Odysseus, The Hero The Odyssey Is An Epic Story That Has Been A Signif

Odysseus, the Hero The Odyssey is an epic story that has been a significant piece of literature since it wasfirst composed and will remain so for ages to come. One of the reasons it has been so isbecause of the hero, Odysseus. Odysseus is one of the first Greek mythic heroes renowned for his brain as well as hismuscle. He is a man with an intelligent mind, and he is also a man with outstandingbravery. I also must not forget that he is a top-notch athlete which only adds more to thisseemingly insuperable character. It is no wonder why many people refer to Odysseus as apowerful mythic hero.Odysseus often hesitates before acting, because he uses his reason and gift to evaluatethings. This patience is one of his most important additional attributes. This has saved himand his men many of times, and it can be easily seen in various instances throughout histravels such as when he disguised himself as a beggar when he finally reached Ithaca,waiting for the right moment to reveal himself.As g reat as he was, Odysseus still had some weaknesses that prolonged his voyage back toIthaca. His most important weakness that he possess is that of his pride. Pride is good tohave, but in Odysseus' case he had to much of it. This is clearly evident in the episode onthe cyclopes' island. When Odysseus and his men are clearly safe away from the islandOdysseus braggs about his exploit. Polythemus hears this and hurls giant boulders in thedirection of the ship. A couple came very close to sinking the ship. Still that was notenough for Odysseus. Carried away in his pride he unwisely gave away his identity toPolythemus. With that Polythemus called upon his father, Poseidon, to punish the manwho had harmed him. That incident hurt Odysseus more than losing a few men, becausePoseidon made his travel home ever so longer and arduous.Yet another weakness of our hero is his sensualness. Odysseus enjoys women. He stayedwith Circe for one year before his men reminded him of home. He also stayed wit hCalypso for seven years. Although we must take into thought that there were some otherreasons why he stayed with her for so long, like that she was an immortal and he didn'twant to have her against him.Nonetheless, Odysseus survived all that happened to him. His courage, wits, andendurance enabled him to come through each and every difficulty and arrive home safely. Therefor I believe that Odysseus is a hero.

Mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example

Mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example Mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Essay Topic: To Kill a Mockingbird Woman of Colour Novel Mockingbirds are best known for their ability to mimic other species. Throughout the novel â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the book uses the mockingbird as a symbol to illustrate one of the novel’s main themes. This essay will discuss the importance of the mockingbird as a symbol and two of the characters that embody the characteristics of being one. In the novel, mockingbirds are valued as a symbol of innocence. A proof of this was when Ms. Maudie said, â€Å"Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, they don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us† in Chapter 10, page 119. It symbolizes innocence because mockingbirds are harmless. They also do not have much of a negative impact on an individual nor the environment compared to other species. Now that we have expanded on the significance of the mockingbird, let’s learn about two of the characters that exhibited the qualities of a mockingbird. One of the characters that was likened to a mockingbird is Tom Robinson. He is an African-American, middle-aged man who was a victim of prejudice by Maycomb’s county in Alabama. Tom’s case revolved around the accusation that he would rape any white woman if given the chance because of his racial background. 231 chapter 17 On Chapter 19, page 261, Tom was asked why he fled the scene in haste. Tom explains how dangerous it is to be a â€Å"coloured† person while being seen with a white person. â€Å"I was scared, suh. If you was a nigger like me, you’d be scared too.† What Tom said is true. In Maycomb county â€Å"coloured† people are constantly reduced to be criminals, or beasts. On Chapter 17, page 231, Bob Ewell is seen saying â€Å"I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin on my Mayella† In this quote Bob Ewell views Tom as a beast by saying â€Å"ruttin† the word rutting is applied to animals, just like how talking is applied t

