Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Assignment: The Nuclear Age



Image result for japanese internment camps





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ALTERNATIVES TO USING THE ATOMIC BOMB


Alternatives to using atomic weapons against Japan in August of 1945:

1) A massive invasion of Japan, expected to cost millions of Allied casualties
2) A naval blockade to starve Japan, along with continued conventional bombing
3) A demonstration of the new weapon on a deserted island to pressure Japan to surrender
4) A softening of Allied demands for an unconditional surrender

Interim Committee: scientists, military leaders, and government officials met in the
Spring of 1945 to discuss the before mentioned ideas; they could not recommend any of
the alternatives.
The only alternative really debated was #3. Why were they unable to recommend this alternative?
1) They believed nothing less than dropping a bomb on a city would convince the Japanese to surrender;
2) the test might be a dud;
3) the Japanese might shoot down the delivery plane or move American prisoners of war into the test area;
4) fierce fighting and an unwillingness to surrender at Iwo Jima and Okinawa made many members of the Interim Committee doubt the effectiveness of a demonstration.