Atomic Bomb Essays (Examples)

Atomic Bombs Even to This

Yet, this is not to say that they were not conscious of the race with the Russians or the advantages of being able to demonstrate the destructive power of the new super bomb. Yet such a view has not been in doubt by most recent traditional historians, who have seen Truman as a practical statesman with one eye on the post-war world and already dealing with problems with Stalin over Eastern Europe. The administration evidently saw advantages in possessing and even using the new bombs, but the issue was what primarily motivated them to do so in August 1945 (Bastian, n.d.).

Those who dispute in favor of the decision to drop the atom bombs argue that massive casualties on both sides would have occurred in Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan. The U.S. side estimated losing many soldiers in the planned invasion of Japan, although the actual number of expected fatalities and wounded is subject to some debate. President Truman acknowledged after the war that he had been advised that U.S. casualties could range from 250,000 to one million men. Supporters also draw attention to an order given by the Japanese War Ministry on 1 August 1944, ordering the…… [Read More]

Atomic Bomb Is Probably One

It was much later in 1996 that World Court took up the case of the use of nuclear weapons and declared their use illegal under The Hague and Geneva Convention. "In July 1996, the World court took a stand in its first formal opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons. Two years earlier, the United Nations had asked the Court for an advisory opinion. The General Assembly of the United Nations posed a single, yet profoundly basic, question for consideration. It the threat of use of nuclear weapons on any circumstances permitted under international law? For the first time, the world's pre-eminent judicial authority has considered the question of criminality vis-a-vis the use of a nuclear weapon, and, in doing so, it has come to the conclusion that the use of a nuclear weapon is 'unlawful'. It is also the Court's view that even the threat of the use of a nuclear weapon is illegal. Although there were differences concerning the implications of the right of self-defense provided by Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, ten of the fourteen judges hearing the case found the use of threat to use a nuclear weapon to be illegal on the basis of…… [Read More]

Atomic Bomb and the Deciding

" The difference in the Manhattan Project and other companies that were very similar in function was due to the need to become quickly successful and investments of "hundreds of millions of dollars in unproven and hitherto unknown processes and did so entirely in secret. Speed and secrecy were the watchwords of the Manhattan Project." Gosling states that the "one overwhelming advantage" of the project's inherent characteristics because it became possible, under the cloak of secrecy to "make decisions with little regard for normal peacetime political considerations."

Gosling relates the following of the Manhattan Project:

The need for haste clarified priorities and shaped decision making. Unfinished research on three separate, unproven processes had to be used to freeze design plans for production facilities, even though it was recognized that later findings inevitably would dictate changes. The pilot plant stage was eliminated entirely, violating all manufacturing practices and leading to intermittent shutdowns and endless troubleshooting during trial runs in production facilities. The inherent problems of collapsing the stages between the laboratory and full production created an emotionally charged atmosphere with optimism and despair alternating with confusing frequency." (1999)

Bush claimed that production would be ready fro the bomb in 1945 however,…… [Read More]

Atomic Bomb in U S History

However, the dangers of nuclear explosions were not fully understood, and Miss Atomic Bomb represents the epitome of nuclear testing in the Nevada desert, when bombs were tested above ground and hundreds would flock to Las Vegas to watch for the exploding white light and mushroom cloud. Sexuality goes hand in hand with power, and so, mores were beginning to change in America, the most powerful country on earth.

In conclusion, the atomic bomb changed culture throughout America and the world. Americans became more fearful in many ways. This caused accusations, distrust, and a feeling of fear throughout the country that spread to the government and society. It helped create the global Cold War, and led to the war with North Korea and the Vietnam War. It gave America a technical advantage for a while, and helped the growth of technology. Ultimately, it ended the war, but created decades of mistrust and political maneuvering between the U.S. And other countries of the world.… [Read More]

Atomic Bomb Effect on the World

bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, being one of the events that vastly shocked the world, had several consequences in the immediate history at the moment of the bombing and the after years to the contemporary times. It is widely known that it was the bombing that made Japan to surrender and effectively ending the WWII, which was the intended impact at the moment, but it also had several consequences thereafter.

Nations across the world started scrambling for stronger and more lethal weapons and ammunitions after the Hiroshima bombing. The number of nations owning the weapons of mass destruction has increased over time with the nuclear race being the latest of the cravings of nations. The U.S. indeed still leads in the ownership of the warheads and other legally recognized countries to own warheads being China, UK, France and Russia (Macias, A. (2014). These are fevers from the large scale deaths that were experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki hence each nation with the economic capacity to develop and sustain a nuclear weapon has opted to have one.

The U.S.-Japan relationship also changed significantly after the bombing with the U.S. treating japan and the citizens in a suspicious manner, always thinking that…… [Read More]

The Atomic Bomb and Its

This denotes that Japanese culture had been significantly altered
both by its defeat at the hands of the United States and by the occupation
which were to follow. But in reality, the changes in Japan would only be a
first chapter in the narrative of atomic power. Indeed, the devastating
detonations on the ground in Japan were a window into a new frontier in
making warfare. Indeed, on August 6th, 1945, the world entered a new age.
The end of World War II, presaged by the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, introduced the world to the nuclear era. The next five decades,
unfolding under the shadow of the Cold War, would be underscored by the
continuing threat of nuclear war. With major conflicts in such settings as
the Korean Peninsula, Cuba and Vietnam functioning as remote nation-
building contests between the world's two major superpowers, the United
States and the Soviet Union began a race for the accumulation of nuclear
weapons that brought to bear an alarming reality for the world. The events
in Japan would be a stark foreshadowing of the new and enormous dangers
which man had become capable of imposing on his fellow.
The presence of…… [Read More]

Truman and the Atomic Bomb

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's executive order to contain Japanese-Americans in internment camps could have created mistrust in the Japanese and their descendants in the U.S. Such racial antagonism could have made many Americans feel justified to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.

