Japan Book Club: Hiroshima – part 5
The A-Bomb Dome, a building that partially survived the bombing of Hiroshima.
Chapter five of Hiroshima is called The Aftermath – and it shows how the six survivors lived, where their lives took them, and how the bombing affected the rest of their lives.
Again and again, the survivors have been referred to as “the lucky ones,” but I want you to read this last chapter wondering to yourself if they were in fact lucky.
In the end, I want you to take a look at how each of the characters turned out and how the bombing impacted the rest of their lives.
Read the final section of the book carefully, because the author shows quite a bit of historical framing to show you as the survivors lives go on, affected greatly by the bomb, the rest of the world continues researching, developing, and testing more and more destructive weapons.
It’s been said that nearly 250,000 American soldiers would have died had we continued traditional warfare with Japan, and that it’s likely that 1 million Japanese civilians would have been killed as well. Knowing both sides of things – what did happen (in the book) and what may have happened (read this), answer one question – did we do the right thing when we bombed Hiroshima? Why do you feel that way?
This is a difficult question, so keep all answers and replies to one another civil and respectful. Remember, this is an important conversation to have now, but while we’re in in Japan, we will be nothing but respectful and polite.
Here's a map of Hiroshima to help you keep the locations straight in your head while you read.
Every student in our Japan group is required to participate. You must comment on this post with your thoughts, then come back and comment on what other people have said – you are required to make an effort to keep the conversation going by replying to at least 2 other students (more than just “I agree” or “you are right.” Give them reasons why you agree/disagree or what they said that was meaningful – make this a discussion).
Minooka TAP 
Okay, let me get the ball rolling by saying this is a matter of perspective with how we look at it today and how it was seen when they did it. Back then, it seems what from I read was a statistical yet very cocky move by America. Yes, it was for the war effort and it did end the war but there are three matters at hand that contradict it entirely: 1. It can be seen as an act of revenge in which make America look childish and 2. America used the Atomic Bomb to show off to Russia. Nothing more could have been a worse move as it basically caused the Cold War, and it made us seem even more like a spoiled toddler. And finally as seen today is 3. The bombings weren’t directed at a war stance and cause more civilian death than it did any military forces whatsoever. Even though the radiation was an affect we never saw coming as how early the bomb was used in it’s lifetime, we could have been a bit (a lot, not even joking) more careful on how it would impact the future of Japanese living. We were totally blind in this situation (and maybe even still today in how we operate our war effort) and so I would have to day it wasn’t the brightest move to bomb Japan.
I agree, Austin. If we didn’t do that, we would’ve had a harder time making japan surrender. WW2 Would be very hazardous on the American economy.
Yess Austin i agree with you but at the beggining you said its a different from back then we look at it now but think about it whether it was 1940’s or 2000’s if you are country getting bombed what’s going through you head is not ohh lets think this through no it’s imma get this country back…you can’t say the perspectives are different because if yu’re bombing someone i know everybody who is either apart of it or receiving is thinking the same thing or is on th same page whether it’s today or yesterday.
Okay Nailah, you have a point. But, we did do this an act of revenge, in which it could have been a bit better planned with what I was saying about testing the bomb. America went for the old “spoiled child” way of using the bomb; basically I’m saying we were pushed by a bully and we pushed back almost in an act of defense we would regret either very soon or spontaneously.
i disagree i don’t think the U.S. was cocky in there actions toward Japan because it could be thought of as a retaliation or a reaction. If someone were to motion a punch toward your face, what would your reaction be? either to flinch or block it. this is what the U.S. did.
I disagree with you Bobby we weren’t just blocking an attack. if you were to compare Japan’s attack with someone punching at you i would say japan punched and hit us hard. however then we pulled out a gun and shot them in the gut.
I agree with Austin i think using the atomic bomb on japan without knowing it’s effects was childish. what increases my thought and belief on this is japan attacked a navel base we attacked a city full of civilians.
