21. America before and at the time of the World War II. Hirishima 1945: right or wrong?

Hiroshima 1945: right or wrong?

At fifteen minutes past eight on the morning of

August 6, lIN:; , an American ll2'J bomber dropped

an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Fortyfive

seconds later the bomb exploded ill a blinding

flash. A mush room- shaped cloud climbed high

into the sky above the city. Belew. where Hiroshima

had been, burned a ball of fire. 11 was umo

feet across and the temperanlrt' at its center was

100 million degrees. " The war's o va!.. shou ted

one of the bomber's crew. " My God," said

another, "what have we do ne?"

President T rum an ordered the atomic bomb to be

used. I II.' believed that using it save d lives by

en din g the war quickly . At the rime. and since.

people haw argued fiercely about whether he was

righ t. Some be lieve that he was. Without l liroshima,

they say, the Americans would have had to

invade Japan to end the war. Many mo re people

than died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both

Japanese and American, would eben havc been

killed. Other people do not accept [his reasoning.

They argue that the Japanese government was

ready to surrender before the bombings. More

than half a century after the destruction of

Hiroshima. the argument still continues.

In the 1930s every yc,u seemed to bri ng a new war,

o r threat ofwar. somewhere in the wo rld . Lead ers

like th e: (;,..-rman dictator Hitler threatened and

builn-d. Nations bu ilt more tanks. warshi ps and

military aircraft. Pn.-. sjdcnr Roosevelt spoke to rhc

American people in 1937 about wars being fought III

Spa in and China. "I nn ocent peoples. innocent

nat ions arc being cruel ly sacr ificed to J greed fo r

power and supn..-mac v." he warn ed . " If these things

COIll \.' to P ;ISS [happ en! in othe r parts ofthe worl d. let

no one ill1 ,l ~il1 c that America will escape."

13m Spain and C hina seemed far away. Most

Americalls igno red Roosevelt 's wa rning. T hey

believed that th e best thin g to do \\' ,IS to let foreigners

solve their problems themselves. lsolaricnisrs fd t rhis

parricularlv strongly. These were people who

believed rhar Amc ricans should try to cu t olT, or

"isola te." rhc United Stat es from rhc problems o f the

Olltsidt' world.

Iso lationist ide as were \Try strong in Congress

during rhc 19.30s. It passed a number o flaws called

Neutrality Acrs . Thcse said that Amer ican citizens

wo uld not be allowed to sell militar y equ ipment, o r

lend money, to any nations at war. Evennonmilitary

supp lies such as foods tuff s would be sold to

warr ing count ries only if th ey paid cash to r them and

collected them in their own ships.

Then. in 1939, war broke om in Europe. Uy the

summer of 19-10 Hitler's arm ies had overrun all of

western Europe, Only Urirain <cxbausrcd and sho rt

ofweap on s - still de fied them. With Hitler the master

of Euro pe, and his ally. Ja pan, becoming ever

stronger ill Asia, Americans saw at las t the dangerous

pos ition of rhc Unit ed States, sand wiched between

the two .

Roosevelt had already persuaded Congress to

ap pro vt' rhc Iirvt peace time military conscription in

American histo ry and to suspen d th e Ncurraliey

Acts. Now he scm Britain all the mil itary t'qu lpment

th at the Un ited Stares could sparcc rifles. gUlls.

ship s. Early ill 19-1 1 the British ran our o f mone y. In

March Roosevelt persuaded Congress to accepr his

Len d Lease Plan. Lend Lease gave Roosevelt the Tight to supply

mili tary equi pment and other goods to Brnain

wi tho ut payment . He could do the same fo r dny

country whose defense he considered occcsserv (Q the

safet y 011ht, Uni ted Stares. American gu ns, food and

~l ircraft crossed th e Atla nt ic Ocean in large quanti ties.

