Why did the United States build the atomic bomb?

Question

and options did the United States have to end the war in the Pacific besides dropping the atomic bomb?

thanks

Answer 1

Had we not developed the atom bomb, someone else would have. It's only natural for mankind to exploit our technology, and we were way ahead of the rest of the world. The atom bomb saved maybe a million lives in the Pacific War. Had it not been used there, it would have been used later by us, or the Soviet Union, or the French. The use of it in Japan, due to it's horror, has been the biggest deterrent of use of atomic, or nuclear(hydrogen) weapons since.

Answer 2

There were more then several countries that were involved in the building of the first atomic bomb. This was all happening in the thirties. Nazi Germany was way ahead of everyone of course but, they could;t the heavy water, this cam from the Norse countries, until they took over this country, they were handcuffed, you might say.
The English and American forces were at work to stop the production of heavy water by bombing the plants and dams that were producing it. They used special techniques in the methods to get at the low Land targets.
Then later the Russians cam into the picture but, what they had was stolen plans and no way t deliver the bomb. American didn't know if it could deliver the bomb.
It was all up in the air and to most scientists, the bomb would not stop exploding until the Earth was ravaged but that was the last option. Better to die then live in tyranny with the Nazi and Japanese war ,machines running the world.

Answer 3

There was a race to discover atomic power. Britain & Germany were the first to start the race both were trying to beat the other and the majority really had know idea about the power of the bomb that they were trying to make. Many were more motivated by the fear of the other having it than by the simply desire to have it themselves. During the battle of Britain, Britain decided to share knowledge with the US and begin cooperation with the US to develop the bomb.
Germany became sharing knowledge with Japan in 1944 and at first was trying to set up a Germany program in Japan, by 1945 they decided to share all knowledge with Japan and send the materials that should the best promise to Japan, however the submarine they sent to delivery this sharing of knowledge was sunk. After the war it was determined that Germany was allot closer that anyone had thought, and only lack of materials, and a question of leadership and command desire, prevented the Germans from being first.

Options, this subject have been debated in great detail. One always has options, and hindsight is 20/20.
The allies had agreed from the beginning of the alliance that the allies would not negotiate surrender with the Axis powers, only total defeat and unconditional surrender would end the conflict.
This was a contention point in 1941 everyone remembering the manner in which the French government formed separate terms with the Germans while Allied troops were on the ground fighting and dying to defend France.
With the USSR basically at peace with Japan until late 1945 the rest of the Allies were fighting a 2 front war.
Contrary to popular belief Japan and the Japanese had no intention of making peace or surrendering in any form. They had proclaimed that they will fight to the last man. It was not in the nature of the Japanese to surrender examples of how the Japanese thought about those that surrendered are not secrets.
The US did not drop the bomb to simply see what there new toy would do. They knew what it would do it was already tested in Arizona. The US and Japanese governments were talking, and Truman had warned Japan to come to terms told them of the new weapon and told them unless they surrender the US would use the bomb. The made they choice, and after the first bomb they choose not to surrender, they had 7 days to see the effect of the bomb and still choose not to surrender. Only after the second bomb did they come to terms. It was their choice. War is people killing people and one is either killing or being killed, it is not pretty, moral, just or fair, but every generation seems to have to go through it to find out that there may be a better way.

Answer 4

The Germans were in the process of developing the Atom Bomb but due to poor decisions and lack of materials they couldn't sustain their military and were defeated before completion. When their scientists and labs were taken into Allied custody America brought many of them the the U.S. but the Soviets managed to get some minimal technology as well.

The simple answer is this; The technology existed and it was only a matter of time before Nuclear Bombs would become a reality so, common sense would dictate that it would be better for America to get the weaponry before the Soviets. It is also a fact that Japan was in the late stages of developing a rudimentary Atom Bomb using German materials and plans.

Besides dropping the A-Bomb the USA had the option of massive land invasions, like D-Day in Europe but a conservative estimate of American casualties numbered 500,000 US Troops and 2 million Japanese civilians. The Japanese practice of fighting till the death, never surrendering and using suicide attacks as a method of defense, and the national training of women, children, elderly and infirm to battle with anything at hand practically assured that to invade, defeat and occupy the main island would result in a carnage never seen before.

Tokyo had already been leveled and the Potsdam declaration made it clear that the Allies would only accept complete surrender and disarming of the military. Japan's Military Commanders didn't respond except to declare that the Japanese would never capitulate. President Truman sent communications informing the Japanese that if they failed to surrender "a terror never before imagined would rain down on the cities and people of Japan" and this was delivered a week before the first bomb landed on Hiroshima.