I really liked your comparison of America being a spoiled toddler.
no matter what war makes everyone look childish it does not matter what side your on. I agree with you austin I also saw it as a cocky just to end the war, It does look like an act of revenge, and it had more civilian death/damage than it did for military forces whatsoever. we stooped pretty low.
In the book the japanese were bombed with an atomic bomb. If we didn’t do this, we wouldve carried on traditional warfare and lose more soilders on both sides. Also they would probably would’ve lost more civilians then the bombing of Hiroshima. Also WW2 would’ve carried on for a longer time and we could have gotten in to another deppresion like after world war two
I do agree that we cold’ve gotten into a depression. Though, there is no possible way to know for sure what would’ve happened.
you’re right Syd, especially after we had just gotten out of depression.
I agree that war cost money and could put us into another depression. But, do you think it’s right to kill civilians who might not want anything to do with war, just so Japan could surrender and the war wouldn’t go on for a while longer. Also, as Sydney said there is no possible way we could know what would have happened.
I believe the United States was right to bomb Hiroshima. Hiroshima was the location were the Japanese were building their own atomic bomb. If we had not bombed them they would have bombed us kiling more american lives. Also Japan was not going to surrender quickly or easily so by bombing them we forced the war to an earlier end. I believe this ultimately saved more lives, because if the war would have continued for a couple more years, more lives would have been lost.
I agree with you Shane. Americans did have alot to lose if they attacked japan directly. But I don’t think they were constructing their own bomb.
You have to remember though, we only think they would’ve continued bombing us. There is no way to know what the Japanese could’ve done.
I really like that you mentioned this, what if’s can go both ways, and this was something that may or may not have really happened if we didn’t bomb.
I agree with you that the Japanese were not going to surrender easily, but do you think we had to go to the extreme with killing innocent people so that they would surrender?
The atom bomb was made by America so that way, as predicted by General Douglas MacAurther, so that was 250,000 american lives and millions of Japanese lives would be lost. By using coventional methods of war, it would’ve taken as much as a year for the Japanese to surrender. So, yes, America was right and smart to use the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima.
Would you have done anything different with the bomb, or do you think that the plan was completely fine?
Tyler i agree with you 100%. It would have took us year or even more to make Japan surrender. But should we have used a smaller bomb?
I think that it would of been better to drop one bomb and threaten to do it again if Japan didn’t surrender. This would give a chance to save even more lives if Japan did surrender after the first bomb.
I know many people say that it was right to bomb the Japanese, but I have to disagree. I admit that yes they did bomb us and many lives were lost, but when we bombed Hiroshima we did about 62.5 times more damage in deaths. Sadly, over 2/3’s was civilians, not even soldiers or military personal. If we didn’t, many lives could’ve been saved and we could’ve been out of the war that much faster. I know for this I was supposed to choose to agree or disagree, but it’s almost too difficult to pick a side when we can only predict what could have happened. We killed many civilians while the Japanese mainly aimed for military ports. Though on the other hand, if we didn’t invade they COULD’VE invaded us. There are so many “what ifs” that you can’t take a side on what the future could’ve held, the statement above is a theory, don’t forget that. I realize that what’s done is done, but think of it from all perspectives, we killed innocent CIVILIANS, they killed military men and few others. In a way, we could seem like the bad ones here, turning on innocence even through everything we have suffered through. We get mad when others kill our civilians, but when WE do it, it is suddenly right.
I agree, what do you think would be the most different if America would have carried on with traditional warfare?
Actually i disagree i don’t think the war would have been over faster because Japan thought they had the upper hand and thought they were smart in attacking our naval base just after signing a peace treaty. we would have to go into japan suffering even more casualties on both sides because the u.s. went into japan for a while and the Japanese were building trenches and burring our soldiers alive.