Vivid remembrance of my childhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Vivid remembrance of my childhood - Essay Example der, premonition, challenging, comforting, goal, do, best, excel, dream, succeed, struggles, failures, achievements, father, proud, fight, persevere, determined, achieve, goals, values, learned, world of possibilities) VIII. Facing new challenges (death, America, fulfill, dreams, new challenges, new environment, difficult, adjustments, acquaintance, English, not fluent, early years, unbearable, cry, want, go back home, disappointment, remember, memory, seriousness, face, tenderness, strength, harshness, hope, survive, thrive) Facing tomorrow (years, America, look back, survived, thrived, determination, impressed, challenge, look forward, bright future, trials, hardships, fear, characteristics, qualify, fight, survive, succeed, experience, restaurant, indelible, lessons, learned, inscribed, heart, long-lasting, impact, pass on, children, future, values, mold) X. Conclusion- Catching the spirit (values, lessons, learned, history, nation, narrated, family values, determined, economic stability, employment, security, persevere, freedom, financial freedom, values, attributes, domino effect, poverty, challenge, education, positive, opportunities, difficulties, inherited, value, survive, trying times, trials) Long term effect (experience, trained, hard work, try, consider, options, possibilities, solve, hardships, encounter, care physical fitness, responsibility, physical condition, affect, determine, plans, conscious, health, vital, culture, concern, expectation, health awareness, alcohol, father, died young, fruits, vegetables, exercise, supplements, vitamins, minerals, strengthen, immune system, demand, school, work, social life, acquaintances) I was born in Poland, a nation that has long struggled with communism for years. I grew up, raised in a family who looked forward to a bright future as the whole of Poland hoped for a good future as we were rediscovering our independence. The long history of our nation’s struggles with wars and poverty made the people

Articles review For this assignment you will discuss two published Essay

Articles review For this assignment you will discuss two published research articles relating to gender and education. Each one - Essay Example 2004; Putwain 2008) and Science scores (Okoye 2009). Still, one study argues that gender differences can be found based on problem type: â€Å"boys outperformed girls on spatial/conceptual measurement, whereas girls outperformed boys on formula-based measurement, as well as on a test of computation skills† (Vasilyeva et al. 2009, p.401) or personality (Petrides et al. 2005), while others provide evidence that stereotype threats can lead to gender differences in female students' maths performance (Ahmavaara and Houston 2007; Good, Woodzicka, and Wingfield 2010; Keller 2007). This essay criticizes the articles â€Å"The gendered subject: students' subject preferences and discussions of gender and subject ability† by Francis (2000) and â€Å"Student attitudes, image and the gender gap† by Warrington, Younger, and Williams (2000). In â€Å"The gendered subject: students' subject preferences and discussions of gender and subject ability,† Francis (2000) examine s whether there have been any changes in students’ constructions of gender and learning, because of changes in achievement trends and perceptions of gender. The author also studies their perceptions of most popular and least popular subjects and their beliefs about gender and ability. The study is a correlational design, wherein relations between gender and subject preferences and ability are determined. The sampling strategy is random sampling from three different mixed-sex schools in Greater London. Author conducted classroom observation and semi-structured interviews with one hundred 14 to 16 year old students. Findings showed blurring in gendered subject preferences, because boys favoured English, while girls preferred Math as the second favourite subject. However, in terms of students’ least preferred subjects, the sample was more traditional, with mathematics and science the least well-liked subjects among girls, and French the least well-liked among boys. Still, maths was rated second least preferred by boys, and French third least preferred among girls, which indicates greater diversity. As for responses on gender and subject ability, majority believed that ability at different subjects are not connected to gender. Still, those who believed that gender is a factor in different subjects agreed that girls were better at some or all subjects than boys. Francis concluded that stresses on female superiority should not be taken as an indication of absence of worry among educators, because it means that gender gap continues to persist, but at a different direction. It is important to stress the potential of both genders for all subjects to erase stereotyped images. Warrington, Younger, and Williams (2000) study the attitudes of students to GCSE work and explore why boys and girls seem to view their work in different ways, with emphasis on â€Å"image† in the article â€Å"Student attitudes, image and the gender gap.† Like Francis ( 2000), Warrington, Younger, and Williams (2000) conducted a correlational study using qualitative analysis. Warrington, Younger, and Williams (2000) used triangulation for data gathering: focus group interviews with groups of girls and boys, lesson observations and teacher interviews. Findings showed that girls are not stigmatised for hard work in class, while boys experience that their image is affected when they study hard in school.

