Pay : Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-47. Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, 2009. http://archive.org/details/helltopayo....
Bird, Kai, and Lawrence Lifschultz. Hiroshima’s Shadow. Stony Creek, Conn. : Pamphleteer’s Press, 1998. http://archive.org/details/hiroshimas....
Glantz, David M. ‘August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria’. US Army Command and General Staff College, 1983. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Porta....
J. Samuel Walker. Prompt and Utter Destruction. University of North Carolina Press, 1997. http://archive.org/details/promptutte....
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the Enemy : Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. http://archive.org/details/racingenem....
Compton, Karl T. ‘If the Atomic Bomb Had Not Been Used’. The Atlantic, December 1946. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/....
Atomic Heritage Foundation. ‘Debate over the Bomb: An Annotated Bibliography’. Https://Ahf.Nuclearmuseum.Org/ (blog). Accessed 11 July 2023. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/his....
Malik, Kenan. ‘Don’t Let the Victors Define Morality – Hiroshima Was Always Indefensible’. The Observer, 9 August 2020, sec. Opinion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentis....
Wilson, Ward. ‘The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan. Stalin Did.’ Foreign Policy (blog), 30 May 2013. https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/....
