Don't Fight Fire With Fire

One of the moral issues that seemed to be raised in the readings on Hiroshima was that of whether or not to “fight fire with fire”. Although a war was in fact going on, to many it seemed the way the United States went about trying to fight it was out of hand. In efforts to get Japan to surrender to the United States, two atomic bombs were dropped, one at Hiroshima and one at Nagasaki. This instance is what many considered, and still consider, to be fighting fire with fire, and in the case of many Japanese as well as international peacemakers was believed to be the unethical way of going about solving the conflict. Ghandi, for example, explained that although the dropping of the atomic bomb may halt violence, it would be due to the disgust the rest of the world felt about the destructive power of the bomb, and the yield of violence would only be temporarily halted (Atom Bomb and Ahimsa). In Ghandi’s eyes, fighting fire with fire in the case of the atomic bomb would produce no true solution for the problem at hand, but rather a momentary quick fix. F. W. de Klerk, the former president of South Africa, also agrees that fighting fire with fire was not the right way to go about trying to solve the conflict, and he believes that fighting this way will hardly result in feelings of safety or security. De Klerk brings up the fact that South Africa has voluntarily dismantled a nuclear capability and through “putting that fire out” has found that the “ability to solve complex problems peacefully” rather than with violence has created true security.

Even more moving than the words from internationally influential people, were the words of A-bomb survivors. These were individuals who, for the most part, were innocent civilians who just happened to live in Hiroshima or Nagasaki at the time and had to face the immense destruction caused by the atomic bomb, as well as the harsh effects that accompanied it. In a few of the recollections of survivors, it was explained how they had to witness family and friends die horrible painful deaths, but were not lucky enough to die themselves. By fighting fire with fire, not only physical destruction was caused, but mental destruction as well. Individuals who survived the bombings were forced to live with the awful images that have permanently scarred them. Many of these individuals wish that the bombs had never been dropped and believe that by confronting the problem , instead of fighting with violence, the conflict could have been solved much more peacefully and ultimately with less negativity and destruction.