How World War One presented in poetry by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon Essay Example for Free

How World War One presented in poetry by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon Essay A comparison of the ways in which World War One is presented by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in their poetry with close reference to Dulce et Decorum est and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Owen and The General and Base Details by Sassoon. * * * The First World War marked a significant turning point in poetic tradition and history by the revolutionary styles and ideas expressed by the poets. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are probably two of the most well known war poets and their poetry was instrumental in this change. Prior to 1914, much poetry was written about wars such as the Crimean War in 1854-56 (The Charge of The Light Brigade by Tennyson who says, Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred.) but the great majority of the poets had not experienced war first-hand. Thus, they reinforced the poetic tradition of glorifying war and death. Both Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, who both fought through most of the First World War, use their poetry in the hope that they can give a more realistic impression of war than the pre-twentieth century poetry. Both Owen and Sassoon present World War One as unheroic, in direct contrast to pre-twentieth war poetry such as The Destruction of Sennacherib by Byron. At the very beginning of Dulce et Decorum est Owen describes the soldiers as Bent double, like old beggars under sacks. That image is the complete opposite of what we would consider to be a heroic and romantic figure, an attribute that was always given to soldiers in pre-twentieth century poetry. Owen goes on to describe the soldiers as knock-kneed and coughing like hags. Neither of these images can be associated with the glorified, smartly dressed soldier that would be fixed in almost all of the minds of women and children back home. The comparison of the soldiers to hags is not a pleasant one as hags are often scruffy and dirty. The mention of the coughing portrays the many illnesses that soldiers suffered from in the trenches. Although both of them present war as unheroic, they do so in very different ways. The style of Owens poetry which is much longer and contains more description than that of Sassoons, allows him to expand on the simple description of the horrors of war that he experienced. In Dulce et Decorum est, he describes in graphic and horrific detail the death of a man who was not able to fit his helmet in time during a gas attack. He uses words such as floundring guttering, choking, drowning. The word floundring gives the impression of the helplessness of the man.The onomatopoeic effect of these words gives an image that adds relaism to the horror of war. This makes it more realistic and moreover, more chilling to read. Owen goes on, in the final stanza of this poem to describe the dead man in greater detail. His varied use of language allows him to create shocking imagery which means that the reader can visualise the man. Owen uses phrases such as: watch the white eyes writhing in his face and the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs The first of these phrases is particularly chilling as it makes the reader think of snakes writhing in his face. This gives the impression of a crazed person, driven insane by what he has seen and what he had suffered before dying. The alliteration of the w is also effective as it emphasises the phrase. Owen wants to present the reality of the First World War and in slowing the reader down, he makes them think about what he is actually describing and change the way in which it was brushed over before World War One. The second phrase is also shocking and the use of the onomatopoeic word gargling makes it all the more visual and makes the reader feel more chilling. This image of a man choking on his own blood because of gas is very unheroic and it is this that Owen wants to portray the unheroic nature of war however brave the soldiers may be. This is in comparison to many pre-twentieth century war poems where they emphasise the heroic nature of war such as in a speech in Henry V where Henry says that the man who survives the battle will remember with advantages what feats he did that day, emphasising the heroic nature of war. Owens second poem, Anthem for Doomed Youth also presents World War One as unheroic and unromantic. The very first line of his poem epitomises Owens feeling about the young men sent off to war. What passing bells for those who die as cattle? The use of the word cattle immediately robs all glory from the idea of war as a whole. The simile compares how cattle are slaughtered for meat to soldiers dying for their country. This is a very unheroic comparison and is effective in what it is trying to portray. On the other hand, in the two poems by Sassoon that I have chosen to discuss, Sassoon does not present World War One as unheroic. His poems, which are short and concise, deal more with the unfairness of war and protest against the generals and commanding officers. However, in The General, Sassoon briefly presents the soldiers in an unheroic way, telling us that Harry and Jack slogged up to Arras, instead of the quick, efficient marching of the soldiers that had been frequently portrayed prior to the First World War such as is described in The Charge Of The Light Brigade where Tennyson conveys the riders riding quckly by the phrase, Half a league, half a league, half a league onward. The rhythm of these lines show the quick pace of the soldiers. Sassoons poetry presents the unfairness and inequality between the front-line privates and the generals who sat in comfort behind lines. Sassoon attacks the establishment of the country and the tone of his two poems is very sardonic, making fun of the generals in quite a light-hearted way but with a pointed message to his poetry. In The General Sassoon presents The General as incompetent and responsible for the deaths many men. Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of em dead, And were cursing his staff for incompetent swine. The very last line of the poems refers to Harry and Jack who are named in the poem. This makes the generals attitude and incompetence more poignant and personal to the reader. But he did for them both by his plan of attack. This short last line is to the point and cuts right to the quick. Sassoon does not play with words like Owen but presents World War One is his poetry in the most succinct way. The majority of his poems are no longer than three short stanzas whereas Owens can be eight verses long. However, Sassoons message is just as worthy as Owens is. Base Details is probably Sassoons best poem for attacking the generals as using harsh humour it describes them sitting in luxury hotels while men are starving on the front-line with rationed food. He presents the generals of the First World War as scarlet and fat. Although the poem is short, he describes the generals so effectively that we have an image of the generals in our head which does not conform to what we might expect, or certainly not what was generally thought of generals before the war. The title of the poem can be read on different levels the first being the simple meaning of the word as in headquarters, or on another level, the meanings of in short or unworthy. This emphasises their unworthiness of the elevated positions that they hold. Sassoons first line seems to sum up all that he is trying to say: If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath, This one line immediately gives us a humorous image of a general which is almost like those we see in cartoons today of blustering, half drunk generals sitting in offices wheezing with a pipe in hand. In Base Details Sassoon continues his theme of their unworthiness by describing the generals table manners which according to him, are disgusting. He presents them as guzzling and gulping. These onomatopoeic words give the effect of pigs eating at a trough, especially guzzling. It also conveys them stuffing their faces when the soldiers on the front-line are risking their lives day after day with little to eat. We associate these words with animal behaviour and this is indeed what Sassoon is trying to present. He also presents the generals as naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and frivolous, spending the war in the best hotels and when their presence was required after a battle they brushed off the importance of war calling it a scrap. Sassoons bitterness is also displayed when the general says I used to know his father well. This emphasises his bitterness effectively towards the upper classes and old boy network, angry that whether you survive the war depends on class and connections. This bitterness is integral to many of his poems and is also evident, in a less direct way, in The General. Both Owen and Sassoon present the loss of youth in their poems. In Dulce et Decorum est, Owen is bitter towards those who tell children a word which emphasises their youth the old Lie Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori or in English, It is sweet and honourable to die for ones country. The use of the Latin here emphasises the traditional nature of war and the patriotism that the Latin evokes in men. The idea of the loss of youth is more evident in Owens second poem, Anthem For Doomed Youth, where the very title shows all that Owen thinks about sending boys off to war. He himself was only twenty-two when he joined the army and thus would have known about how terrible it was. The words of the title, Anthem For Doomed Youth has the theme of a funeral and says how not only youth itself is doomed but youth as an idea. Owen also mentions, in the second stanza, the words boys and girls which stresses once again the youth of the soldiers and perhaps of their nurses or their girlfriends. Only Base Details mentions the loss of youth in Sassoons poems saying near the end that youth is stone dead. Taken out of the context of the poem, this phrase is disturbing the loss of a whole generation of men and also the loss of innocence of those who survived. In context, the phrase becomes even more disturbing, that more of the fat, drunk generals of sixty, have survived the war, while boys of seventeen have died. The whole line reads: And when the war is done and youth stone dead The casual nature of this line is shocking and represents how Sassoon pictures the generals view of the loss of millions of boys. A whole generation has been lost or affected so badly by the war and the majors would toddle safely home to bed where they could die. The word toddle is very visual and humourously conveys the generals waddling back to England as they are so fat. It also shows their child-like nature and their frivolity. The bitterness that Sassoon feels is clearly evident in this poem. In contrast, The General mentions nothing of the idea of youth but concentrates more on the inept nature of The General. These poems are very different to the nature of those by Rupert Brooke, a young soldier who was killed at the beginning of the war and had experienced little fighting. The first stanza of his poem Peace he describes how wonderful it is that he is alive at this time and he can fight for his country Now God be thanked Who has matched us with his hour He also describes going to war as swimmers into cleanness leaping, very different to the dirty and horrific conditions that Owen describes. Owen and Sassoon differ very greatly in the structure of their poems Owen tends to write longer, more detailed poetry whereas Sassoon writes short and succinct poems. Anthem for Doomed Youth is a sonnet which is traditional style of poetry but the themes that Owen deals with are very modern, contrasting with the style that he has chosen to use. However, the rhyme scheme of a sonnet does not always remain true to its traditional form such as in the last stanza of Anthem for Doomed Youth where it is e.f.f.e.g.g. The rhyme scheme of Sassoons poetry is very simple and direct, which reflects the nature of his poems. He generally uses alternate rhyme, except the last lines where he uses a rhyming couplet such as in Base Details dead and bed. In The General the last three lines have the same rhyme Jack, pack and attack. The rhyming couplet gives emphasis to the end of the poem. Sassoons poetry is short, pithy and succinct, conveying one or several points in maybe two or three short stanzas such as The General, which is only seven lines long compared to Owens poetry which is usually longer. The style of Sassoon is more colloquial, using soldiers slang such as Hes a cheery old card, grunted Harry to Jack. and tends to be more vitriolic such as And speed glum heroes up the line to death. Conversely, Owen uses descriptive and elaborate words that convey the atmosphere and images that the poems evoke, such as his unforgettable and shocking description of the dead man in the third stanza of Dulce et Decorum est. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon present different aspects of World War One Owen, the conditions and horrific deaths of the ordinary soldiers in contrast to Sassoons pointed and bitter attack against the majors. They do this in very different ways and despite Sassoons influence on Owen, their styles are extremely contrasting but no less effective. Their poetry helped mark a radical change in the way war poetry was written and it is their presentation of their themes that effected this shift.