It is particularly interesting that even after Hiroshima the Japanese waited until Nagasaki was likewise destroyed, a full week between them, and then waited nearly a week to surrender and then the Allies made concessions regarding the Emperor keeping his throne.

Remember that the United States had been fighting a war on two fronts, basically two wars, for four years and the Japanese had attacked our country. It is a stark reality in war that nearly any weapon developed, if viable, will be used. The American people were not ready to continue another 2 years in what would have been a catastrophic bloodbath and finally, the Soviet Union had declared their intention to invade Japan. The US wasn't going to allow Stalin to get a foothold in Japan.

My father fought in the Pacific during WWII and he as well as every person I've ever talked to about that time in history says that they believe the A-Bomb was the best option. There are arguements about the morality of dropping the bombs on civilian targets but most military targets were already wiped out and frankly, Japan never had any reservations about horribly eradicating and torturing civilians throughout the Asian Pacific theater in their quest to control the Pacific and they planned to invade America.

War is a rotten business.

We built it because we could, we dropped it because it hastened the end of the war with a drastically reduced amount of casualties, and, sent a message to the Soviets that we had superior might and wouldn't be threatened by them.

Answer 5

It was built because the war was looking to be quite long and a weapon as powerful as the A-bomb was very valuable. It was known that the Germans were attempting to develop it, so the US had to as well, to counter this threat. When Germany surrendered there were even some that suggested A-bomb research should have halted, but the military pushed for it to use against Japan.

The only other option the US had to end the war in the Pacific was a very long and costly invasion of Japan itself. This invasion would have led to massive casualties for the US and Japan. Also, the Russians would likely have seized large chunks of Asia while they "liberated" it. The Japanese were preparing to fight for every foot of ground, and were encouraging every man, woman, and child to fight the invaders. In the long run an invasion of Japan would have resulted in much greater loss of life than the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Answer 6

there are some good answers here ,i think rob b. has come closest to the truth,i would like to add that in terms of why,that's pretty evident,it is a powerful weapon and any country possessing it would definitely have some leverage.now for the more difficult question,was it needed to end the war?...probably not, as japan was in ruins,had no fuel[that pretty important],no industrial facilities,and maybe even more important was being crushed by Russia in Manchuria,and soon the northern part of japan.as for us we had THOUSANDS of B29 bombing everything daily .but you can come up with some validation for a quick end, in we needed to limit how far Russia got a toe in the far east[the cold war was already on] the million casualties was only a smokescreen to justify the dropping,as for why 2 bombs we had 2 very different bomb designs[one was uranium the other was a more advanced plutonium bomb]don't under estimate the hate-red we bore for the Japanese it was a little bit of payback and showed Russia look what we got.i know lots of people might not see it this way,that's the extent or the pr job done on us,but if you are really interested their are lots of BOOKS you could read....ps first bomb aug 6 second bomb aug. 9th........3 days!!!!! did they really think 3 days was enough time ????? me thinks not

Answer 7

Building a bigger and better weapon has always been the way of the arms race. The country with the most powerful weapon would be the most feared and thus the most safe. The US became interested in MIT students who were working on perfecting Einsteins work on the splitting of the atom. They took these students and professors out to the desert to a think tank and compound designed just for them, gave them all the resources they needed and they build the first atom bomb.

Answer 8

Partly out of fear that the Germans would do so first, which would have made winning the European war virtually impossible. But that war was over by the time the first bomb was tested, and the question then arose as to whether to use it against Japan. Although by that time Japan was nearly militarily prostrate, it was still clear that to finally end the war would have required a massive invasion of the home islands, which would have resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties. So the bomb was used, and Japan surrendered -- but it was a near thing; several of the generals tried to stage a coup to keep Hirohito from reading the declaration that ended the war.

Answer 9

thats a tough question

we were worried we would have to invade Japan to end the war and waste around 1 million troops doing so. The Japanese were training even their children how to fight a invasion.

We needed a second option.

Einstien wrote to FDR a letter in which he said a atomic bomb was possible.

We dropped it because we thought Japan would hold out forever (unless we won a invasion).

However what we didnt know was that the Japanese Emporer was all ready preparing to surrender. we just didnt get the word till it was too late.

Answer 10

They built it out of fear of Japan, and no they did not have to drop it. I've heard that Japan was ready to surrender but because it was not 'total surrender' it wasn't good enough for the US, and they dropped the bomb to 'protect hundreds of innocent lives.' I'm so glad to know that the US thinks that CIVILIANS of their 'enemies' aren't human or innocent, or worth saving.