1. “The US was justified in the use of the atomic bomb against Japan given the nature of the conflict and their hopes for the post-war world.” Assess the validity of this statement using the documents and your knowledge of the time period

2. Bataan Death March, 1942

3. Nanking, China, 1937

4. Caption: “Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank-you note for the Jap skull he sent her.”
Life Magazine, 5/22/1944

5. Japanese-American citizens awaiting transport to Internment camp, 1942

6. Dresden, 1945
Tokyo, 1945
“Strategic” bombing

7. Iwo Jima
US: 6,821 dead; 19,189 wounded; Total: 26,504 (of 110,000)
Japan: 20,703 dead; 216 captured; Total: 20,919 (of 21,000)
Okinawa
Allies: 2,513 dead or missing; 38,916 wounded, 33,096 non-combat losses: Total: 74,525 (of 548,000)
Japan: 66,000 dead or missing, 17,000 wounded, 7,455 captured; Total casualties: 83,000 (of 100,000+); 75, ,000 civilians dead or missing

8. Radiation burns
Shadow burned into wall, Hiroshima

9. Harry Truman, 1941 (after German attack on USSR):
“[I]f we see that Germany is winning we ought to help the Russians and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them think anything of their pledged word.”
The Russians are as untrustworthy as “Hitler and Al Capone” and he deplored “those twin blights—atheism and communism.”

10. Feb, 1945: Yalta Conference: USSR enter against Japan 90 days after defeat Germany; world divided up into zones of control based on where armies are at time of peace
May 8, 1945: VE Day
July 26: Potsdam Declaration; Japan “Surrender or suffer prompt and utter destruction.” (no mention Bomb)
August 6: Little Boy on Hiroshima
August 8: USSR declares war on Japan
August 9: Fat Man on Nagasaki
August 15: Japan surrenders unconditionally