The Debate over Hiroshima and Nagasaki: After 80 Years of Hindsight, Was the Bombing Necessary?

Eighty years ago this week, two American bombers lifted off from an airfield on Tinian Island in the Western Pacific and flew into history. Each plane carried a single bomb—one codenamed "Little Boy" and the other codenamed "Fat Man." These two separate attacks would mark the first and only time nuclear weapons have ever been used in war. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Names that now evoke memories unspeakable destruction. But those names are also surrounded by questions, many of them still unanswered.

Today, the debate over the use of the atomic bomb is far from settled. What was once a largely accepted account—that the bombs were dropped to end the war swiftly and save lives—has been increasingly challenged by historians, ethicists, and international legal scholars. Critics argue that Japan was already seeking surrender, that the bombings were moti ...