In the book, the Japanese got bombed by America with the “Atomic Bomb”. If we wouldn’t have done this and carried on with traditional warfare, as we would have, and lost almost 4x the amount of soldiers that we lost in the first place, this goes for both sides. Another would be, that World War II would have most likely lasted way longer than it actually did. I agree that America did the right thing by bombing Japan for all of these reasons and many more.
If we hadn’t bombed them, I guess the war would be longer, but it was still bad of us to kill innocent people who weren’t involved in the war.
I agree with you Jessica, it wasnt right to get revenge in a way where innocents were killed, but it happened. And honestly, it’ll probably happen again in some way or another.
I mean maybe some people believe it was the right thing but you have to think deeper about what happened. Yes i agree but i also disagree. See if someone bombs you natural human instinct is to kill them too…revenge is what happens here so you drop a bomb back…don’t be mad that’s what you get you shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Now where i disagree is when two bombs come in. One bomb was enough people to kill don’t go overboard. That was too much and it wasn’t right just sign a treaty duh.
i disagree with the treaty part, i mean some treaty’s don’t always work out, not everyone is just going to sign a treaty and commit to it , one of them will probably ruin the whole thing.
I think of revenge as a vicious cycle. it only ends if someone is the bigger person to let go or someone gets so hurt that they can no longer compete.
First, in the book It says the Japanese people were bombed by the U.S. with an atomic bomb. If we did not carry on with traditional warfare, both countries would have lost more military men. I don’t think it was right to bomb Hiroshima because it wasn’t the city that attacked the U.S. it was the government. We also bombed Nagasaki, so two atomic bombs is a little extreme. Hiroshima did have people in the military, but also families. We killed innocent people, some didn’t even get involved in the war.
I agree, it wasn’t right of us to take innocent people’s lives away, when, in fact, it WAS the Japanese government who attack the U.S.
Agreed. It’s not a proud moment in our history, and I hope that not only Japan can forgive us, but ourselves looking back at our past. I have one question to ask though: what other way did we have that all around would have been better?
You basically just summarized all my thoughts on the bombing in a perfect paragraph! I agree with you all the way. America and Japan were both wrong: Japan for attacking our military men and America bombing innocent people in Hiroshima.
I agree with you when you say that two atomic bombs is extreme. I personaly think one would of been better.
In my opinion, droping the bomb on Hiroshima was, in many eyes, to be considered an act of revenge or perhaps a very bad decision. For myself personally, I believe that droping the bombs were the best thing to do. World War Two had already been experiencing unconventional warfare. Germany had made it a point to bomb London, specifically targeting civilian, not military, targets. On that note, Germany also killed off millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Stalin of the Soviet Union warned his troops not to retreat. If they did, they would be shot. When you add all of these unneccesary casualties up, it added to way more than the bombs that we had dropped. Without taking revenge from Pearl Harbor, or the rest of Asia for that matter, we did what was neccesary for the allied powers to reign victorious. What we, as America, was also trying to show was that we were the superiors to Japan. We needed to show the world that we were a successful military fighting force to be reckoned with. We had already proved ourselves in the the first world war, and it was time to seal that power and trust.
That was a good point there Ben. We did need to show some of our firepower and that we were a force to be rekoned with. Nice veiw overall.
I am not able to pick a side in this situation. On one hand, you have America. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and a couple thousand were lost. Yeah, this was pretty bad in our eyes, and we wanted revenge. So the atomic bomb is sent down on Hiroshima. 70,000 lives were lost! And too add on that, most of them were ordinary civilians! Now, if were in Japan’s shoes here, I would have called it quits and surrendered. But, they did not surrender. They knew the U.S. still had atomic power and were willing to risk the lives of most of their population just to show that they wouldn’t quit. So the second bomb goes down on Nagasaki, the same amount of people die, and that’s that. When I think about, it was a cheap move for America to drop the first bomb, but they had too get revenge for Pearl Harbor. It was cheap when they bombed Nagasaki, but Japan was stupid when they did not surrender the first time. Therefore, both sides equal out, and both sides are at fault.
