Dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 was one of the most significant and terrible events in the history of humankind. But it is amazing that so few Americans know much about the horror of the atomic bomb. No American president has ever visited Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Americans justify the use of the terrible weapon by saying it was necessary to end the war and that "more American as well as Japanese lives were saved by the bombings."
I know Japan invaded China and that Japanese soldiers killed many innocent civilians and prisoners of war, and raped women. The Japanese Navy made a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, killing U.S. service members. Japanese soldiers confiscated food and did many atrocious things in other parts of Asia, such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Therefore, many people say Japan deserved the atomic bombings.
I don't know how many U.S. servicemen were killed at Pearl Harbor, but hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed or have died as a result of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Sixty-three years later, some people still suffer from various kinds of cancer due to the aftereffects of exposure to radioactivity. I believe America should pay the medical expenses of these surviving victims.
Moreover, all nuclear weapons must be abolished. As the first in human history to use atomic bombs, America has a grave responsibility to abolish all of its nuclear weapons and to start asking other nuclear-armed countries to do the same.
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