H131 Prompt for First Response Paper: The Decision to Drop the Bomb

3-4 pages

Due February 8 in class.

Please bring a hard copy to class but also email me an electronic copy.

Drawing on the ABC TV video "Why the Bomb was Dropped," the evidence from Ch. 3 by Takaki, and Dower's article on "The Most Terrible Bomb," write a brief response paper outlining what you think the key issues are surrounding this decision and the main points that these authors and reporters are converying to us.

Dower asks us to think like historians about the question:

Was it necessary to use the atomic bombs, at such great cost in civilan lives, to bring about Japan's surrender?

To answer this question, historians have to think about many issues: political, strategic, moral, military, snd we have to think about the conswquences: the mistrust among superpowers and a nuclear arms race. How do historians go about this kind of inquiry? What sources of materials do they look at?

What are some of the myths about the decision to drop the bomb? What do historians believe were the driving forces behind the decision? What were some of the alternatives that Dower talks about, the "roads not taken?" What lessons can we draw from inquiring into this important historical moment?

Introduce the points you want to emphasize in your essay, discuss them in the Body and then add a Conclusion to recap or summarize your main reflections. I think it will be important to refer to the materials available, so citation is appropriate, but otherwise, it is less of a formal paper than it is a "discussion of ideas or issues" paper.