Your are absolutly right Mark. We wanted revenge and Japan wasnt quitting. But were we right to bomb Nagasaki
You must also remember that when America firebombed Tokyo, the Japanese didn’t care much. The firebombing on Tokyo killed more civilians than the atomic bomb, but the big huge, one-shot bomb made the Japanese rethink their defiance.
I believe that bombing Hiroshima was a good AND a bad thing. I mean, look at the facts. We killed innocent people who didn’t have anything to do with the war, and that was most of the people that were killed by us. But, if we hadn’t attack them, the war, as someone had said earlier, would have been longer, making both sides lose more people. Like a few of my fellow friends, I can’t say I either agree or disagree without having to point out what the other option has to offer. America killed out of revengeness of their lost ones, but had they realized that their childish act cost lives of those who weren’t involved? No, I don’t think they did until years later that it was an inhuman act. In the end, I would say it was actually bad for us to do something that harsh, to some, even inhumane, to kill innocent people, while Japan’s government is the reason behind the attack on Pearl Harbor, not people in Hiroshima.
I agree with how you say that the bombing was a good and bad this, because it is hard to pick sides, and basing on one or the other deters from seeing both sides.
i agree on it being both good and bad, since neither of us really deserved it.
When we look back on our decisions today, it is easy to say if they were good or bad because it is our past, not our present. Though i do believe that we threw a boulder when japan threw a stone, people died, and that can never be changed. When i look at any war, i see it as a game of chess. The moves by each player are the events in history, and Pearl harbor was taking a pawn, and Hiroshima was taking a king. Losses of lives are expected, and when we begin to make ourselves a threat, we will be threatened. Revenge clouded our judgment, and spite clouded Japan. Both were wrong, and nothing can bring back the lives of those who were lost.
I like the metaphor, “We through a boulder when Japan threw a stone”, because it is absolutely true. And your statement about chess, which is also true. But truly, it all comes down to the lives lost. They will be lost forever, and nothing can change that.
I like how you connected the whole tention between America and Japan with chess. I agree that both sides did wrong even though Japan started it by attacking Pearl Harbor.
I liked how you had connected war to chess. I, however, think that what we did was right. What alot of people don’t realize is that, besides Pearl Harbor, we were directly attacked by Japan; there were battles on American soil. The Japanese had conquered part of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. If we hadn’t won the war quickly, the Japanese could have moved into America via. Alaska.
War is a sad, sad thing. And the atomic bomb was one of the worst parts of it. But, it needed to be dropped. The Japanese occupied their conquered lands with a brutality that might have only been matched by Germany’s occupation of Poland. The Japanese treated POW’s and its conquered nations without mercy. For every 2 men in a Japanese POW camp, one died. In compairison, the Americans in German POW camps had a one in six chance of dieing. Also, the Japanese had a refusal to surrender. Even after the first atomic bomb was dropped, the Japanese still wanted to fight. Because of this, the atomic bomb was not overkill. On top of that, estimated American casualties would have been enourmous on an invasion of Japan. The civilians would have also been trained to fight, so there would have been significant civilian casualties. Even though Hiroshima suffered mightily, this was neccesary to save lives.
When I read this, I realized I totally forgot about the Japanese camps. They were ruthless in every situation, and it ended up costing them big time.
I forgot about the POWs too, they were terrible, I guess that could be put on Japan along with Pearl Harbor
I liked how you said that a full scale attack on Japan would have been devastating. Because the civilians would have been trained to fight, much like Confederate militias during the civil war, they would still have died. On top of that, tens of thousands of American soldiers would have died, too.
I don’t know how many lives would be saved by bombing Japan. Maybe some American lives, but that can’t compair to the lives we took from the people in Japan.
I believe that the whole idea of bombing Japan back then was a good idea and a little bit of a bad idea. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, that was only the beginning because Japan continued attacking more islands in the Pacific. The United States decided to bomb them just to simply get them to surrender which only came after the second bombing. The bad thing is that while we were bombing Hiroshima, many innocent people died in the process. Back at the time, it was probably great revenge and a good idea for them to surrender but now when we look back, we look back and remember all people that were killed.
