ABSTRACT
The US decision to use atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is one of the most closely examined decisions in history, and one of the most emotionally charged. Positions in the debate over whether the United States was right or wrong to have used atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki divide up in significant ways. At the same time, however, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has generated such strong disagreement between individuals who share the same perspective as to give us an excellent vantage to observe ambiguities in the analytic process. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, at minimum, provided the emperor with an occasion or a reason for making unprecedented incursions into governmental decision-making. Others have doubted that the war would have gone on much past the first of September, even without the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
