DATE: August 6, 2025
BYLINE: Cliff Potts, WPS News

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Eighty years later, the mushroom cloud still casts a long, moral shadow across the globe. Every year, the anniversary reignites the debate: was it necessary? Was it evil? Was it even war, or something worse? If we’re going to ask those questions honestly, we need to stop treating Hiroshima as an exception—and start seeing it as part of the larger machinery of World War II. Only then can we face the real, horrifying truth: not that Hiroshima was immoral, but that sometimes war itself is the only moral path through an immoral world.

Context: The Firestorm Era

Long before the U.S. dropped the bomb, mass civilian bombing was already the accepted language of war. In 1943, British and Canadian forces firebombed Hamburg, Germany, killing 40,000 people in a week (Overy, 2013). The Luftwaffe carpet-bombed London and Rotterdam. In March 1945, U.S. bombers dropped incendiaries on Tokyo, causing firestorms that killed an estimated 100,000 civilians in a single night (Werrell, 1996). No nuclear weapons—just gasoline, phosphorus, and planning.

Canada flew bombing missions over German cities as part of Bomber Command. German forces flattened entire Soviet towns. The Allies obliterated Dresden in 1945. Civilian deaths weren’t tragic side effects—they were strategy.

Why Hiroshima?

Hiroshima was selected because it was largely untouched by prior bombings and had military significance: troop garrisons, weapons production, and logistics infrastructure. But it was also a clean target—a controlled test of the bomb’s power (Walker, 2005). The U.S. wanted data, and it wanted a statement.

Declassified documents from the Interim Committee show clear intent: to force Japan’s surrender, avoid an invasion, and demonstrate overwhelming power (U.S. Department of War, 1945). Soviet intimidation was a factor for some, but not the primary reason. Japan had rejected the Potsdam Declaration. No formal peace offer ever reached Truman’s desk (Hasegawa, 2005).

Morality and War

Many argue Hiroshima was immoral—and they’re right. But so was Tokyo. So was Hamburg. If Hiroshima is evil, so is every city that burned from deliberate bombing.

Yet here’s where we must face a darker, more honest reality: not all wars are unjust. When you are being slaughtered, when your people are enslaved, when there is no negotiation left—war becomes a moral obligation. A sin, perhaps, but a righteous one.

World War II was not a war of choice for those under Nazi or imperial Japanese occupation. It was hell, but it was also survival. The Allies didn’t invent mass death. They finished it—by using every weapon they had. That doesn’t cleanse the blood, but it does explain the decision.

Conclusion

We shouldn’t pretend Hiroshima was a clean decision. It wasn’t. But it also wasn’t a singular crime in a war of decency. It was the final note in a global symphony of fire, fought because the alternative was worse. If that truth unsettles you, good. It should. Just don’t lie about it to make yourself feel better. Don’t reduce war to slogans. Don’t forget that sometimes, war is moral—because the world has made peace impossible.

SOURCES (APA Format)

Hasegawa, T. (2005). Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Overy, R. J. (2013). The Bombing War: Europe 1939–1945. Penguin Books.

U.S. Department of War. (1945). Minutes of the Interim Committee on Atomic Bomb. National Security Archive.

Walker, J. S. (2005). Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan. University of North Carolina Press.

Werrell, K. P. (1996). Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan during World War II. Smithsonian Institution Press.

Discover more from WPS News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.