preparation of isopentyl acetate :: essays research papers

INTRODUCTION Isopentyl acetate, "banana oil", is a naturally occurring compound that possesses a distinctive odor. It is found in bananas, as well as many other organisms. This experiment attempts to produce isopentyl acetate by heating under reflux, which involves heating the mixture in a flask with a condenser placed vertically in the neck since any escaping vapours condense and run back into the flask, by combining isopentyl alcohol with acetic acid and an acid catalyst. The product was isolated using a combination of techniques -- acid-base extraction, drying, and distillation -- and was characterized by its boiling temperature and its refractive index. Esterification is a condensation reaction where two molecules are joined together to form a larger molecule with the simultaneous loss of water. This ester in this experiment is isopentyl acetate formed from acetic acid and isopentyl alcohol. The reaction is catalyzed by hydrochloric acid, a Fisher esterification process, (McMurry, p780-781) but the catalyst affects only the rate of reaction, and not the extent of reaction. The desired product accumulates only if the equilibrium constant is favorable. As it happens, the equilibrium constant for this reaction is rather small (~4) (comparing bond energies in the reactants and products will tip you off as to why the equilibrium constant is so small). Therefore, simply mixing equal amounts of the starting materials will convert only about 67% of the starting material into product. To drive the equilibrium forward Le Chatelier's principle is used, in this case there are two ways to adjust reagent concentrations to force isopentyl alcohol to become isopentyl acetate. One way is to remove product as it forms. The other way is to use a large excess of acetic acid. This experiment is based on the latter approach, but it raises two issues. We can use excess acetic acid only if acetic acid is cheap, and if unreacted acetic acid can be removed easily from the product mixture (Organic chemistry lab. Manual, p32). In this lab had to use acid- base extraction process. Since isopentyl acetate is soluble in diethyl ether, but acetic acid is soluble in both solvents. Therefore, a simple extraction procedure would remove only some of the acetic acid from isopentyl acetate, but it would not completely separate the two compounds. An acid-base extraction improves on the simple two-solvent extraction scheme by using acid-base reactions to change acetic acid into another compound with different solubility behavior. Hence, we convert acetic acid into, sodium acetate, and obtain a compound that is soluble in water, but not in diethyl ether.

