This distance from land combined with the energy absorbing properties of water would have provided for a spectacle that, although hellishly frightening, would have caused relatively few casualties. The bay is also large, approximately thirty miles at its longest and seventeen miles at its widest points. Strategic Bombing survey concluded, nautically lifeless. By this point in the war Japan was, as the U.S. Although this is still not the "uninhabited area" suggested by the University of Chicago physicists, it is also not the area of a "vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers' houses" that Truman's interim committee is suggesting either.
First, casualty rates would have been far lower if Little Boy had been dropped over the bay. With these two things in mind the advantages of deploying it over Tokyo Bay become obvious.
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It has been established that America had full knowledge of the destructive properties of the atomic bomb, as well as complete control over its placement during use. Had Truman been influenced by groups like the scientists at the University of Chicago or Ralph Bard, he may have very well chosen other targets. The fact that these cities almost perfectly match the description suggested by Truman's interim committee alludes to the large amount of influence they had on his decision. The decision to specifically target Hiroshima and Nagasaki was voluntary. The Americans also had the advantage of surprise, allowing them to use the bomb whenever and wherever they wanted to. Only a fool would deny the power of this weapon. His description of the steel test cylinder can have no other purpose than to explicitly relay the message to the reader the power of this invention. General Leslie Groves report supplied more than enough evidence that even the most primitive of these weapons was capable of awe inspiring destruction. Atomic theory had long before predicted what would happen in an nuclear blast, but words no doubt paled in comparison to the sight of such an event. When the Manhattan scientists successfully tested their creation in the New Mexico desert, both they and those closely tied to the project realized the physical dynamics of the situation. Could peace have been reached without using the bomb at all? Could conventional military tactics and economic suffocation have eventually forced Japan's surrender? The purpose of this paper is to argue that a third option: had the United States used the atomic bomb in a different location, such as over the middle of Tokyo Bay, the bomb could still have been used to end the war without inflicting such loss. Even before, and certainly ever since, the Enola Gay took her famous voyage, the question has been raised as to whether deploying a weapon with such absolute consequence on a populated area was the correct choice. Without a doubt, these military actions were a turning point, not only in areas of physics and chemistry, but in political science, military strategy, and international relations. When creating a list of major events in American history, one would be hard pressed to ignore the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. I will add references to the necessary places later today, so that if one so chooses, they can read the same information that I did when coming to my conclusion. Therefore, for argument's sake, if nothing else, I've decided to post the paper.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing the paper and am fully aware that there are many that do not agree with my position. For an assignment earlier this week, I was asked to write a position paper on the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.