Rethinking Hiroshima by Isaac

Arguably the most significant part of the 20th century was World War 2, supposedly the ultimate ‘Good guys versus Bad guys fight’ but the war did end abruptly when the United States performed one of the most controversial actions of human history : Dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where it ended thousands of lives. The public responded extremely negatively to this action and state that if the bombings never occurred, the world would be a better place. But the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary and beneficial because it gave us the knowledge to harness a new energy source and prevented the war from proceeding and descending into more violence.

During the last stages of world war 2, Before the atomic bomb was dropped. Two plans were to be executed, one by Japan and one by the United states and were named “Cherry blossoms at night” and “Downfall” respectively. Both plans; if they had been carried out would have ended more lives than the atomic bombs. The first plan : Operation Downfall was the planned invasion of Japan and eventually force a surrender. Downfall was planned to involve 4 million US invaders and an estimated 35 Million Japanese defenders , The estimated death toll for the US was around the hundred thousands[1] which would have exceeded the tragic Normandy landings if the plan was indeed executed. The lesser known operation, conceived by Japan was named Operation Cherry Blossoms at night. Cherry Blossoms at Night was a plan to wage biological warfare on the United States, it was to involve kamikaze attacks each kamikaze plane was to carry fleas infected with bubonic plague. The operation had no value but was meant to prevent the united states from invading. It is unknown how many casualties this would have created but if this plan had been carried out, south carolina might have been infected with plague for a long time. But even if both plans were not carried out, it would have been likely that the war would have gone on for much longer than it did in our world as the people who had absolute power in japan were incredibly ferocious so much that before Hiroshima, there were no official documents that detailed anyone that had power in Japan contemplating terminating the war[1]. Another example of this ferocity is in our history, As after both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were obliterated, the war minister of japan urged Japan to continue fighting. Fortunately, the emperor of Japan overruled his decision and surrendered and finally ending the pacific war.

Another reason that the nuclear bombs were beneficial was that it opened the door to what could possibly solve our global warming problems and earth’s other issues. Richard Feynman once described : “To every man is given a key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates to hell” followed by “And so it is with science”. Paraphrasing, Feynman described how science gives us keys, but doesn’t tell us how to use such keys. When nuclear fission was discovered, The united states immediately started weaponizing nuclear fission, leading to the development of Little boy and Fat man. But the same key, Nuclear fission, also led to the development of nuclear energy which supplied us with large amounts of power without releasing any greenhouse gases. While some people may argue that there are alternatives to nuclear energy, citing the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima disaster. New research is giving us cleaner and more efficient energy which could solve our energy crisis and our global warming issue all together.

People may argue that the creation nuclear bombs directly caused the cold war and almost resulted in the extinction of humanity multiple times, coined the term “Megadeath” which is used to measure deaths in the millions and is directly involved with measuring the catastrophic killing power of the nuclear bomb and created the fear that extinction could happen on a whim. While that is true. Like what I mentioned above, the same keys that can be used to open the gates to heaven, also open the gates to hell. For example, the Saturn V rocket, the ones used to deliver nuclear payloads across continents during the cold war. Was the very same rocket used in the Apollo 11. It goes to show that what we think of as harmful and bad to us now, could be beneficial and good to us in the future.

The nuclear bombs were devastating, it killed thousand, created the fear of nuclear weapons and it polarised almost everyone’s views on the effects of the war. But while those facts are true, what the nuclear bombs created, set us, as a species, on the track to evolving even further than what we could’ve achieved before we discovered the power of the atom, it put us on the track to ending our current issues like global warming, our energy crisis and the limits of our solar system. As the saying goes: “A curse is a blessing in disguise”

Bibliography
[1] : Frank, Richard B. "No Bomb : No End." What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been: Essays. By Robert Cowley and James Bradley. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2001. 366-81. Print.
[2] : ""DOWNFALL" THE PLAN FOR THE INVASION OF JAPAN." History. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2016.
[3] : Bernstein, Barton J. "The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered." ProQuest. ProQuest, Jan. 1995. Web. 13 June 2016.