Practice IA IB History

This investigation evaluates whether or not the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary to make Japan surrender unconditionally. To assess the extent to which the deployment of nuclear weapons affected the Japanese decision to surrender unconditionally and if Japan was already prepared to do this prior to the use of the atomic bombs. The details and motivations of the United States to drop the bombs are explored as well as Japan’s peace negotiations with the United States and their progress prior to the U. S. choosing to use the bombs. Actions of the United States and Japan not related to the end of World War 2 are not assessed in this investigation. The two sources selected for evaluation, Code-Name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan-And Why Truman Dropped the Bomb by Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar and Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire by Richard B. Frank are evaluated for their origins, purposes, limitations, and values. B. Summary of Evidence On the 15th of June 1944 535 ships landed 128,000 U. S. Army personal on the island of Saipan. From Saipan B-29 bombers were in range of Tokyo. Imperative that they not allow this to happen the Japanese Vice Admiral attacked the U. S. Navy with about nine-tenths of Japan’s fighting fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Once the battle concluded the U. S. had lost 130 planes and 76 aircrew. Japan lost 450 planes, three carriers’, and 445 aircrew. The Japanese Navy’s carrier force was effectively destroyed. The U. S. took control of the island a short time later. More than 29,000 Japanese soldiers died defending the island. (Hoyt 297-312) On the 23rd of October 1944 the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in world history began. With the goal of cutting Japan off from South East Asia and its oil supplies the U. S. Navy fought against the last remains of the Imperial Navy. By the battle’s end on October 26th Japan had lost 10,500 seamen, a fleet carrier, 3 light carriers, 3 battleships, 10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, and 500 planes. Japan’s once mighty Navy was no more. After this the Japanese were not able to carry out another significant Naval action for the remainder of the war. (Pape 123-168) Shortly afterwards the allies launched their invasion of the Philippines. On the 17th of April 1945 Mindanao, the last major island of the Philippines, was taken by the allies. In total 336,000 Japanese soldiers died defending The Philippines. (Hoyt 421-427) Within a few months of the fall of The Philippines Japan lost control of Burma and Borneo to the Allies. In total the Japanese military lost more than 41,000 soldiers defending the islands. After this the Japanese were effectively cut off from all of their major oil supplies. (Hoyt 437-449) With Japan’s foreign empire nearly decimated by the U. S. and its allies the U. S. turned to the Japanese Home Islands themselves. The Battle for the island of Iwo Jima ended on March 26th with total Japanese defeat. Of the approximately 21,000 Japanese defenders only 216 survived. On June 21st the Allies defeated Japan in the Battle of Okinawa (Feifer 145-163). 75,545 Japanese people lost their lives defending the island. This was to be the last major battle of World War Two. (Hoyt 478-487) While in Europe the USAAF had only used precision bombing to limit civilian casualties the Air Force abandoned this policy while bombing Japan. The first raid using low-flying B-29 bombers carrying incendiary bombs to drop on Tokyo was on the night of February 24-25 1945 when 174 B-29s destroyed around 1 square mile of the city. Changing their tactics, on the night of March 9-10, 1945, a wave of 300 American bombers struck Tokyo. In the ensuing firestorm more than 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed and roughly a million were injured. Dropping nearly 1,700 tons of bombs more than 16 square miles were completely burned and more than a quarter of million structures were destroyed. Before the dropping of the Atomic bombs more than 50% of Tokyo was completely destroyed. (Hoyt, 560-598) Nihei, a young Japanese school girl at the time, recalled that, â€Å"†Those images in my mind†¦ an never be erased†¦ I can see myself there, the flames all around me. And I'm running for my life. Hell could be no hotter. † By July about a quarter of all the houses in Japan had been destroyed, leaving more than 15 million Japanese civilians homeless. Its transportation system was near collapse with almost all the strategic railways destroyed. American forces had sowed aquatic mines in the shipping lanes f rom the air effectively stopping all Japanese naval movement. Food had become so scarce that most Japanese were subsisting on a sub-starvation diet. On Monday, August 6th, 1945 by executive order of President Harry S. Truman the U. S. dropped the nuclear weapon â€Å"Little Boy† on the city of Hiroshima. Truman said that, â€Å"The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. † 90,000 to 166,000 civilians were killed by the blast. Only 3 days later on August 9th the â€Å"Fat Man† nuclear weapon was detonated over Nagasaki. 60,000 to 80,000 civilians were killed. Gosling, Fehner 28) Yoshitaka Kawamoto, just thirteen years old at the time, was in a classroom less than a kilometer away from the hypocenter, â€Å"One of my classmates, I think his name is Fujimoto, he muttered something and pointed outside the window, saying, â€Å"A B-29 is coming. † He pointed outside with his finger. So I began to get up from my chair and asked him, â€Å"Where is it? † Looking in the direction that he was pointing towards, I got up on my feet, but I was not yet in an upright position when it happened. All I can remember was a pale lightening flash for two or three seconds. Then, I collapsed. I don’t know much time passed before I came to. It was awful, awful. The smoke was coming in from somewhere above the debris. Sandy dust was flying around. I was trapped under the debris and I was in terrible pain and that’s probably why I came to. I couldn’t move, not even an inch. Then, I heard about ten of my surviving classmates