They played a viral pan in helping Britain to

cont inue to tight agamse Hitler. When I{itlcr attacked the Soviet Union in june IY41, Roosevelt used rhc

L\:m{ Lease scheme to send aid to the Russians, too.

Fighting was also taking place in Asia at th is time.

japanese forces had invaded Man churia III 1931 and

China in )lJ37, In July 19·H, they also occu pied the

French colony o flndoch ina. This alarmed th e

American government. h saw the growing power of

japan as a threat both to peace in Asia and to

American trading in terests. Ever since the 1937

att ack on China the United States had been reducing

its t'xp ort~ to J apan ofgoods tha t wert' useful in

war - aircra ft and che micals. fo r exam ple. Now, in

july IlJ4l , it sto pped all shipments o f oil.

j apan fared disaster . It imported 80 percent ofits o il

from th o: United States, Witho ut this Americ:In oil its

industries would be paralyzed. "japan IS like a tish III

a pond from which the wan-t IS being drained awa y.'

a senior naval officer told Empero r l Iirohiro .

In O ctober. Gener al Hidoki Toj o became j apan's

Prime Minister. T oj o was well known for his belief

tha t a sharp USt' afforce W:IS often rhc bcsr way to

solve disagreements. This had earned him .

nickname- the Razor. The re was plen ty ofoil in

Southeast Asia. Tojo decided that japan mus t seize

it-and must make it impossible for the Americans to

usc their Pacific battle Nl'l't to stop them.

( ) II Decem bcr 7, 1941, j apanese warplanes roaredin

over Pearl I lnrbor. Hawaii, the America n navy's

main base in the Pacific Ocean. Their bombs and

torpedoes sank or badly damaged eight American

battleships, blew up hund reds ofaircraft and killed

over 1,000 men.

Whcn the Pear l Harbor attack took place, the United

States and Japan were still at peace, The United Stares

declared war 0 11 December R. 1941. Since Germ any

wasj apan 's ally. Hitler then declar ed war on the

United Scan-s. The wa r in Europe and the war in Asia

became one war. Britain, the Soviet Union and the

United States (the Allies) were the mam count ries on

o ne side. Germany and j apan (the Axis) were the

main countr ies on the other,

Th e United Stares government orga nized the whole

Amer ican eco nomy towards winning the war. It

placed controls on wages and prices, and Introduced

high income taxes. Gasoline and some foods were

rationed. Factories stopped producing consumer

goods such as automobiles and wash ing machines.

and started making tanks, bombers and other wa r supplies. T he government also Spl'nt a vast

amount- two thousand million dollars-on a topsecret

research scheme. The scheme was code-named

the Manhattan Project. By 1945 scientis ts working

0 11 rhc scheme had produced and tested th e world's

first atomic bomb, Allied war planners agreed to co ncent rate 011

dctcaring Germany fi rst, In 1942 the Sov iet Unio n

was under heavy attack by the Ger mans . To help the

Russians, American generals recommended an early

invasion o f German-occupicd France. Hut Winston

C hurchill, the Uritish Prime Mi nis ter. persua ded

Roosevelt to attack the Germans first in the

Mediterranean region. Combined American and

British fo rces Landed III North Africa III November

1942, and joined orhcr British fo rces already figh ting

there, Togcrhcr. the Allied armies defeated the

German genera l Hommel's Afrika Korps. In ]1)43

they invaded Sicily and the mainland of Italy. After

mont hs of bitter fighting. on June 4, 1944. they freed

Rome from German control.

Two days later. on June 6_ Allied troops invaded

Normandy in German-occupied Prance. Their

Supreme Commander was rhc American gene ral

Eisenhower. The invasion was code-named

Oper ation O verlord. The day it took place was

referr ed to as li-Dav - D for l Ichvcrancc. From early

in the mornmg o f I )- J.)ay hund reds ofAllied landing

craft emptied their loads o f men and weapons 0 11 to

the tla t Norma nd y beaches. Germ an soldiers fought failed. By the end ofJuly Allied soldiers were racmg

across France. Paris was libe rated on August 24 and

by September Allied forces had crossed Ccnuauy's

wcsrcru border.

