Hiroshima

Term Paper # 103785

History > Asian
History > U.S. World Wars

Hiroshima

An analysis of the reasons and justification for the bombing of Hiroshima through a review of Howard Zinn's "Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence" and Samuel J. Walker's "History, Collective Memory, and the Bomb".

1,371 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the American use of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and how the fifty-plus years since the nuclear attack have allowed for clearer thinking regarding the reasoning behind the dropping of "the bomb." The paper examines two articles, written in 1995 and 1996, in order to better identify the reasons for and justifications of the United States' use of the first atomic weapons on the civilians living in this Japanese city. The articles are "Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence," by WWII veteran and renowned Boston professor Howard Zinn and "History, Collective Memory, and the Bomb," by J. Samuel Walker.

From the Paper:

"But the need to one-up Russia diplomatically was not the only Cold War victory gained with the bombing of Hiroshima. Both the United States and Russia had long been studying and developing the new form of energy and weaponry promised by nuclear power. With the defeat of Germany, who had also been exploring such things, the United States and Russia were in a race to both create and practice nuclear capabilities against prospective enemeies. The United States knew that by showing that they had the bomb and were not afraid to use it, at the same time exhibiting the sheer destruction and terror that it caused, they would win a decisive battle in the Cold War. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Walker, J. Samuel. "History, Collective Memory, and the Decision to Use the Bomb." Hiroshima in History and Memory. Ed. Michael J. Hogan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 187-199.
Zinn, Howard. "Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence." Open Magazine Pamphlet Series #34. Westfield, NJ: Open Media, 1995. 1-21.