What was the US plan for ending the Pacific War? The Manhattan Project What was the US plan for ending the Pacific War?

Did Japan commit war crimes during WWII? YES! Rape of Nanking (300,000 civilians killed) NO! YES! Pearl Harbor (2,300 military killed) Bataan Death March (1,600 POWS die)

Developing the A-Bomb FDR okays development of an atomic bomb when US learns Nazis were trying to develop their own A-bomb Bomb development is called “The Manhattan Project”, and led by Gen. Leslie R. Groves & physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer Bomb developed at the Los Alamos Ntl Laboratory, New Mexico 4 bombs were developed at $5 billion each New weapon could release more energy than 20,000 tons of TNT First bomb called Gadget was tested in a controlled explosion Trinity Test

Second bomb was named “Little Boy” August 6, 1945: a plane named the Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan Japan doesn’t surrender. Three days later, a plane named Bockscar dropped the third bomb named “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, Japan Japan surrenders on August 13th, 1945

Pros & Cons of dropping the Atomic Bomb For Pros & Cons of dropping the Atomic Bomb Against The two targeted cities would have been firebombed anyway Firebombing not as bad as the radiation from an atomic bomb Japanese showed fanatical resistance and wanted to fight to the death, including kamikazes Japan was ready to call it quits. Home islands were being blocked so they couldn’t get anything Invasion of Japan would have caused more casualties than the death toll at Hiroshima & Nagasaki Those deaths would have mostly been military and not civilian Japan refused to surrender so both bombs had to be used, plus waste of money not to use bombs Japan would surrender with right terms, one bomb could have been used in Tokyo Harbor as a demo The bomb's use impressed Soviet Union enough that they did not demand joint occupation of Japan Civilian were sacrificed simply for power politics between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

My older aunt, my dah ahiee (big aunt), is actually very small My older aunt, my dah ahiee (big aunt), is actually very small. Her wrists are the size of napkin rings, as delicate as rice paper--and the clothes we pass around in our family do not fit her small frame. She is shy, especially in English. And during one heated family discussion on the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, she kept quiet. I had pointed out to her rather talkative husband that the U.S. government was still the only government that had dropped the atomic bomb on human beings. Hiroshima, I could maybe see, but Nagasaki too? At this point, my petite aunt spoke up. "I think they should have bombed the whole country!" she bellowed, and then lapsed back into silence. It was the first time I realized how profoundly the Chinese were affected by World War II. Even then, I was not familiar with what had happened in the country of my mother's birth during the war. As Americans, we are almost all familiar with the Nazi-sponsored Holocaust, spawning unspeakable horrors, starvation and genocide. Many will never forgive the Nazis. But now I see how the Chinese feel about their Holocaust. The lesson of a Holocaust is to never forget. (From Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking)

I was glad that we dropped the bomb I was glad that we dropped the bomb. You couldn’t believe how sneaky the Japs were at Iwo Jima, they don’t fight fair. Tomorrow, I was supposed to land at Japan and begin an invasion of the island. This would have been Iwo Jima all over again and maybe worse. I have fought for a long time and have a wife and two daughters at home. Let’s face it, they bombed us at Pearl Harbor and are getting what they deserved. They are brutal and savage. Truman bombing the Japanese saved my life and my daughters will grow up with a father. - US Navy Officer during WW II