Document 3 I
"The face of war is the face of deathdeath is an inevitable part of every order that a wartime leader
gives. The decision to use the atomic bomb was a decision that brought death to over a hundred
thousand Japanese...
"But this deliberate premeditated destruction was our least abhorrent alternative. The destruction of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Japanese war. It stopped the fire raids, and the strangling
blockade it ended the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies. In this last great action of the
Second World War we were given final proof that war is death."
- Secretary of War Henry Samson
Why did Stimson think the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a terrible thing to do
but better than any alternative