Nearly 70 years ago, on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m., the United States crushed the city of Hiroshima with a 10,000-pound atomic bomb that changed the view of war for millions of people. of people (Hersey,1). The bomb killed at least seventy-five thousand people instantly and many more over the years due to radiation poisoning and other factors related to the bomb (Jennings). To this day, people still have mixed feelings about what the United States did to Japan. Some are for the bomb because it saved American lives, but others oppose it because it was immoral and unnecessary. Leo Szilard, a Hungarian scientist, first wrote a letter to President Roosevelt signed by Albert Einstein in which he declared that the United States should create an atomic bomb. This happened when Szilard realized the danger that would arise if Germany manufactured the first atomic bomb (Long). It was Einstein who warned the United States that Germany was researching nuclear weapons and did not want the Nazis to build one first. The first successful test was carried out in New Mexico on July 16, 1945 with a plutonium bomb, by which time Germany was already defeated (A&E). The next step was to take on Japan. The United States was considering an attack even though the number of American soldiers who would be killed was very high. The estimated number of American soldiers who died each week during the Pacific War was one thousand (Chen). The most reasonable option considered was the atomic bomb. The death toll caused by Japan during the war was equivalent to one Hiroshima per month for over fourteen years (Chen). The United States went after Japan for many reasons, the first being that they viewed the Japanese as not good enough. The American military thought "The only good Japanese...... middle of paper...... in 1945." The Wall Street Journal [New York] August 3, 1995: 403-404. Abstract. Print. Kazemek, Francis. “Two handfuls of bones and ashes: teaching Hiroshima to our children. » HighBeam Research (1994) n.pag. Web April 8, 2014Long, Doug. “Hiroshima: was it necessary? Hiroshima. Ed. Doug Long. NP, 1995. Web. April 24, 2014. .Morley, Felix. “The return to nothingness”. Human events. August 29, 1945: 272-74. Print.Sherwin, Martin J. Memory, myth and history. Np, nd 343-52. Print.Stimson, Henry L. "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb." The Atomic Bomb: Critical Issues. Boston: Little Brown and, 1984. 14-17. Print.Thomas, Evan. “Why we did it.” Newsweek July 24, 1995: 21-29. Print."Veterans." Struggles with History. Np: np, nd 236-43. Print.Zinn, Howard. The Bomb. San Francisco: the lights of the city, 2010. Print.