The United States and Japan - Essay Example

The United s discovered that Japan was the strongest Asian power with the largest industry and had the capability to threaten America’s trade and security. It was observed that if Japan conquered China, it would become a more powerful and a greater threat. The U.S decided to side with China and gave them economic and military aid. The commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb sparkled a significant scholarly and popularly dispute in the United States. Most Americans were left with wrestling questions concerning the necessity, the wisdom and the morality of America’s use of the new weapon. The decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan is unquestionable and the most momentous made during the World War II. The use of the bomb was integral to the decision to develop it, the assumption was the atomic bomb would be employed when it is ready if it was necessary to win or end the war. According to social psychology there are forces affecting public perception that go beyond the argument about the effectiveness of the U.S government (Okuda 170). These factors affected the policy makers and Truman, who were instrumental leading them to believe in their own misinformation in the decision of dropping the bomb .The psychological social factors resulted to parallel decision of Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb and the decision to engage in military conflicts of invading Iraq. The reaction of the policy makers, Truman and the public was the use of the atomic bomb on Japan was in great favor. Truman, the president of United States of America, appointed an interim committee who undertook the Manhattan project which its initiative was to build the atomic bomb. Although the project was immensely expensive, the interim committee had to rationalize their expenses of time, energy and resources. The development of the atomic weapon, for the purpose of using it against the axis was part of the policy from the beginning of war. They considered the atomic weapon to produce deadly explosive weapon of the modern war. The interim committee recommended that the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible. The target of the weapon was to be used at the military installation and used without any warning. The project was a special achievement and a special responsibility of the foreign policy. The decision and the extent of the bomb to be used were shaped by the values and the attitudes. The use of the weapon was later motivated by the wish to keep the Soviet Union out of war in the post war settlement in East Asia. It is clear that there were alternatives to both invasion and dropping of the atomic bombing without warnings. Several options that existed include staging a demonstration of the bomb’s power, firebombing and Soviet declaration of war to take their toll on Japan. The Japanese were issued a warning in a form of ultimatum, they asked to surrender and submit to occupation and complete demilitarization. The ultimatum was rejected and hence the American military found the purpose of the atomic bomb as a suitable weapon. It leads to the decision of dropping the atomic bomb to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were crucial to the Japanese war effort. The threat of the more atomic bombing resulted to Japanese surrender. The recommendation of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was to end the war in victory and in the shortest possible time. The existence of the Vietnam War led to the rise of the antiwar movement which was used to establish peace organizations, dissenting journals and network of activist. It was a campus –based movement which its common goal was to end the U.S involvement in the Vietnam .the ethics and tactics of the movement varied from group to group. One group of protesters was peaceful and lawful while the other group practiced propaganda by deed. Many people in the movement were sincere and not selfish in their motivations of opposing the war (Addington 112). There was tendency of the older Americans to confuse the antiwar protesters with the hippie lifestyle and values which was abhorred by the older Americans. The rising toll of the American casualties showed that the antiwar movement was less influential. The results of the Vietnam war was defeat in the war at the acceptable cost of time, blood and money and the war’s deleterious effects on the nation’s economy. Generally, the peace movement was split into many factions where one opposed the war based on different grounds. Their motivations, the argued conservatives and protesters were anti-American activist who desired a communist victory over U.S forces in Vietnam. The war at Vietnam remains to be the unsettled part of the collective memory and experience in the country. Politicians, members of the military, veterans, scholars and journalist continue to revisit and re-interpret the war. The economic and political imperatives which drive the U.S military policy, the appropriate use of force, the domestic cost of war and the treatment and trauma of the veterans was experienced in the country. Conclusion. The discomfort caused by inconsistencies in how we act and think of ourselves leads to restoring our comfort by revising our attitudes and believes about what we have done. Once a difficult and controversial decision has been made, there is a deep need to come up with rationalization to support the decision. Cognitive dissonance leads decision makers to focus on positive aspects of their decisions and to forget positive aspects justifying their decision. The pressure can be extreme as it affected the Americans view of them. They experienced a negative feeling because they were the first to develop and use nuclear weapon. The atomic bomb saved most of the American lives and ended the war quickly but it did not fulfil it moral obligation. Matters like violation of the international laws of the war and the principle of noncombatant immunity are not addressed. The decision taken can also be termed as moral justifiability of the bombing. The atomic bombing that was costly brought peace in the United States of America. Many have criticized the decisions made by Truman and the interim committee as not a right decision. The nation needs money which is a resource to provide necessary weapons to its military. It does not matter whether the war was won or it was worth it, these impacts are some of the many points of concern and comparison on the surface today. Nevertheless, the antiwar movement was significant, it exercised the women’s liberation and gay-liberation struggles whose pioneers included several veterans. It has also inspired peace activism in the twenty first century. Work citations Dennis D Wainstock. The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: August 1945. New York: Enigma Books, 2010. Internet resource. Michael Kort. The Columbia Guide to Hiroshima and the Bomb. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2007. Print. Rising George.Stuck in the Sixties. Gardners Books, 2010. Print. Sadako Okuda. A Dimly Burning Wick: Memoir from the Ruins of Hiroshima. New York: Algora Pub, 2008. Print. Timothy J Lynch. The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print. Read More