Majority of Americans Still Approve of 1945 A-Bomb Use
PRINCETON, N.J. — A majority of Americans continue to approve of the decision--made 50 years ago--to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to the Gallup Poll.
Most Americans feel that dropping the bombs saved American lives, but there is a mixed assessment of whether the bombs ultimately saved more Japanese lives than they cost.
A Gallup survey, conducted between Aug. 10 and Aug. 15, 1945, immediately after the bombings, found that 10% of Americans said they disapproved of the use of the bombs, while 85% approved.
When Gallup again asked the question on the 45th anniversary of the bombing, in 1990, about four out of 10 objected.
The most recent poll, conducted July 20-23 and based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,208 adults, 18 years and older, finds 35% disapprove, 59% approve. The sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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