I wish we wouldn’t have had to drop the second bomb. Japan should have surrendered at the first, since it killed so many people.
The bombing of Hiroshima has many different perspectives. I understand that it was wrong of the U.S. to bomb both cities killing thousands of Japanese civilians but the Japanese did attack the port of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The U.S. was bombing a naval base as did the Japanese who both killed civilians. From the article above it says that more civilians would have been killed if Japan was invaded anyway so it might have been better this way then to have even more casualties. i do believe that it was fair that the U.S. fought back to show that we meant business and that they can’t just secretly turn on us and kill thousands without declaring war. But the fact that Japan didn’t surrender after the first bomb and after being warned we’d bomb them again if they didn’t listen was their fault.
in my opinion i don’t think that dropping the bomb on Japan was a wise thing to do at all. sure bombing japan helped end the war, however, we did not think it threw. Japan attacked a naval base that they thought would interfere with their plans. We attacked a city of Innocent people that had nothing to do with the attack with a weapon that was defenseless, in my opinion that shows a sign of weakness. these people that we attacked they didn’t attack us, they didn’t all if any make the decision to attack us, they were people just like you and me they didn’t have a say in the attack, they just lived in the country. so i think we are to blame for it and we should not have dropped the bomb.
The bombing in Hiroshima was very conserversal. Honestly, i think that we did do the right thing. The reason why we bombed Hiroshima was because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Since we bombed a big city in Japan, people thought it was wrong. But Pearl Harbor was where America stationed fighter planes and war ships. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was also very unexpected, and if they never bombed us, we would have never bombed them. Even though America should have approached this in a better way, it was retaliation from Pearl Harbor.All is fair in war.
I see your point. This was kind of ricocheted from the bombing of Pearl Harbor, sort of a way of saying back off.
I can’t really take sides for this, America had to end the war. And they needed revenge on Japan for getting them into it. What we did was like 500 times worse than Pearl Harbor, but Japan thought they were all powerful and didn’t quit so America did what had to be done to end the war.
We did sort of crush the Japanese’s hopes for winning the war and proving how powerful they thought they were. Even though the Japanese didn’t give up, i like to believe that they really did give up deep down inside them, almost immediately after we bombed them.
Us bombing hiroshima was a very unfair move and it was quite silly.. It was revenge but that just made matters worse… I think it was a dumb thin to do for back then but again… Natural disasters could have done worse… And also there’s always random/ unexpected attacks such as 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and many other days that will live in infamy…
i believe that us bombing Hiroshima was both good and bad, because not only was it for our safety and revenge, but it was to make a statement, showing them how we felt when they bombed pearl harbor. now i’m sure that if japan hadn’t bombed us at first, none of this would have happened, but they did it anyways, just as we did it also.
I am almost 100% sure that if they would have never attack Pearl Harbor, that we would have never bombed them. The Japanese were threatening the United States citizens, and the government was just looking at what will protect their citizens and country.
As many before me have said, i do not believe we should’ve responded to Japan with the bombing of Hiroshima. Yes, the Japanese attacked first, but we did not have to retaliate in that way. It is the whole “fight fire with fire, you get burned” concept. We lost many men, and then so did Japan.
We seem to be a nation that has to have the last word, and in the end i suppose that is what we got by bombing hiroshima, but we just brought ourselves down to their level.
I have found this question very difficult to respond to. I am very strongly against war in the first place but I have limited knowledge in the subject. The article says the bombing saved more lives than without it but it still seems ridiculous. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was horrible but it was a military base. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were populated by civilians. The article gives both sides to this argument. One says that it was completely uncalled for and other looks at it at more of a strategic side. I agree with the first opinion; it being uncalled for. If there were bombings at military sites, I would give it more leeway but it’s not. We killed innocent people that didn’t sign up for that kind of lifestyle. Thousands of children died and left lasting effects of the survivors. I can see why it was done as it was to protect our country from a threat but it seems excessive. I know I could never make that call.
