ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


U.S. History EOC Assessment Videos 64 videos

AP U.S. History 1.1 Period 5: 1848-1877
354 Views

AP U.S. History 1.1 Period 5: 1848-1877. Which of the following groups would be most likely to support the idea of Manifest Destiny?

The History of Rock and Roll
3621 Views

In the 1950s and 60s, people weren't just expressing their feelings toward the government—they were singing them, too. (Think Crosby, Stills, Nas...

FDR's New Deal
6360 Views

Deal or no deal? FDR's New Deal provided hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public sector to bring the economy out of the Great Depression. It wa...

See All

AP U.S. History 2.4 Period 7: 1890-1945 223 Views


Share It!


Description:

AP U.S. History 2.4 Period 7: 1890-1945. Besides forcing Japan to surrender, what was another primary goal of dropping the second atomic bomb?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:02

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by atomic warfare,

00:06

the long-lasting struggle between protons and neutrons.

00:10

All right, well, give this excerpt a read.

00:12

[ mumbles ]

00:16

Ugh. Give 'em hell, Harry.

00:17

All right, and now the question:

00:19

Besides forcing Japan to surrender, what was another

00:22

primary goal of dropping the second atomic bomb?

00:26

And here are your potential answers.

00:28

[ mumbles ]

00:31

All right. Well, the first atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city

00:34

of Hiroshima cost somewhere between 90 and 160 plus thousand lives.

00:40

The second atomic bomb,

00:41

dropped on Nagasaki a few days later, killed between

00:44

60,000 and 80,000 people. Right here.

00:48

Though the Americans reportedly used the first bomb to avoid

00:50

a costly ground invasion of Japan,

00:52

many historians believe the second atomic bomb was

00:55

detonated for another reason.

00:57

Let's see which answer reveals that train of thought.

01:01

Was another primary goal of

01:02

dropping the second bomb to A -

01:04

eliminate Japan's future military capabilities?

01:08

Well, with Hiroshima obliterated and Japan's allies defeated,

01:11

the country's potential for future military capabilities

01:14

was pretty much already gone. So it isn't A.

01:18

Could a primary goal of dropping the second bomb have been C -

01:21

thoroughly testing a new technological breakthrough?

01:24

Well, the atomic bomb had already been tested on Hiroshima,

01:27

and if they truly needed another test, the U.S.

01:29

could've used other, less populated locations.

01:32

So that knocks out C.

01:34

Might the second bomb have been used to D -

01:37

punish Japan for its participation in the Axis Powers?

01:40

You know, with the Nazis and all those people?

01:42

Well, while anger and racism against Japan were widespread

01:45

at the time, there's little historical evidence to suggest

01:48

the second atomic bomb was primarily an act of vengeance.

01:51

So it's not D, either.

01:53

Which means the primary goal of dropping the second atomic bomb

01:57

was probably B - to demonstrate the extent of American power to the Soviet Union.

02:02

Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union wanted to emerge

02:04

from World War II as a global superpower,

02:07

and most historians agree that dropping the second bomb

02:10

was intended to intimidate the Soviet Union rather than

02:13

to assure a military victory.

02:15

So B is the correct answer.

02:16

The use of the atomic bomb will always be controversial.

02:20

Couldn't there have been a better solution?

02:22

Yeah, like how about this?

02:25

[ things clattering and breaking ]

Related Videos

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 1
424 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 1. Relationships like the one shown in the image resulted in the development of...what?

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 15
260 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 15. How did groups like the ones represented by the image influence industry in America?

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 10
210 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 10. What led to the splintering of the political parties shown in the image?

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 11
185 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 11. The election results shown in the image led to...what?

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 12
205 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 12. How did the Reconstruction Acts open up political opportunities for former slaves?