Earlier Presidential Statement and Other Motivations

The decision to bomb Japan's cities may not be deduced from documents during President Truman's presidency or blamed entirely on President Truman. A respected Boston University attorney, Harvey Bundy, on March 3, 1945, presented to his boss, the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, the draft of a three-page memorandum by then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt eight weeks before his death. It was to be issued when the atomic bomb was used. It appeared to have been the basis for later statements issued on August 6, 1945 from the White House and the War Department after the bombing of Hiroshima.

President Truman's own decision could have been triggered mainly by Japan's brutal conduct during that War and the American desire to avoid costly invasion. Japanese utter brutality was demonstrated by their attacks against Asians, Pearl Harbor, Bataan in the Philippines and prisons of war. Only a terrible shock from the a-Bomb could…… [Read More]

Justifying the Atomic Bombs

1945, President Truman authorized the detonation of an atomic bomb comically nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. Just three days later, the United States launched another atomic bomb called "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. About a week after the Nagasaki explosion, Japan surrendered and the Second World War officially came to an end. The two atomic bombs resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and many who did not instantly perish suffered long-term ill effects from radiation exposure. However gruesome and catastrophic the event, the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan is justifiable because it definitively ended a brutal and ongoing war and it also helped to solidify the United States as a global superpower dedicated to defeating nefarious states including the Soviet Union.

One of the most cogent reasons why the bombs were justified is rooted in the fact that the war had been dragging on and could have resulted in far more deaths -- civilian and military -- had Japan not surrendered when it did. Estimates of up to a million lives may have been saved due to the willingness to use the bomb at that specific juncture (Dahi). Alternative scenarios to the American…… [Read More]

Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and

Indeed, there is no moral argument to justify the use of weapons against possible civilians. The nuclear bomb lacks any precision in targeting solely military targets without causing casualties. Although its use cannot be justified from a moral perspective, it can be seen as a means to put an end to a war that had taken millions of lives up to 1945. The impact the attacks had on Japan determined, or at least influenced, the Emperor's decision to surrender unconditionally. In this way, the death of approximately 200 thousand people can be pragmatically viewed as a price for the survival of possibly other millions of people that would have lost their lives should the war had continued.

Overall, it can be concluded that, despite the tragic loss of human lives, the nuclear attacks from Hiroshima and Nagasaki could find justification in the historical context, the economic and geopolitical framework of the time. Although morally, it lacks justification, it might have saved millions others from death.… [Read More]

Atomic Testing Though Modern People

The First Nuclear Test

Of course, the first nuclear test occurred before the 1950s and was part of the United States' effort to develop an atomic weapon during World War II. This test occurred at 5:30 A.M. On July 16, 1945, at a missile range outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Even that test was enough to convince a large group of scientists that the atomic weapon was a dangerous and powerful weapon. "The Franck Report," a petition issued by Leo Szilard and 68 other scientists urged President Truman to first demonstrate the capabilities of the atomic bomb before using it as a weapon against the Japanese, because of the mass destruction that came with the bomb.

This test, known as the Trinity Test, was a tremendous success. "The energy developed in the test was several times greater than that expected by scientific group. The cloud column mass and top reached a phenomenal height, variously estimated as 50,000 to 70,000 feet. It remained towering over the northeast corner of the site for several hours." Even at that time, the government was aware of the potentially adverse affects of exposure to radioactive fallout; initial testing looked at radiation levels in houses surrounding…… [Read More]

Japanese Attitude Towards the Atomic

) Some even thought (rightly) that it was being spared for something big. However, no one in their wildest imagination was anticipating an atomic bomb attack. Hence, on the morning of the fateful day, the residents of Hiroshima were completely unprepared for an atomic bomb explosion.

Painting of Hell":

Many survivors of the atomic explosion on Hiroshima have likened the experience of the blast and its immediate aftermath to mankind's common perception of hell. A young Japanese sociologist, for example, described the scene of a nearby park after the explosion: "The most impressive thing I saw was some girls, very young girls, not only with their clothes torn off but with their skin peeled off as well...my immediate thought was that this was like the hell I had always read about." (Selden and Selden, xix) Another eye-witness, twenty-year-old Shibayama Hiroshi, recalled entering Hiroshima on foot from his suburban workplace within hours of the bombing and encountering a scene reminiscent of "a painting of hell." Apart from the scores of dead bodies he saw floating in the Kyobashi River with "faces swollen to twice their normal size," there was one sight the young man believed he would never forget. He saw…… [Read More]

Decision to Use the Atomic

Because, clearly, we committed acts of terrorism in dropping the bombs on Japan. The intent was to create a massive destruction to horrific that the victims could not help but surrender without further fight - which is, of course, what happened. Our new brand of terrorism is, truly, the only effective manner that certain people have of waging a war. When you do not have the technology or the resources of the largest nations in the world, but you do know how to make and plant a bomb that is likely to kill civilians and military targets as well - do you simply roll over and surrender because you might kill innocent people? If that was the case, then the United States would have never been able to wage war with anyone using bombs and missiles and rockets - the war could have only been waged by spies and snipers.

Terrorism, then, is a political construct used to brand a particular enemy with a very negative brush. It is an implied immaturity, a "cowardice" that a group of fighters will refuse to engage a clearly and overwhelmingly superior military and instead kill civilians - which seems to have a greater…… [Read More]

Manhattan Project a Bomb Heard Around the World

Manhattan Project, and examines whether or not we should have dropped the bomb associated with the project.