That is kind of how i feel. I hate war and wish we could live in a land of rainbows, unicorns, and fairy dust, but we can’t. I think their call to bomb Japan was definatly needed to defend our country and honor. On the other hand, the thought of inocent people dying discusts me and it’s sad that both countries had to take it to this extreme.
I think that is was both a good and bad thing we bombed Hiroshima. It prevented a lot of death that would of happened if we invaded Japan instead of dropping the bombs. But still, we killed a lot of innocent civilians. Japan attacked the naval base in Pearl Harbor, which was soilders, not civialians. I think it is a little extreme that we droped two atomic bombs. We could of just dropped one and told the Japenese we would do it again if they didnt surrender.
That’s a good point. We should of drop the bombs on a milatry base, instead of Hiroshima. It was of been more… Fair? I guess you could say.
I am against war. I think of war as ironic as it may seem is pretty childish. war is resolving issues by fighting which I was taught that wasn’t the right way to solve anything. when people sign up for the military they know what they are asking for so when pearl harbor happened people wanted to avenge their comrades deaths. however hiroshima, they never got a say in this these civilians didnt sign up for this and they were taken no pity. so I believe we should have not responded to Japan with the bombing of Hiroshima. I look back at this and I think that people were force to suffer in this way. then I think of how people think it was the right thing to do. which makes me remember 9/11 how innocent people were and now were suppose to suffer then everyone become angrying while after world war two america probably didn’t give it a second thought. a little hypocritical don’t you think?
I think that the United States did the right thing in using the atomic bomb on Japan. Japan sort of asked for it, to put it into better words. They are the ones that in the first place got us so directly involved into the war. If they would have never attacked Pearl Harbor, none of this would have happened. Dropping the bomb also saved thousands of American soldier’s lives, as well as causing the American government to have to spend as much money, not ruining the economy, that wasn’t even perfect at that time. Yes, many Japanese lives were lost due to the bomb, but think about how many more could have died if the war would have gone on for who knows how much longer.
A positive to the whole atomic bombing is that we learned the power of the bomb and won’t use it so freely, hopefully ever again.
That’s very true. Dropping the bomb did teach an important lesson.
America was wrong to drop the A-bomb on Japan. The bomb was fairly new at the time and we didn’t know everything about it. All we basicly knew was that it would stop Japan and last time I checked Japanese people arn’t lab mice…
America should have just droped a regular bomb on Japan. It would of done the same thing almost, with out the nasty after affeccts that the A-bomb caused. And if that wasn’t enough damage that we wanted, drop another one. A normale bomb. War maybe war, but humanity ranks higher up on the list of the world.
I think that it was the right thing to do to bomb Hiroshima. I don’t think it would have go any further than that bombing. We told Japan that this was serious and that this was what they deserved and started. America needed to end it, even if it costs the lives of inocent Japanese civilians. If Japan didn’t attacked us first, nothing would have happened between us, but the did, and we weren’t just going to sit back and take it.
We shouldn’t have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. It was almost childish, like you hit me and I hit you back. It’s disgusts me to say that our nation killed so many innocent people who had absoutely nothing to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Sure, they killed many of ours, but there was no need to do it back. Think of the people who survived who lost their families and all of their possessions for nothing, imagine that happened to you just because your government made a stupid mistake. I would be done with life, there would be nothing to live for. Taking it out on civilians was one of our nation’s dumbest descisions, out of many, sadly. From reading the book Hiroshima I now understand the horrible things even the survivors went through, and I don’t know why they even tried to live, they had nothing but themselves. We killed children. I’ve never been a very big fan of our government, yet the bombing on Hiroshima makes me wonder who is running our country, and the fact that I wasn’t even alive at the time makes me wonder why this situation still angers me.