Hut the Germans were not vcr beaten. In I )e(·t'mber

I(}44, they launched a last f ierce atta ck in till'

Arden nes region o f Ud gium. They punched back the

Allied fro nt line in a bul ge many miles deep. This

gavc rhe batt le its name -the Batt le ofthe Bulge. It

was a mo nth befo re the Allies could organize a

roun rcrartack and drivc back [he Germans.

T he Battle of the Bulge proved to be" the last German

o ffensive ofthe Second World War. On April 25.

1(}45, British and American soldiers met ad vancing

Soviet troops Oil the banks ofthe River Elb c in the

middle ofGerm any. On Apr il 30 Hitler shot himsel f.

German soldier s cvcrvwhcrc laid down th eir

\\·l'apons and o n May 5, 1945. Germany sur rende red.

In th e: Pacific j apanes e armed forces won some

str iking early victories. In only a few mo nt hs they

o verran Southeast Asia and the Islands of[he western

Pacific. By th e: summer of 1942 [hey had co nque red

over 1.5 million square mile s ofland, rich in raw

materials and inh abi ted by more than 100 million

peop le, Th e conq uered lands included rhc

Philippines, where thousands of Americ an troo ps

we re t rapped and forced to surrender, Japan 's first setback r-amo in May 1'J-12. In the Battle

ofthe Cor al Sea. aircraft from Amer ican carr iers

drove back a big japanese invasion fleet that was

thrvnrcni ng Aust ralia. ln j unc rhcjapancsc sutf-red

all even worse defeat. Their main bailie Ill-t,t attacked

an impo rtant American base called Midway Island.

Again American warplanes heat them offwith heavy

losses. In the Battle of Midway the japanese lost lour

aircraft carriers and many oftheir best pilots.

By the beginning of 19-13 the Amcricnnv ami their

Australian and British allies had ag reed upon a longterm

plan to de feat the Jap anese. They decided on a

thr ee-pron ged att ack. From Australia one prong

'would push northwards towardsJap an th rough the

Philippines. From Hawaii another pron g would

strike westwa rds through rhe islands o f rhc centra l

Pacific. Finally, th e tWOPacific offem in's would be

supported by a drive throu gh Hurma into the lands

that thejapan ese had conq uered III Sou theas t Asia_ ByJ UIll' 1'-)-13, the Pacific offensives had begun .

Amer ican forces adv anced toward sJapan by "is land

hopping" -that is, they captu red Islands that were

srr arcgicallv im porta nt, but by passed others. In the

remaind er of 1l)-1J and throughout 19-1-1, Allied

forces fought their way closer to Japan itself. InJ line

I'N-1. an enormo us Ameri can task force won cont rol

of the import ant Marian a Islands. In O ctober

American troops returned to the Philippines and

cur offJapan from its conqucst s III Southeast Asia.

By 19-15Japan was within ran ge o f air attacks .

Ame rican bombers made devastatin g raids on its

cities. ln j unc the island o f Okinawa , less than 375

miles from the Japanese coast, fell to the Americans.

Amer ican troops prepared to invade Japa n itself.

But the invasion ne ver came. O n J uly Ifl, 11)-15.

Alhed scientists at work o n the Manhatt an Project

tested the world's first atomic bomb. Even they were

shocked by the result . T hey had inven ted the most

destructive Wl..'apo n the world had ever seen . On

August 6 an Ameri can bomber dropped an atomic

bomb ove r rhc japancsc cit y of HIroshima. A few

days late r, on August 9, a second ato mic bomb was

dropped on rhc city of N agasaki . Both cines were

de vastated and nearly ~OO , OOO civi lians we re- killed.

On August 1-1 rhejapanese government surrendered.

The Second Worl d War 'was o ver