The Manhattan Project: An Examination

In 1939, the United States got word through various channels of intelligence that the Nazis in Germany were planning to develop an atomic bomb. This was startling and upsetting news for the United States, as the prospect of the Nazis with the most powerful weapon in the world was not a comforting one. As a result, the United States began its own project to develop and build an atomic bomb before the Nazis or the Japanese did. The United States began this project in 1942 under the Army Corps of Engineers. It was the atomic bomb that was developed during this effort, an effort known as the Manhattan Project, that was eventually dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This paper examines the history behind the Manhattan Project and analyzes whether or not the United States should have dropped the bomb it developed.

General Leslie R. Groves, who was the Chief of Construction of the Army Corps of Engineers, was selected to head up the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project faced some strong hurdles right from the very beginning, and…… [Read More]

World War II the Use of Atomic

World War II

The Use of Atomic Weapons on Japan in WWII

The Second World War officially began in 1939 with the evasion of Poland by Germany. The United States of America did not officially enter this international conflict of epic scale until the Japanese attacked American and European territories in the Pacific in 1941. The war persisted until 1945, culminating with the surrender of Japan and Germany to the U.S. & Allied Forces. During World War II, the world saw the first demonstrations of nuclear weapons -- atomic bombs. There were two infamous attacks on Japan by the U.S. On Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where the atomic bombs were dropped and caused unparalleled damage. The paper will provide a historical and political context within which to consider why the United States of America resorted to the use of atomic bombs upon Japan.

War campaigns waged by Germany and Japan were widely successful. Germany successfully invaded and conquered several critical European territories, providing them with substantial tactical advantage and a serious boost to their morale. Allied with countries such as Japan, who additionally saw military victories, the war was moving in their favor. Because WWII was one of the largest wars…… [Read More]

Hydrogen Bomb the 1940s Introduced

Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum). After meeting with his advisors over the course of several days, President John F. Kennedy declared a blockade would be put in place around Cuba with the intention of preventing the Soviet Union from supplying Cuba with any more military supplies ("Cuban Missile Crisis," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum). Shortly thereafter, on October 22, President Kennedy announced, via a television broadcast, the presence of the missiles in Cuba, his decision to "enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security" ("Cuban Missile Crisis," History Channel). While Kennedy and the United States were unsure of the reaction this televised announcement would have on Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, both political leaders recognized the threat nuclear war posed and agreed to negotiate a deal ("Cuban Missile Crisis," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum). However, Kennedy and Krushchev reached an agreement that not only called for a dismantling of weapons sites in Cuba in an exchange for a pledge from Kennedy that stated he would not invade Cuba, but also included an agreement from the United States…… [Read More]

Truman and the Use of

S. during the summer of 1945 had indicated that the Japanese were ready to surrender; that the War could have been ended, if the U.S. had responded by offering the retention of the Japanese Imperial Monarchy instead of insisting on unconditional surrender. Further research on the decoded messages, however, indicate that the militarists still dominated the power hierarchy in Japan and they were willing to fight to the bitter end, despite their precarious military position. They were depending on the war-wariness of the Americans. Their theory being that the United States was unwilling to bear more casualties and any major setback to the American forces during a planned invasion of the Japanese mainland would improve Japan's bargaining position and obtain a peace agreement. In other words, the Japanese military leaders were only agreeable to a ceasefire and unwilling to consider surrender. They wanted to retain the militarist policies of the government and with the hawks dominating the corridors of power, there were no chances of an early end to the War in August of 1945. It was only the shock of the devastating power of the atomic bombs, which broke the hold of the militarists over the Japanese government and…… [Read More]

Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Next

Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Next Terror: Assessment of How a Significant Terrorist WMD Attack Might Be Conducted by a Non-State Actors Perpetrator and Why They Can't Stage an Attack

Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) have considerable effect to the economies of both developed and developing countries. In the modern world, most terror groups have resolved to use Weapons of Mass Destruction to harm their enemies. The entire syndicate comprises state actors and the terror group, which intends to destroy the target country. The state actors have direct links or channels of communication with such attackers, foreign allies, and several residential alliances with almost similar connections to the terror groups. Most of the terror groups lack essential materials that would aid in the making of some of the most dangerous weapons such as nuclear bombs. The various forms of attack involved when using lethal weapons include dispersion, dissemination, and detonation. Apart from the overview of the topic, the paper seeks to examine and evaluate the review of Literature, the methodology, analysis and findings, and a summary of the fundamental arguments as well as conclusive remarks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

3. Methodology

4. Analysis and Findings…… [Read More]

Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project was one of the most documented events in American and World History. The discussion will provide an explanation of the Manhattan Project and how the project changed society forever. The purpose of this essay is to provide a historiographic discussion on the topic of the Manhattan project.

The Manhattan Project Summary

According to a book entitled The Manhattan Project and published by the Department of Energy, Albert Einstein was actually quite instrumental in the development of the Manhattan Project. According to the book Einstein wrote a now famous letter explaining to President Roosevelt advances in science related to chain reactions through the use of Uranium. Einstein asserted that this new scientific discovery could lead to the development of bombs that would be extremely powerful and destructive.

In the letter, Einstein also revealed to the president that Germany was already attempting to build bombs involving this new scientific discovery. Roosevelt was concerned and in 1939 he approved uranium research believing that America could not take the risk of permitting Hitler to develop such a weapon without America also attempting to develop such a weapon. Roosevelt's approval of uranium research marked the beginning of the Manhattan Project.

Basically the Manhattan…… [Read More]

Hiroshima Bombing

Hiroshima Bombing

The Manhattan Project

When I was asked to work on the Manhattan project during the late 1930's, I was delighted to be included in work of such magnitude. Not only would I work with the most prominent scientists in the world; I would also make a substantial contribution to the United States Government and its effort to keep the country safe.

