Download Grade 9 / Quarter 3 Argumentative Writing Task LANGUAGE ARTS

Grade 9 / Quarter 3 Argumentative Writing Task
Authors: Beth Hess, Tara Lenhard
LANGUAGE ARTS
FLORIDA STANDARDS:
Quarter Focus Standards
W.1.1; W.1.2; W.1.3; R.I.3.7; R.I.3.8; R.I.3.9; RH.3.7; RH.3.8; RH.3.9
LDC TASK A9:
After reading from “Einstein’s Letter, “Pro and Con of Dropping the Bomb”, and “The
Decision to Drop the Bomb”, the bombing of Hiroshima, write an essay in which you
discuss the various perspectives and evaluate whether the United States was justified in
dropping the bomb. Be sure to acknowledge competing views.
To complete a 45-minute task, assign all anchor texts.
To complete a 90-minute task, assign all anchor texts plus all extension texts.
from The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb, The Einstein Word Count:
Letter
418
Overall Grade
http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/introduction.shtml
Level: 9+
Qualitative Text
Complexity:
Mid-High
Additional Information:
TEXTS
Anchor Text 1:
Anchor Text 2:
“Pro and Con of Dropping the Bomb”
http://old.seattletimes.com/special/trinity/supplement/procon.html
Extension Text 1:
“The Decision to Drop the Bomb”
http://www.ushistory.org/us/51g.asp
Extension Text 2:
[Insert title of text and author/publisher here.]
[Insert source information here (citation or URL).]
Word Count:
379
Overall Grade
Level: 9+
Qualitative Text
Complexity:
Mid-High
Word Count:
716
Overall Grade
Level: 10.7
Qualitative Text
Complexity:
Mid-High
Word Count:
Overall Grade
Level:
Qualitative Text
Complexity:
LDC PRODUCT:
Argumentation Essay; Evaluate
FSA RUBRIC:
[Insert either FSA ELA Informative/Explanatory Essay Rubric or FSA ELA Argumentation
Essay Rubric here.]
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[Student Documents]
After reading from “Einstein’s Letter, “Pro and Con of Dropping the Bomb”, and “The Decision to Drop the Bomb”,
the bombing of Hiroshima, write an essay in which you discuss the various perspectives and evaluate whether the
United States was justified in dropping the bomb. Be sure to acknowledge competing views.
Your essay must be based on ideas, concepts, and information from the passage set.
Manage your time carefully so that you can
• Read the passages;
• Plan your essay;
• Write your essay; and
• Revise and edit your essay.
Your written response should be in the form of a multi-paragraph essay. Remember to spend
time reading, planning, writing, revising and editing.
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Anchor Text 1
From “The Einstein Letter”
On October 11, 1939, Alexander Sachs, Wall Street economist and longtime friend and unofficial advisor to President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, met with the President to discuss a letter written by Albert Einstein the previous August.
Einstein had written to inform Roosevelt that recent research on chain reactions utilizing uranium made it probable that
large amounts of power could be produced by a chain reaction and that, by harnessing this power, the construction of
"extremely powerful bombs..." was conceivable. Einstein believed the German government was actively supporting
research in this area and urged the United States government to do likewise. Sachs read from a cover letter he had
prepared and briefed Roosevelt on the main points contained in Einstein's letter. Initially the President was
noncommittal and expressed concern over locating the necessary funds, but at a second meeting over breakfast the
next morning Roosevelt became convinced of the value of exploring atomic energy.
Einstein drafted his famous letter with the help of the Hungarian émigré physicist Leo Szilard, one of a number of
European scientists who had fled to the United States in the 1930s to escape Nazi and Fascist repression. Szilard was
among the most vocal of those advocating a program to develop bombs based on recent findings in nuclear physics and
chemistry. Those like Szilard and fellow Hungarian refugee physicists Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner regarded it as
their responsibility to alert Americans to the possibility that German scientists might win the race to build an atomic
bomb and to warn that Hitler would be more than willing to resort to such a weapon. But Roosevelt, preoccupied with
events in Europe, took over two months to meet with Sachs after receiving Einstein's letter. Szilard and his colleagues
interpreted Roosevelt's inaction as unwelcome evidence that the President did not take the threat of nuclear warfare
seriously.
Roosevelt wrote Einstein back on October 19, 1939, informing the physicist that he had setup a committee consisting of
Sachs and representatives from the Army and Navy to study uranium.2 Events proved that the President was a man of
considerable action once he had chosen a direction. In fact, Roosevelt's approval of uranium research in October 1939,
based on his belief that the United States could not take the risk of allowing Hitler to achieve unilateral possession of
"extremely powerful bombs," was merely the first decision among many that ultimately led to the establishment of the
only atomic bomb effort that succeeded in World War II-the Manhattan Project…
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Anchor Text 2
“Pro and Con on Dropping the Bomb”
by: Bill Deitrich
Seattle Times
Historians are still divided over whether it was necessary to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II. Here
is a summary of arguments on both sides:
Why the bomb was needed or justified:






The Japanese had demonstrated near-fanatical resistance, fighting to almost the last man on Pacific islands,
committing mass suicide on Saipan and unleashing kamikaze attacks at Okinawa. Fire bombing had killed
100,000 in Tokyo with no discernible political effect. Only the atomic bomb could jolt Japan's leadership to
surrender.
With only two bombs ready (and a third on the way by late August 1945) it was too risky to "waste" one in a
demonstration over an unpopulated area.
An invasion of Japan would have caused casualties on both sides that could easily have exceeded the toll at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The two targeted cities would have been firebombed anyway.
Immediate use of the bomb convinced the world of its horror and prevented future use when nuclear stockpiles
were far larger.
The bomb's use impressed the Soviet Union and halted the war quickly enough that the USSR did not demand
joint occupation of Japan.
Why the bomb was not needed, or unjustified:








Japan was ready to call it quits anyway. More than 60 of its cities had been destroyed by conventional bombing,
the home islands were being blockaded by the American Navy, and the Soviet Union entered the war by
attacking Japanese troops in Manchuria.
American refusal to modify its "unconditional surrender" demand to allow the Japanese to keep their emperor
needlessly prolonged Japan's resistance.
A demonstration explosion over Tokyo harbor would have convinced Japan's leaders to quit without killing many
people.
Even if Hiroshima was necessary, the U.S. did not give enough time for word to filter out of its devastation
before bombing Nagasaki.
The bomb was used partly to justify the $2 billion spent on its development.
The two cities were of limited military value. Civilians outnumbered troops in Hiroshima five or six to one.
Japanese lives were sacrificed simply for power politics between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Conventional firebombing would have caused as much significant damage without making the U.S. the first
nation to use nuclear weapons.
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Extension Text 1
The Decision to Drop the Bomb
from USHistory.org
Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Josef Stalin meet at the Potsdam Conference. They discussed the post-war order
and peace treaty issues.
America had the bomb. Now what?
When Harry Truman learned of the success of the Manhattan Project, he knew he was faced with a decision of
unprecedented gravity. The capacity to end the war with Japan was in his hands, but it would involve unleashing the
most terrible weapon ever known.
American soldiers and civilians were weary from four years of war, yet the Japanese military was refusing to give up
their fight. American forces occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima and were intensely fire bombing Japanese cities. But Japan
had an army of 2 million strong stationed in the home islands guarding against invasion.
A "mushroom" cloud rises over the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, following the detonation of "Fat Man." The
second atomic weapon used against Japan, this single bomb resulted in the deaths of 80,000 Japanese citizens.
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For Truman, the choice whether or not to use the atomic bomb was the most difficult decision of his life.
First, an Allied demand for an immediate unconditional surrender was made to the leadership in Japan. Although the
demand stated that refusal would result in total destruction, no mention of any new weapons of mass destruction was
made. The Japanese military command rejected the request for unconditional surrender, but there were indications that
a conditional surrender was possible.
Regardless, on August 6, 1945, a plane called the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Instantly,
70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized. In the months and years that followed, an additional 100,000 perished from
burns and radiation sickness.
AJ Software & Multimedia
This map shows the range of the destruction caused by the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima. Exploding directly over
a city of 320,000, the bomb vaporized over 70,000 people instantly and caused fires over two miles away.
Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki,
where 80,000 Japanese people perished.
On August 14, 1945, the Japanese surrendered.
Critics have charged that Truman's decision was a barbaric act that brought negative long-term consequences to the
United States. A new age of nuclear terror led to a dangerous arms race.
Some military analysts insist that Japan was on its knees and the bombings were simply unnecessary. The American
government was accused of racism on the grounds that such a device would never have been used against white
civilians.
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Other critics argued that American diplomats had ulterior motives. The Soviet Union had entered the war against Japan,
and the atomic bomb could be read as a strong message for the Soviets to tread lightly. In this respect, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki may have been the first shots of the Cold War as well as the final shots of World War II. Regardless, the United
States remains the only nation in the world to have used a nuclear weapon on another nation.
Truman stated that his decision to drop the bomb was purely military. A Normandy-type amphibious landing would have
cost an estimated million casualties. Truman believed that the bombs saved Japanese lives as well. Prolonging the war
was not an option for the President. Over 3,500 Japanese kamikaze raids had already wrought great destruction and loss
of American lives.
The President rejected a demonstration of the atomic bomb to the Japanese leadership. He knew there was no
guarantee the Japanese would surrender if the test succeeded, and he felt that a failed demonstration would be worse
than none at all. Even the scientific community failed to foresee the awful effects of radiation sickness. Truman saw little
difference between atomic bombing Hiroshima and fire bombing Dresden or Tokyo.
The ethical debate over the decision to drop the atomic bomb will never be resolved. The bombs did, however, bring an
end to the most destructive war in history. The Manhattan Project that produced it demonstrated the possibility of how
a nation's resources could be mobilized.
Pandora's box was now open. The question that came flying out was, "How will the world use its nuclear capability?" It is
a question still being addressed on a daily basis.
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