The Morality of War

In a time of war, a country has the right to do whatever is necessary for it’s survival and victory. But eventually, that time of war will pass, and then the country will have to live with what they had done during the war. As the creators and first and only users of the atomic bomb, the US now has to deal with the aftermath of using it. The intelligence of using the bomb on Japan after World War II is undeniable. The morality and intelligence of having used it, now 63 years later, is not.

America entered into the war primarily because of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, yet for five long, devastating years, fought the German army. They suffered, struggled and fought in vicious battles against a country that hadn’t yet touched them in a war held halfway around the world. Soldiers fought in Normandy and witnessed their friends and fellow soldiers ripped apart, many dying agonizing deaths as they literally cried out to family members they would never see again as their comrades either watched helplessly or tried unsuccessfully to keep them alive long enough to get a medic close. They fought in Bastogne and witnessed a new kind of hell on earth. So many American soldiers died in a foreign land, just wanting to see their loved ones one last time and feeling as if they had let their country down. We would call this a nightmare, but to the many across seas, it was life. Horror in war is going to be experienced either way, that’s the risk a country takes when it attacks another. War itself isn’t moral, but that never stops world leaders. The same argument applies to using the atomic bombs.

One of the biggest arguments made by supporters of America’s use of the bombs is that using the weapon may have saved more lives than an invasion of the mainland. While there is no way to be sure, the numbers from the battles leading up to this do add up. The death and devastation from both the atomic bombs was less than the casualties from the Battle of Okinawa, and an attempt to get into Japan’s mainland was estimated to bring about more than 1.5 million deaths on the Allied side alone. The consideration for human life is evident, as well as consideration for the soldiers who had just served in one major war. It would not be very moral to make them risk their lives once more on another terrifying battlefield when they were so close to being discharged.