Recently however I have begun experiencing considerable ambivalence regarding the work we were doing. Nuclear technology is extremely volatile and dangerous. The Government is also under pressure to end the war quickly, and plans are being made to use the atomic bomb for this purpose. Although the atomic bomb would effectively accomplish this, I am having serious misgivings about using it on human targets. My colleagues have voiced similar misgivings. For this reason I was asked to draw up a petition voicing our concerns about using the bomb in populated areas. In order to make a clear decision regarding the contents of this petition, and indeed whether or not such a petition is necessary, I have examined all the factors involved in this issue.

International Law

The most important consideration is international law. Several preventative laws have…… [Read More]

War Rational Choice Realism

War is a necessary and inevitable. The question of whether it is justified is dependent on the conditions of each war individually, but the necessity and inevitability of armed conflict among human societies has been demonstrated consistently throughout history. Davidson and Lytle (1992) provide a strong argument in favor of this position with their description of the conditions surrounding the detonation of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bring an end to the Second World War.

Davidson and Lytle argue that the reason for these bombings was not as much to end the war with the Japanese but rather to send a message to the Soviet Union. At the time, the U.S.S.R. was also pursuing nuclear weapons technology. In the wake of the end of the war in Europe, that continent had been effectively been divided between the United States and its allies in the West and Stalin's USSR in the east. To make their case, the authors parrot third-party speculation that the U.S. "had no compelling military reason to drop atomic bombs on Japan" (7). While the use of third party analysis does not explicitly invalidate the conclusion, it also lends it no particular support. The idea…… [Read More]

Science and Morality After the

That is not to say that theory and application cannot be separated into ethical categories. They can be, but those categorizations are always going to be somewhat skewed by the researcher, because no human being is capable of perfect neutrality. To assume that one can research for the sake of purse science really does involve imaging that scientists are not human beings with their own personal motivations. Moreover, this is not an issue that developed in the post-atomic world. Even before the use of the atomic bomb, scientists were motivated by personal motivations that kept them from being completely neutral. Therefore, it might be better to consider the ethics of scientific discovery from a viewpoint that includes the inherent morality of a discovery. For example, chemotherapy could be used as a weapon with very disastrous results, because its side-effects are devastating and can even be fatal. However, chemotherapies are developed with the goal of saving lives. It would be ridiculous to prohibit or discourage the development of new chemotherapies on the grounds that they could be used as weapons. On the other hand, while it may seem responsible to discourage something like the advent of nuclear weaponry, the fact that…… [Read More]

American History The Aftermath of the World

American History:

The aftermath of the World War II from 1945 to 1965 was a period of intense change in the United States that changed socially, politically, and economically. This period was characterized by the rebuilding of various aspects in the country since the war was destructive on political, social, and economic fronts. Socially, there was the need to return to normalcy in the United States as the dislocations that resulted in the war were put aside for some time. As many men and women returned from the war and women returned home, a new generation began in the country. Since the United States was the only industrial power that was undestroyed during the war, the country experienced extraordinary economic growth after the war. America's economy was greatly stimulated by the war as new industrial complexes were developed across the country with the decisive end of depression ("Effects of World War II," n.d.). On the political front, the resolution of World War II and strong opposition to the Soviet Union forced America to embrace the democratic concept of the good.

20th Century American History:

During the period when President Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs against Japan in August…… [Read More]

Frank's Downfall and the American

In order to be taken seriously in the world and to build understanding, a nation must make good on all their promises, be them positive or negative. it's likely that the Allied forces could have found another means of guaranteeing Japan's surrender with more ingenuity, though perhaps not. They had exhausted standard means of warfare, American lives and they didn't want to continue battle. Japan refused and essentially guaranteed more bloodshed. "When advisors informed him that the alternative to using the atomic bomb was a million American casualties, he did not hesitate to give the order to use it" (Conlin, 718). America, some could argue, was being realistic and doing "the very bad things" powerful nations have to do to protect their people. And there is a strong argument for supporting the validity of such maneuvers. After America dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and issued a statement that it was in fact atomic, America asked for Japan's surrender, saying that if they did not receive it, they could expect, "a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth" (Bodden, 31). America received no response from the Japanese, and then, had to…… [Read More]

Weapons of Mass Destruction Before

(Rebehn M.) Another example from the 1700's of the use of bacterial agent in war was in the conflict between Russia and Sweden in 1710. There are reports that the Russians used the bodies of plague victim to create an epidemic among the enemy. (HISTORY of BIOLOGICAL WARFARE)

There is also the infamous incident in American history of the intentional infection of the native Indians with smallpox. "An English general, Sir Jeffery Amherst, surreptitiously provided the Indians loyal to the French with blankets infected with smallpox virus. The resulting epidemic decimated the Indians." (HISTORY of BIOLOGICAL WARFARE)

2.3. The modern technological era and weapons of mass destruction.

With the advent of the modern industrial age there was a rapid development of technology. This was also to lead to the equally rapid growth in the development of even more and more destructive and indiscriminate weapons of destruction. The most well-known and widely documented is the first truly modern use of chemicals and other weapons of mass destruction in the First World War. With the development of chemical techniques and technologies the biological weapons could now be synthetically and more easily produced in large quantities, which resulted in more accessible and devastating…… [Read More]

Iran's Nuclear Threat

Iran's Nuclear Threat:

As the development of Iran's nuclear program has increased rapidly, there has been a simultaneous increase in the amount of enriched uranium that could be swiftly transformed into weapons-grade material. While Iranian leaders continue to state that the nuclear program is geared towards peaceful purposes, there are increased concerns that the development of a nuclear bomb would be a major security threat. In attempts to discourage and prevent Iran from its plans of developing a nuclear bomb, the United States and other European Union countries have imposed various sanctions against Iran. These sanctions have brought economic and financial blockades that have huge impacts on the Iran's economic and financial system.

