TOW#12: The Most Controversial Decision

Wilson D. Miscamble wrote the book The Most Controversial Decision after the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing in response to the revival of the worldwide controversy. So far, the book has simply recapped the entire development and decision making about the bombing to provide readers with a straightforward description of the events leading up to the bombing. Miscamble uses an extremely vast amount of renowned resources throughout the book; this is to demonstrate that there was an extensive amount of research done before the text was written. By providing multiple quotations for each page he allows the audience, intellectual adults interested in this controversy, to have faith in his credibility. Miscamble approaches the first section of the book with an unbiased tone, stating facts and integrating quotes without posing an agreement or disagreement with the decision of dropping atomic bombs in Japan. By maintaining an unbiased viewpoint he gains even more credibility with the audience. It is important in a research-based text to keep personal opinions form being incorporated into the piece because it eliminates the possibility of alienating the audience and leads to a more accurate description of what happened. It is through these educated and accurate portrayals of the events leading up to the dropping of the bombs that Miscamble achieves his purpose. Had he taken a biased and less factually based approach to the topic, the text about such a controversial topic would have been too controversial in and of itself leading it to be less impactful to the readers. Retelling such a huge topic must be strictly fact based, since he did this the audience is able to trust this text as a source of credible information providing a well-rounded view of the event. I am interested see how he uses this credibility to argue whether it was or was not a justifiable act, the next chapter is, “Necessary, But Was Is Right?” so I am assuming he will make an argument in this chapter.

Debris
URL: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/bombing.htm