Question

Which of the following reasons did the U.S. government use to justify dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945?

O Using the bomb would demonstrate the power of the United States to the entire world.
O Using the bomb would shorten the war and avoid heavy casualties among invading troops.
O Using the bomb would enable Allied forces to invade and take over the Japanese mainland.
O Using the bomb would destroy the armaments still available to Japanese forces in Japan.

Answer 1

Using the bomb would shorten the way and avoid heavy casualties among invading troops.

- First one did, but wasn’t used as justification
- Third one doesn’t make sense as they didn’t want to do an invasion on the Japanese mainland (more bloodshed thus the bomb)
- Fourth one did, but wasn’t used as justification

Answer 2

Answer: using the bomb would shorten the war and avoid heavy casualties among invading troops.

Explanation: The vote for using the bomb was close and we only ended up using it because it would severely shorten the war and we wanted to avoid more casualties, dropping the bomb would result in less deaths than if the war continued on.