While these sanctions seem to have forced Iran to the negotiation table to deliberate on its nuclear program, they have significant strategic value with regards to the impact they have had on Iran's economic and financial system. The strategic value of the sanctions against Iran has been to slow down the country's economic growth that would force Iran to consider its nuclear program and technology. After the sanctions were imposed, there was a decrease in world oil prices and a significant increase in the prices of basic…… [Read More]

Non-Moral or Religious Standpoint While

Part 4 -- Just War and Iraq -- it can be very difficult to define intangible philosophies or actions that are both part of the human psyche and that seem obvious. One of these such intangibles is war. What is war? Each historical period has added a new meaning to the word, but the essence of it still remained the same. War is always associated with terror, cruelty and unhappiness. There are really five elements that allow a just war: cause, authority, intention, hope for success, and proportionality. Without becoming too cynical, most scholars would probably agree that the first Iraqi war was "Just" but the second, under Bush II, was not. There were clear distinctions. In the first, Iraq invaded a soverign country, Kuwait, who asked for aid and protection; in the second, data was never fully disclosed as to the infamous weapons of mass destruction, and later found to be exaggerated and false, thus not allowing for most of the principles of justness; but more as an economic excuse (Coady, 2008, 58-60).

Part 5 -- the argument for the use of the second atomic bomb, against Nagasaki, is essentially a moral argument based on utilitarianism. What decision resulted…… [Read More]

Utopia Dystopia Did Science Technology Bring

Many of the advances of science in the area of technology are at best quite fearsome for human beings until they become accustomed with these functions and applications. One can only imagine how strange the creation and development of all of this must have been ten, or twenty years ago and even more so in the earlier 1900's as all of this began to fall into place in the multidisciplinary study setting. What must be understood in attempting to gain comprehension of the dystopian views are that these views balance the utopian views of life in that while there are extremist views of each, that each of these tend to soften or minimize the other and as well provide some cognitive form of what is in between these two extremes in the real world.… [Read More]

Manhattan Project the Development of

Nevertheless, the launching of the first atomic bomb on the part of the U.S. was highly criticized, especially because they had found a way to end the war which entailed sacrificing the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Their initiative to build the first atomic bomb was considered by many as the supreme proof of vanity, American exceptionalism at its best in the sense that it embodied the country's belief that it had the responsibility to end international conflict according to its own plans, disregarding international law. In order to understand how the Manhattan Project embodied American Exceptionalism, a short overview of this idea is in order. Exceptionalism represents the notion that America has a special destiny different from that of other nations, an idea that permeates every period of American history. Although it was coined as an attempt to explain the special circumstances behind the birth of this nation by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831, American exceptionalism has often been criticized as the reason behind actions such as the take over and bloody extermination of Native Americans' land the extermination of Native Americans and takeover of their land; the efforts to expand America's influence in the Middle…… [Read More]

Cold War Era Films

Cold War Era

Many films about the cold war era, especially the early films, speak out against its ideals, while others support these ideals. Below is a consideration of selected Cold War era films, and how these were influenced by the Cold War.

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove is subtitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Its producer/director is Stanley Kubrick and the film was released during 1964. The film is a satire with the aim of exposing Cold War politics that could result in absurd accidents such as a nuclear attack. The more serious film Fail-Safe, released during the same year, has often been compared with Dr. Strangelove. This is discussed in more detail later.

Part of Dr. Strangelove's theme is the evils of technology. This is the culprit causing the disastrous accident. It is interesting that a disclaimer had to accompany the film's release shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy. It is as if the dark predictions made in the film were a suddenly too close reality. The disclaimer was to the effect that the United States Air Force would never let an accident like the one in the film occur, together with the…… [Read More]

Feelings on Technology

Technology, Society & Politics

The role of technology in society, politics and economics: Analysis of the works of Kuhn, Rhodes, Christensen, Levy and Toulmin

The development of technology with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, and modernism created significant changes in the culture and institutions of human societies. Where technology used to be associated with machinery and manufacturing, technology in the 20th century gradually became associated with computer technology. Scientific developments shifted from macro to micro; human power centered from physical labor to intellectual improvement/development. As civilization progressed towards modernism in the 20th century, technology has become more invasive to people's lives. Inevitably, technology has penetrated not only the science sector, but other institutions as well, particularly human society's culture, politics, and economy.

Indeed, the significant role that technology played in the culture, politics, and economy of modern society has been debated and expressed through discourses by famous philosophers and scholars on science and technology, sociology, and history. This paper discusses the main points expressed in the discourses of the following authors about science, technology, and modern society: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes, "The Innovator's Dilemma" by…… [Read More]

Energy Is Hard to Define

These massive walls of water travel faster than a commercial jet as they descend upon cities and islands. The energy and force of a Tsunamis is the massive transference of potential energy, caused by the shifting currents of the ocean, into kinetic energy that active pushes the Tsunamis forward. In 2004, one tsunami traveled 375 miles in a mere 75 minutes, about 300 miles per hour. Energy however is not just limited the massive, and the mystical, it is present in every form of life. In our own bodies, energy is the driving force behind why our heart pumps blood and why we have the ability to breathe. We use chemical energy, kinetic energy, heat energy, etc. To power the basic functions of our bodies.