singing our school song. I remember that. I could hear sobs. Someone was calling his mother. But those who were still alive were singing the school song for as long as they could. I think I joined the chorus. We thought that someone would come and help us out. That’s why we were singing a school song so loud. But nobody came to help, and we stopped singing one by one. In the end, I was singing alone. † On August 9th the USSR entered the war invading Manchuria. With a force of nearly 1,700,000 soldiers the Soviets quickly claimed total victory driving the Japanese out and killing 20,000 to 80,000 Japanese soldiers and capturing about 650,000. (Glantz 54-72) On August 15th in a radio address to the nation Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan. (Pape 87) The largest war in the history of mankind was over. C. Evaluation of Sources Code-Name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan-And Why Truman Dropped the Bomb by Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar was published by Simon & Schuster in 1995. Allen is an American writer who went to college in Bridgeport, Conn. He worked for The New York Daily and then became part of the National Geographic Book Division. Most of his work deals with military history. His book is an excellent source of information because it is based upon hundr eds of sources, was written well after the events described so that more evidence is available, and is written by a fairly objective military historian who has less bias because he was not attached to the war. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire by Richard B. Frank was published by Penguin in 2001. Frank is an expert on World War 2 history. He specializes on the Pacific part of WWII. He fought in the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam. This could possibly make him more bias towards U. S. military actions but his book uses hundreds of reputable sources so that his opinion is less biased. His book is a very definitive and exhaustive account of Japanese defeat. It’s an excellent and useful source. D. Analysis â€Å"The fact is that as far as the Japanese militarists were concerned, the atomic bomb was just another weapon. The two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were icing on the cake, and did not do as much damage as the fire bombings of Japanese cities. The B-29 firebombing campaign had brought the destruction of 3,100,000 homes, leaving 15 million people homeless, and killing about a million of them. It was the ruthless firebombing, and Hirohito's realiz ation that if necessary the Allies would completely destroy Japan and kill every Japanese to achieve â€Å"unconditional surrender† that persuaded him to the decision to end the war. The atomic bomb is indeed a fearsome weapon, but it was not the cause of Japan's surrender, even though the myth persists even to this day. † Said by Edwin P. Hoyt in 1986. According to the UK embassy in Washington the Americans regarded the Japanese as â€Å"a nameless mass of vermin†. A 1944 opinion poll that asked what should be done with Japan found that 13% of the U. S. public was in favor of the extermination of all Japanese people: men, women, and children. Hixson 239) The dropping of the two bombs had little to do with defeating the defeated Japan. Even before World War 2 had ended the cold war began. Stalin and the Soviets had taken control of nearly all of Eastern Europe and made it clear that they weren’t going to leave. (Glantz 152-167) The Soviet Union had emerged World War 2 as a superpower and as the only legitimate challenger to American hegemony. Militaristic and organized with massive amounts of natural resources the Soviets under Stalin had proven that they were willing to expend unimaginable amounts of human life to win. Glantz 172-184) With this massive looming on the horizon the terrified United States had to demonstrate its military supremacy. Japan presented a unique opportunity for the U. S. to demonstrate its new destructive power to the Soviets and the Japanese people paid the price. The Japanese were already defeated and seeking peace. (Butow 111-121) â€Å"It is my opinion that the use of the barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender†¦. My own feeling is that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. † Chairman of the wartime Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William D. Leahy. Shortly after the conclusion of the war General Douglas MacArthur confirmed what many Military analysts and historians theorized by saying, â€Å"My staff was unanimous in believing that Japan was on the point of collapse and surrender. In 1963 President Eisenhower said, â€Å"The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing †¦ I hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon. † E. Conclusion While the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki certainly contributed to the Japanese becoming even more desperately willing to unconditionally surrender the atomic bombs, despite their unimaginable destructive power, were just another weapon the Japanese had to endure. More than a million Japanese people had been killed by bombing raids. In reality the entrance of the Soviet Union into the war and their invasion of Japanese controlled Manchuria more likely contributed to Japan being more willing to unconditionally surrender. Japan had controlled Manchuria far longer than any pacific island the U. S. fought on and had more than 1,200,000 men there. Their total defeat in a very short amount of time made Japan realize that they no longer were able to defend themselves. In conclusion to use the words of General Curtis LeMay, â€Å"The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war. † â€Å"We are the inheritors to the mantle of Genghis Khan,† wrote New York Times editorial writer Hanson Baldwin, â€Å"and of all those in history who have justified the use of utter ruthlessness in war. † The dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was in no way militarily justified. The use of the atomic bombs was an act of brutality the likes of which this world has never seen and for the continued survival of the human race I hope never has to see again.