The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings. Genocide or Not

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings. Genocide or not? ! The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred on 6-9 August 1945. As stated by Jennifer Rosenberg: ‘‘Unlike many other bombing raids, the goal for this raid had not been a military installation but rather an entire city.’’1 The US wanted to scare the Japanese out of the war. The possible targets of the bombings were: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki and Niigata. Kyoto was one of the choices as well, but it was removed from the list. ‘‘The cities were chosen because they had been relatively untouched during the war.’’2 The bomb  «Little Boy » was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of a B-29 Superfortress  «Enola Gay » bomber. On 9th of August it was followed by the bomb  «Fat Man » that was†¦show more content†¦But in order to tell whether it was an act of genocide or not, we have to know if there was any intent to destroy the population of Japan in part or in wh ole. The bombings caused have caused a debate over them. As former US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said: ‘‘The atomic bomb was more than a weapon of terrible destruction; it was a psychological weapon.’’ Psychological weapon, in a sense that in Japan it was dishonorable to surrender, so the Americans have understood, that invading Japan would be useless. What they could have gotten with the invasion of Japan is a great amount of casualties. Rather than losing their own people, the US decided to scare the Japanese out of the war, which means that there was no intent to destroy Japanese neither in whole nor in part. ! Although the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are meeting all the criteria, listed in the Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on Genocide, except for one (Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group), we can clearly see that it was not a case of genocide. 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