Simply put, energy drives every stage of life, it is in attempting to find the factors that influence how energy is used and cultivated that has established the sciences. There are limitations to energy however, detailed by the fundamental laws of physics such as the law of conservation of energy. Scientist's everyday is attempting to fine hone and find the limitations of scientific knowledge. In the hopes that one day we will find an indisputable…… [Read More]

Scientific Progress Scientific Responsibility Nuclear

In fact:

In the months following the accident, although questions were raised about possible adverse effects from radiation on human, animal, and plant life in the TMI area, none could be directly correlated to the accident. Thousands of environmental samples of air, water, milk, vegetation, soil, and foodstuffs were collected by various groups monitoring the area. Very low levels of radionuclides could be attributed to releases from the accident. However, comprehensive investigations and assessments by several well-respected organizations have concluded that in spite of serious damage to the reactor, most of the radiation was contained and that the actual release had negligible effects on the physical health of individuals or the environment. (United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission).

While the Three Mile Island incident did not cause the same type of damage as Chernobyl and the destruction from Chernobyl was less than people initially believed it would be, it is clear that the use of nuclear power can have potentially disastrous consequences. However, the responsible use of nuclear power can have tremendous benefits as well. First, the fuel for nuclear power plants is relatively inexpensive, so that nuclear energy can be provided inexpensively for large groups of people. In addition, when…… [Read More]

Nuclear Power and the Cold War

American History Since 1865

The objective of this study is to examine a topic in American History since 1865 to the present and to examine six or more related events and developments that span the years in that time period. For the purpose of this study The Cold War will be examined.

Event I -- Beginning of the Cold War

It is reported that while the world was starting its recovery from World War II that the first General Assembly of the United Nations met in 1946 in London and the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission was created. The purpose for the creation of this Commission was the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and that this included the atomic bomb. (Atomic Archive, 2014, p. 1) The first American effort to set out a policy controlling atomic energy is reported as "The Report On The International Control of Atomic Energy" which is stated to have been known informally as the "Acheson-Lilenthal Report" which was published on the 16th day of March in 1946. The framework of this document held that "there should be an international 'Atomic Development Authority' which would have worldwide monopoly over the control of 'dangerous elements'…… [Read More]

US-Japan WWII

U.S. Japan

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched an assault on the U.S. Naval Headquarters for the Pacific Fleet, located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This assault led directly to the open war between the U.S. And Japan, which several years later would culminate in the U.S. invaded Japan in the Okinawa archipelago and dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. The events that led to the U.S. invasion of Japan are therefore discussed on the macro, meso and micro levels.

Macro-Level Factors

If the U.S. invasion of Japan was spurred by Pearl Harbor, then one has to look at the causes of that attack to understand how the U.S. invasion came about. Japan was one of the world's great imperial powers during the decades prior to World War Two. After the rise of Emperor Hirohito in the 1920s, Japan embarked on a mission, believing that it could and should control "Asia, the South Seas and eventually the four corner of the world." While civilian Japan was in chaos in the early 1930s, suffering the effects of the Great Depression, the army unilaterally invaded Manchuria and set up a puppet state there. By 1937, Japan occupied Beijing, and won a critical victory…… [Read More]

Albert Einstein Historical and Scientific

Einstein also had a unique way of viewing the universe. He did not see open space as empty space. He wrote, "Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended (as fields). In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning" (Einstein qtd. On Space and Motion). He thought the physical reality of space was simply a representation of different coordinates of space and time.

Part of Einstein's radical thinking was the notion that distance and time are not absolute. He could look at the clock and sense that the rate of that ticking clock depended on the "motion of the observer of that clock" (Lightman). In addition to this, Einstein's ideas posited that gravity pulling one object in one direction is equal to a force accelerating in the opposite direction. Lightman helps us understand this notion with the image of an "elevator accelerating upwards feels just like gravity pushing you into the floor" (Lightman). Lightman maintains that Einstein had to come to this conclusion because gravity must move and operate by the same laws of the universe as space and time do. Einstein took the notion a little farther, noting that the gravity of any…… [Read More]

Clausewitz's Paired Concepts Clausewitz's Contribution to the

Clausewitz's Paired Concepts

Clausewitz's contribution to the art of warfare is well established. In this treatise, On War (Clausewitz,1989), he set forth his various views on how modern warfare should be conducted. Although the treatise is not always easy to read or understand, the concepts contained therein remain applicable today. The criticisms of Clausewitz's approach are numerable and his views have been debated vigorously since they were first published. Yet, Clausewitz's theories retain their validity nearly two centuries after they were first proposed.

Before examining the validity of Clausewitz's theories it must be remembered that the era in which his theories were formalized is significantly different than the era in which the Korean War occurred. For example, Clausewitz never envisioned a weapon as powerful as an atomic bomb. The atomic bomb created methods of warfare radically different from those considered by Clausewitz and any analysis of his theories must be balanced against the use of atomic weaponry. Clausewitz also never had to consider the effect of modern air warfare. This factor is less altering than the atomic bomb but it still must be considered as significant. Finally, Clausewitz organized his theories in an era when politics and diplomacy were much…… [Read More]

Japan 1941-1945 and the Acts

While many argued that it was a mistake the attack happened anyway and the result was a punishment that had never been experienced before in the history of the world. The dropping of an atomic bomb changed the strategic thinking of Japan for the rest of history. Today, and for the past five decades the nation has spent its energies trying to be a friendly ally to America and Great Britain instead of trying to become more powerful than they are. It has focused its attention on technological development and assisting the world in moving forward and not on which nation has the most power, the most money or the best military forces. The strategy behind the attack on Pearl Harbor was founded in the fear of economic and trade threats. Now the nation addresses those fears through advances in technology and the sharing of those advances with the nations it used to fear.

