It baffles me??? Can Americans answer this? Why Americans dropped the second Atomic Bomb?

Question

America dropped "Little Boy" the atomic bomb on 6th August 1945 on Hiroshima and brought Japan to its knees. After seeing massive destruction and loss of human life what perverted thinking made America drop another bomb "Fat Man" that too 3 days after the first one i.e. on 9th August 1945 on Nagasaki. The required effect was achieved by the first bomb. What did the Americans achieve by this second bombing? Except another massive destruction and huge loss of human lives. Or was it a signal to the world.? Mind you America is the only country which has used a Nuclear bomb against its enemy. Could any body enlighten me?

Addition: OMG I am baffled by the quick responces. But do you guys know that if not all most of the humans killed were civilians? And you guys talk about terrorist killing innocent people. You guys are hypocrite, you are justifying the worst massacre.

To Dave_Stark, I am no where justifying any killings, because I am not an American. What I want the world to know why are seeing all this destruction and loss of human lives America went ahead with the second bombing.

I mean after seeing all the destruction....

Answer 1

Japan was surrendering BEFORE the US decided to test out their nukes on a civilian population. How atrocious it was to use nukes--especially on women, children, and the elderly instead of a military base. Can you imagine the outrage against Japan if they attacked civilians instead of Pearl Harbor. You'd never hear the end of what evil cowards they are!

"As a result of the naked futility of their position, the Japanese had approached the Russians, seeking their help in brokering a peace to end the War. The U.S. had long before broken the Japanese codes and knew that these negotiations were under way, knew that the Japanese had for months been trying to find a way to surrender.

Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, reflected this reality when he wrote, "The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace.the atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan." Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman, said the same thing: "The use of [the atomic bombs] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender."

Civilian authorities, especially Truman himself, would later try to revise history by claiming that the bombs were dropped to save the lives of one million American soldiers. But there is simply no factual basis for this in any record of the time. On the contrary, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey reported, "Certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped." The November 1 date is important because that was the date of the earliest possible planned U.S. invasion of the Japanese main islands."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0806-25.htm

Answer 2

Germans were defeated and it was only Jap's then Emperor that was a PIB in closing the war - so the 2nd one was dropped as a warning that if they do not stop there would be repeats!! - Thankx to the 2nd Bomb the war came to an end stopping mass massacre of people!! - if WWII continued there would have been more deaths and a lot more devastations. And they did it for a good purpose.

On Second thoughts, what happens upon provoking a sleeping Cobra - you get bitten!! Provocation was the Japs attack on Pearl Harbour - bite was Hiroshima and Nagasaki!!

How about the 'N' number of civilians that the Fanatic Terorrists Kill? And and equivalent number forced to kill and in the end of the day try to make believe its in the name of Religion!! Neither is respect shown to the innocent Civilians nor the Religion!!

God Unite the Forces of the World to wipe out these Fanatics!!

Answer 3

America was thinking Japan would surrender right off the bat. They did not, also they needed to show to the world We had more than 1. Keep this in mind as well Japan even after Hiroshima was determined to fight on. On August 7, 1945 Japan had no intentions to surreder. Now look ahead to the cold war, Russia entered in to the war against Japan. Which means Japan would have been dividided in to North/ South Japan. The only other two places in the far east where this happened war broke out.

Answer 4

There is a lot of post WWII debate about the dropping of both bombs. The revisionist theory is that Truman felt the need to demonstrate to the Soviets we had the bomb and would use it. Also, by using the bomb quickly, that would keep the Soviets out of Japan and occupy the country. The main reason is the simplest. The war needed to end, we were tired of it and the loss of life, this could save American lives. Even after the first bomb, the military still held sway over the Japanese emperor, and persuaded him not to surrender. After 3 days of telling the Japanese we would drop another one, and they still would not surrender, the Nagasaki bomb was deployed.
When asking this question, think about a few things. The chance of surviving as a German POW was 1 in 4. As a Japanese POW, 1 in 27. Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack that brought us into war, and a war we did not want to be in. More Japanese were killed by far in the fire-bombings, especially in Tokyo. In the weird way that only war can devise, the atomic bombs saved Japanese lives, and many of them.

Answer 5

Oh, gee, here we go again. More deconstructionist, revisionist history.

If you look at the casualty lists for every nation involved in the war, you will find that more civilians than soldiers died IN EVERY THEATER OF THE WAR. That means Europe, North Africa, Asia, EVERYWHERE.

That was the result of the change of strategy to go from limited war, where only military forces went after each other, to the concept of total war, in which everyone is fair game.

If you want to piss and moan about casualties, why aren't you calling out the Germans for their atrocities across eastern Europe and throughout the Soviet Union. They wiped out 6 MILLION Jews in their death camps, and slaughtered millions of Russians, Poles, and goodness knows who all else in their drive for Lebensraum. What about the Italian massacre of the Abyssinians? How about the horrors of the Japanese occupation of most of the Pacific region?

On the scale of carnage, the two atomic bombings were pinpricks compared to the horrors of the firebombings of Tokyo or Dresden, or the continual blitz on London, or the rape of Nanking, or Stalingrad, or . . .

So come down off your high horse. The Japanese were invited to see our first demonstration in the Nevada Desert. They thought it was a phony, so they ignored it. Then the bomb went off over Hiroshima. They didn't believe we had another (as so many earlier posters have stated) and continued fighting and preparing for the eventual invasion of the home islands, which would have resulted in the slaughter of millions of JAPANESE, because they were going to arm everyone and sacrfice the entire nation before they would dishonor their code of Bushido and surrender.

