CEP813 Game-based Assessment

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You are a historian Your mission: To use primary source documents to determine whether or not the United States should or should not have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan at the end of WWII. Before you begin, based on what you know and how you feel, do you believe the U.S. should or should not have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan? [[YES]] [[NO]]

Consider the following primary Source: "The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender… In being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children." Admiral William E. Leahy, President Truman's Chief of Staff, in his memoir, I Was There Does this primary source argue for or against the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan? [[FOR]] [[AGAINST]]

Consider the following primary souorce: "I had then set up a committee of top men and had asked them to study with great care the implications the new weapons might have for us. It was their recommendation that the bomb be used against the enemy as soon as it could be done. They recommended further that it should be used without specific warning... I had realized, of course, that an atomic bomb explosion would inflict damage and casualties beyond imagination. On the other hand, the scientific advisors of the committee reported... that no technical demonstration they might propose, such as over a deserted island, would be likely to bring the war to an end. It had to be used against an enemy target. The final decision of where and when to use the atomic bomb was up to me. Let there be no mistake about it. I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never doubted it should be used." —President Harry S. Truman Does this primary source argue for or against the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan? [[FOR ]] [[AGAINST ]]

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