HOW the BOMB CHANGED JAPAN'S STRATEGIC THINKING

The decision to drop a bomb was made and executed in 1945. Many believe it triggered the end of the war as the world realized the power America had and was willing to use. Strategically it produced a mindset…… [Read More]

How Was the Cold War Represented in Cinema

Cold War and Film

Generally speaking, the Cold War has been depicted as an era of spy games and paranoia in popular films from the 1960s to the present day, but the reality of the era was much more complex. The Cold War was a period of military and political tension from 1947 to 1991, or from the end of WW2 to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which the "politics of war" masked the business and social agendas of multinationals and ideologues. The era was marked by myriad issues: East-West mistrust, proxy wars, espionage, the threat of nuclear war, domestic and foreign propaganda, the rise of the military-industrial complex and multinational corporations, assassinations, detente, de-colonization, new nationalism, neo-colonialism, the vying for control of resources, alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), and an inculcation of the "deep state." [footnoteRef:1] It can be divided into five basic periods: 1947-53, 1953-62, 1962-79, 1979-85, and 1985-1991, and the films from each period reflect certain preoccupations of the time and people who produced them. This paper will examine each period of the Cold War and show how it was perceived through film by different people at different times in different places and compare these films…… [Read More]

Advancements in Military Technology and

They did not have any problems fighting with their enemies that had inferior technologies but when the United States came into the picture, Japan saw itself fighting not only a technologically superior enemy but one with information / intelligence gathering capabilities unbeknownst of in previous warfare history. In addition, Japan indeed woke up a "sleeping dragon" that not only was capable of evening the battlefield but mobilizing all efforts to withstand Japan's aggression in the pacific theatre of operations.

The Pacific war provided a venue to demonstrate the technological and information superiority of the United States against the Japanese Imperial forces. The use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the ultimate proof of these abilities but the deployment and utilization thereof could never have been possible without the people behind the invention, manufacturing, production, and implementation of these advanced military technologies and information superiority. Thus, it has been proven again in the Pacific war that the success in the battlefield cannot be attributed to only one or two factors but the merging and synergy of technologies, processes, and people -- absent any one of the three and Japan would have probably been the victor not only in…… [Read More]

Proliferation Nuclear Weapons

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: Facilitators and Detractors

Ever since the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has been polarized into two different groups: one that supports nuclear proliferation, and another that vehemently campaigns against the piling up of nuclear material in the world. Both groups have their own arguments to justify their stand. While those who oppose nuclear weapons argue that nuclear proliferation endangers the very existence of the world and international peace, the supporters of nuclear weapons argue that nuclear weapons are required as a deterrent force. The American policy of minimum deterrence echoes this sentiment. However, considering the fact that the world reached dangerously close to an all out nuclear war way back in the eighties during the cold war years, points to the fact that the policy of minimum deterrence can, in the hands of hot-headed heads of states, become a very dangerous tool for political manipulation. At the same time it must also be mentioned that the fear of nuclear weapons was a major factor that prevented an all-out war between the U.S. And the U.S.S.R. during the peak of tensions during the cold war. It is here that we need…… [Read More]

Comic Book Cold War & Crime

From his high school beginnings to his entry into college life, Spider Man remained the superhero most relevant to the world of young people (Wright 234). His comic books, in fact, included some of the first mentions of the demonstrations -- the 1968 demonstrations at Columbia University. Peter Parker is in the middle of a demonstration at Empire State University, where the administration had decided to convert an empty building into a hotel for visiting alumni instead of a low-rent dormitory for minority students. He had to somehow find a middle ground between his concern for the students and the combat lawlessness as Spider Man. "As a law-upholding liberal, he finds himself caught between militant leftists and angry conservatives (234-235). He refused to join the demonstrations and wanted to listen to the university's side of the issue before taking a personal stand one way or another. The comic ended with the dean saying that they always expected to use the building for dorms, and he was wrong when saying that students "should be seen and not heard." A young black student added that he, too, had learned a lesson. Recognizing the dean's concern, he stated, "Sometimes it isn't easy to…… [Read More]

Duty A Father His Son

Instead, they carried out their missions without question, and effectively won the war with their attention to detail and sense of duty. The book makes the reader question their own sense of duty, and if they would have the resolve to fight in a war like this if it happened again. It is a powerful book, partly because it is emotional, and partly because the reader realizes that these people are real, their duty was real, and that our freedom really rests on their shoulders.

Ultimately, this is a book about dying. It follows the last days of Greene's father, but it also looks at the bigger picture of America's World War II vets and how many we are losing every day. It also looks at the lives of the Japanese lost in the atomic bomb explosions, and talks about how many more lives could have been lost if the bombs had not been dropped. This book is about many forms of death, but it also celebrates the lives of those who have died, and what their sacrifices meant for the rest of America. This book makes the reader stop and think about so many things they take for granted,…… [Read More]

World War II World War II Was

World War II. World War II was a turning point in world history, and brought together many allies to fight strong opponents for world domination. The War was supposed to be the "last" world war fought, but other conflicts since that time show the world is still a volatile and unsettled place, and it seems there will always be wars fought in this world.

World War II was fought on two major fronts -- Europe and Asia. There was also fighting in North Africa, and many Pacific Islands. The initial war began in 1939 when German dictator Adolph Hitler invaded Poland. England and France had pledged to support Poland as Hitler continued to take over countries in Europe, such as Austria and Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. When Hitler invaded Poland,

France and England issued ultimatums to Germany which were ignored, and the war had officially begun, even though actual fighting by England and France did not really begin until 1940 (Kitchen 6-11). Initially, the Soviet Union signed a pact with Germany, while England, France, and most of the European countries were allied against Germany. Later, Italy and Japan also became German allies.

Initially, the United States tried to stay…… [Read More]

Good Bad Y When Measured by

No one can compensate the parents who lost their children to after-effects of an atomic explosion.

