The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]], bringing World War II to a swift and decisive end. The morality of the use of the bombs is debated, because it caused such huge loss of innocent civilian life (140,000 at Hiroshima, 70,000 at Nagasaki). U. S. officials have said that the entire cities were proper military targets, and that because the bombings ended the war so quickly, fewer Japanese civilians were killed than if the bombs had not been used. | The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]], bringing World War II to a swift and decisive end. The morality of the use of the bombs is debated, because it caused such huge loss of innocent civilian life (140,000 at Hiroshima, 70,000 at Nagasaki). U. S. officials have said that the entire cities were proper military targets, and that because the bombings ended the war so quickly, fewer Japanese civilians were killed than if the bombs had not been used. |