Appendix by Barton J. Bernstein

Abstract

The pictures of the A-Bomb survivors, of course, raises the questions of why the A-Bombs were used. Were they necessary? Were they justified? Probably no other event of World War II has generated as much controversy as the atomic bombings on Japan, yet nothing since 1945 permits the belief that the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would prevent American or other nation's policy-makers from engaging in nuclear war. Indeed the threat of nuclear destruction is greater. A review of that controversy in the United States is beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, the following selection from Barton J. Bernstein's “The Atomic Bomb and American Foreign Policy: The Route to Hiroshima” provides a brief summary of the most recent revisionist interpretation of why the A-Bomb was used. (H. S.)