This war and several others that followed opened doors for more military conflicts and greater destruction of the so-called enemy. Who is our enemy? If people of the other countries are our enemies, why are we ever taught not to discriminate? For surely when the war begins, we have to give up all that we were previously taught and stand united to destroy the weaker enemy completely. The world as it stands today may have underpinnings of a Third World War at any point of time in the future. So, it is fairly correct to state that all wars are wrong. Why some countries or nations feel proud of the wars they fought and do not believe all wars are wrong are basically shortsighted, selfish and narrow minded. They probably see the world as it exists today and have forgotten or do not know how the present day countries and nations emerged, how much their older generations suffered and how much economic, political and social power they lost. Germany provides a good example.

The country suffered immensely when its land and resources were divided…… [Read More]

Npt -Non-Proliferation Treaty Ever Since the First

NPT -Non-Proliferation Treaty

Ever since the First World War, various countries in the western world had started researching in military weapons and artillery in order to strengthen their country's security. Newer and more advanced weapons continued to be inducted in the armed forces of developed and industrialized nations in the world particularly Soviet Union, United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. While all these countries had started their researches for development of nuclear weapons as early as 1930s, the United States of America officially emerged as the first country to have nuclear weapons developed.

While development of nuclear weapons was initially considered as an individual nation's effort to strengthen its country's security and sovereignty, it was in August 1945 when the idea of nuclear proliferation and nuclear warfare alarmed the international community. This was when the United States of America bombed to cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, using nuclear artillery. The implications of the two bombs, which carried small volume of fissile material was such that the international community included the victim nation felt the need to cease the occurrence of nuclear warfare in the future. While Japan and Germany, the two parties in the Second World…… [Read More]

Ladies and Gentlemen the Media

Jackie Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, an environmental and disarmament advocacy group, fears that ongoing and developing technology gives the U.S. capacity to design super nuclear armament in the near future, and that by maintaining these "weapons research, development, testing and production capabilities at the laboratories" (Center for Defense Information (1995)) we are providing the breeding ground for a future Apocalypse.

Charles Curtis, Under-Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy of the Clinton administration, admitted that nuclear weapons research was still ongoing, although this was not directed towards designing new weapons bur rather to sustaining the old. Given the uncertainty of current global affairs, he felt strongly that America's security needs to be in place.

In 1995, a Special Task Force on Alternative Futures for the Department of Energy National Laboratories, also known as the Galvin Task Force met and its specific recommendations regarding the nuclear laboratories included that none of them should be closed, that the labs should continue to be funded with public money, and that weapons design work should be phased out at Lawrence Livermore and consolidated at Los Alamos.

Mean whilst, whilst the Department of Energy insists on retaining and upgrading these…… [Read More]

Post War Japan

Post-War Japan

The Depiction of Japanese Victimization in Gojira and Voice of Hibakusha

World War II left the countries involved devastated and permanently changed. This became true for Japan on August 6th 1945 when the U.S. army dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in retaliation to an earlier attack by the Japanese. Huge areas of land were destroyed and the thousands of lives were ended. Japan has carried the weight of this tragedy for decades and struggled with the idea of their victimization. This struggle plays out in the art, literature and film of post-war Japan. In the documentary Voice of Hibakusha, the victims of the bombings spoke about their experiences and how it changed their lives. The 1954 film Gojira shows Japan being once again victimized on a large scale, but this threat comes not only as a side effect of war, but from Japan's past. Both works address Japanese victimization and conclude that the role of victim is an important one that must effect change in the rest of the world.

In the film Gojira a prehistoric monster is awakened by atomic radiation and wreaks havoc across Japan. The entire country is helpless as the monster storms across…… [Read More]

American Aviation

Positives and Negatives from a Century of Aviation

Little did the Wright brothers know, on December 17, 1903, when they successfully tested their flying machine at Kitty Hawk, what an influential industry they were launching. They could not have known in their wildest dreams that ninety-nine years later, an airport called Chicago O'Hare would facilitate some 383,362 landing and takeoff cycles each year. Or that by 1967, sixty-four years later, aerospace would become America's leading industrial employer, with some 1,484,000 employees, and sales of $27 billion, according to author Donald Pattillo (Pushing the Envelope). Nor could the Wright brothers know that a man would fly to the moon, and walk on the moon, by 1969, just sixty-six years after that little plane at Kitty Hawk left solid ground for a few triumphant seconds.

But though the Wright brothers' crude little aircraft got the aerospace industry off the ground to become such a big part of the U.S. And global economy, the evolution and growth of aviation has not been an entirely positive series of events. This paper will examine the effects - good and bad - that aviation has had on the economy, on the society, on the environment and…… [Read More]

Mccarthy and the Cold War One Aspect

McCarthy and the Cold War

One aspect of history is that a country's so-called "friend" one day, can be an enemy the next and visa versa. The United States and Soviet Union during World War II joined ranks against the real threat of Nazi Germany. However, it did not take long after the end of the war for Russia and the United States to once again bully each other. Even before the final surrender of Germany in 1945, the two super powers rapidly found themselves in a new military and diplomatic rivalry. Meanwhile, in the United States, the economy was taking time to build and unemployment was growing. Thoughts of the Depression loomed in people's minds. The friction with the Russians, which would receive the name of Cold War, did not help. Yet it did create a scapegoat for fears and feelings of paranoia. As the tensions between the U.S. And U.S.S.R. mounted, the Communist threat reached American shores. Surely, Russia was infiltrating the government. The Rosenberg's trial in 1951 put all the props on the stage for the director Joseph McCarthy.

The "Red Scare" was nothing new to the United States. Years earlier, when Russia overthrew its tsar and…… [Read More]

Uranium Background History and Properties

Uranium Trioxide (UO3)

Uranium trioxide occurs as an orange powder and is the form of uranium identified in the colored glass found evidencing its use as a paint color component dating back to the First Century AD (Krauss, 2001).… [Read More]