Assignment: The Nuclear Age

Japanese Internment Camp Video Clip

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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.

CNN "Nuclear weapons: Who has what?

The Washington Post- Nuclear Overview