If you look at the casualty ratios of every battle the US fought against the Japanese, we were killing their soldiers at rates of 20-to-1, 30-to-1, or even higher. The strategists took that into account when they analyzed the potential horrors of invading the Japanese home islands, and predicted around one million American servicemen would be casualties. If the 20-to-1 or 30-to-1 ratios continued (as was expected), can you even begin to imagine the carnage that would have been the result of the invasion?

So the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Now even the most die-hard Japanese war-mongers realized that we could bomb them at will and cause endless destruction, and the Emperor finally had enough support to order them to surrender. The loss of life was just too much for even the most die-hard militant to endure.

How 'bout next time you actually do a little research in reputable sources, rather than that garbage you find on anti-American websites.

Answer 6

ONE- Anything worth shooting once, is worth shooting twice

TWO- Bombing of Civilian Population centers in World War II was Started by the Japanese in 1930's

THREE- The Japanese Refused to Surrender after the First Bomb, neccessitating a second attack

FOUR- More Japanese Died during an Incendiary attack on Tokyo than in the Atomic Bombings

FIVE- Japanese Leaders Publically stated their intention to suffer 50 MILLION Deaths for the Emperor. Training of women and Children to attack Allied Forces even with Bamboo spears was ongoing

SIX- The Casualty estimates for Operation Downfall range from between 250,000 to 1 Million US casualties alone. Japanese casualties were estimated at 5 to 10 MILLION Japanese. Obviously , the Japanese Government & Peoples will to fight had to be broken.

SEVENTH- I thank god for the Crews of the Enola Gay & Bocks Car, they saved Millions of American & Japanese Lives in the Long run.

Finally- I dont think anything will educate or enlighten you

Answer 7

The primary reason was to save millions of lives. The fact of the matter is far more lives were saved thanks to the bombs then were destroyed, as the alternative would've been a home invasion which would have cost millions of lives, both Japanese and American. And many of those millions would've been Japanese civilians, most likely far more then those who were killed with the two bombs (don't be an idiot and compare a shrewd wartime decision with blanket terrorism, that's just dumb). That was the reason for both bombs, as the Japanese demonstrated an unwillingness to surrender after the first. Combine this with firsthand demonstration of the bomb's effects in real- life usage, which has helped prevent its use over the past sixty years, and it turned out to be a real tremendous humanitarian move on Truman's part, whether he realized it at the time or not.

Answer 8

Mass destruction was the point of the bombs. It was meant to force the Japanese to surrender. Although there were many innocent people killed, the targets selected were strategic. And while many lives were lost, many were saved by ending the war sooner and not forcing the Americans to invade Japan.

Answer 9

Japan was still planning on continuing fighting after the first one. It was not effective so a second attempt was made. It also did not get the desired result.

Luckily the Russians then declared war on the Japanese and they finally surrendered.

There was a point to it, it was a good idea in the minds of the US and would have worked if done to the US.


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Edit: Youre very misguided here. The lives saved were untrained farmers, their wives, everyone who would be required to fight. The lives lost include civilians, but so do the lives lost.
The lives were weighed and it was determined that many more people (not Americans or anything, but people in general) would die due to an invasion that would go on for years. Yes, it was horrible, but it was also the best choice unfortunately.

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BTW, Eskimo's point about scaring the Russians is correct. That is definately one reason, just as Dresden was used to scare them from Europe (per RAF memos).

Answer 10

No the first one was only half the plan, you got to seethe big picture of events at that time, through the eyes of world events and national personalities at that time, not through todays biased eyes and thinking. the US knew that Japan would not surrender, they would fight until the last man on there own home;land. the US was planning a larger land invasion for 1946 on the shores of Japan of over 2,500,000 Us troops it was estimated that from 500,000 to 1,000,0000 us soldiers would die an nearly three times that m;any Japanese in that desperate invasion. SO truman wrestled for months on what to do, they only had enough uranium to make two bombs, it would take nearly a year to make another batch, so the bluff was that if they dropped one, than another 3 days later, that the Japanese would surrender, thinking theUS had many more. the Bluff worked, Japan surrendered completly, unconditionally. the US was weary of 5 years of war, on two oceans and there where already several hundred thousand deaths for the US, and families where being put through the mill. the Japanese had lost over 1,000,000 alone against the US, Japan had killed over 6,000,000 chinese with only about 500,000 being soldiers the rest civilians in cities they decimated in there conquest of mainland china, to much death, to many years of war, and to sacrife about 200,000 in two a-bomb drops and another 200,000 from fall out over the years was looked at as a better deal than nearly 3 ,000,000 to 6,000,000 in estimated war deaths. So it was the les of two very great evils.

Answer 11

If you want perverted,here you go.
The Japanese committed cannibalism on some of their American prisoners.They would just hack off a piece and throw it on the BBQ.
The rape of Shanghai by the Japanese is thought to have claimed the lives of one quarter million Chinese in that place alone.
The Japanese were every bit as bad as the Nazis were.They worshiped the Emperor as a god and they would not surrender partly because of that.
When we dropped the first bomb,there was a window to surrender unconditionally.They did not,so we did it again.
It was thought that an invasion of Japan would cost another million casualties amongst the Americans.
The simple answer is,they were not worth that cost.

We had the capacity to drop #3,4 & 5 in case they did not surrender.All we had to do was make some more bombs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre

They would have done it to us if they had the weapons.