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Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Arguments supporting the bombing:
Some say that although Japan was sure to lose the war, it was prepared to fight on indefinitely as seen by the Japanese soldiers and civilians on the Pacific islands who were willing to commit suicide crash their fighter planes onto enemy targets as live bombs, and the continued stubbornness of many top Japanese official. One of them exhorted the nation to perish in battle "like a beautiful flower".
It is also pointed out that Allied firebombings had killed more Japanese at a time than the Atomic bombs, but the Japanese still refused to give in. Also, a land attack on Japan might have cost hundreds of thousands of Allied and Japanese lives, since the war would be dragged on.
Against:
However, beyond argument, are the unprecedented horrors unleashed by the atomic blasts. People near the detonation site were literally vaporized, leaving behind only charred shadows. Many who intially survived soon died painfully, as radiation destroyed their bodies cell by cell. Those who were subjected to less radiation got cancer, while babies were born with deformities and defects. In Hiroshima alone, the bombing led to 140,000 deaths in later years.