Hiroshima Bombing Dbq

There are “two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons in history” the US armed forces, in the final stages of World War II. The officially declared goal was to speed up the surrendering of Japan, although this was meant to stop the war as soon possible, with shedding as little blood as possible, still, many innocent people were killed, and this started the arms race between the US and USSR. The Hiroshima bombing affected lives of thousands and thousands of people, both in Japan and the States, which caused Americans to question whether this decision was the right one or not.
Truman ordered the atomic bombing on August 3, but due to the cloudiness over the target there was a delay. On the morning of August 6, 1945 an American

bomber B-29 “Enola Gay”, named after Enola Gay Haggard, a crew commander Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy ” on the Japanese city Hiroshima at 8:15, at an altitude of more than 9 km. The explosion was equivalent to 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, occurred 45 seconds after reset. People close to the epicenter of the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned into dust. The birds flying by were burned in the air, and flammable materials such as paper, ignited at a distance of 2 km from the epicenter.
According to Akiko Takakura, one of the few survivors who was at a distance of 300 meters from the epicenter at the time of the explosion: “Well, it was like a white magnesium flash. I lost consciousness right after or almost at the same time I saw the flash. When I regained consciousness, I found myself in the dark. I heard my friends, Ms. Asami, crying for her mother. Soon after, I found out that we actually had been attacked.” Interviews like this, as well as photos such as the one provided in the essay, were the ones that really made people all over the world question the use of atomic bombs.
Three days later, on August 9, 1945, atomic bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki.
In 1945, Nagasaki was located in two valleys, which flowed two rivers. The total area was 90 square kilometers, 12 square kilometers of the city were residential buildings.
During the Second World War, the city acquired particular importance as an industrial center, which focused on steel industry and Mitsubishi torpedo production of Mitsubishi-Urakami.

The city produced guns, ships and other military equipment.
Nagasaki has not been exposed to large-scale bombing prior to the explosion of the atomic bomb, but on August 1, 1945 a few incendiary bombs were dropped, damaging the south-western part of the city.
The main target of the US atomic bomb was the city of Kokura, Nagasaki was the second plan. On August 9, the American bomber B-29, under the command of Major Charles Sweeney,“took off from Tinian Island”. In contrast to the first bombing, the second one faced numerous technical problems. Before the take off, there was fuel pump problem detected in one of the fuel tanks, and still, the crew decided to conduct the flight as planned. However, after the team saw that the city had 70% cloudiness, which does not allow for bombing, the B-29 headed for Nagasaki.
When the two B-29s were visible to the air defense of Japan, the Japanese took them for their own and did not announce an alarm.
The B-29 arrived at Nagasaki,and as it turned out, it was also covered with clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved to drop the bomb at the target, even with much less

precision.
The explosion occurred at 11:02 am, at a height of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.
The bomb exploded in between the two main objectives in Nagasaki, steel making and cannon industries in the south and the Mitsubishi torpedo factory Mitsubishi-Urakami to the north.

If the bomb was dropped onto the south, between the business and residential districts, the damage would have been much stronger.
In general, although the power of the atomic blast in Nagasaki was more than in Hiroshima, the devastating effect of the explosion was smaller. It was caused by a combination of factors - the presence of hills in Nagasaki, as well as the fact that the epicenter of the explosion was above the industrial zone - all this helped protect some areas of the city from the effects of the explosion.
Even though the damage wasn't as big as the previous bombing, there were still many victims. One of the survivors, Sumiteru Taniguchi, says “every day I wondered when I would die. Every day I would scream, Kill me! Kill me!"
The nuclear explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of approximately 110 km², of which 22 is water and 84 were partially populated.
According to the report Nagasaki Prefecture, "the people and the animals were killed almost instantly" at a distance of 1 km from the epicenter. Almost all the houses in a radius of 2 km were destroyed.Of the 52,000 buildings in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed 5400 seriously damaged.Only 12% of the buildings remained

intact.
August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered. “Japan signed the unconditional surrender”, which formally ended the Second World War, on September 2, 1945.
This event still very relevant even today, with massive countries such as Russia, USA and North Korea and Syria ot being on the best terms, many people are concerned for their safety and the safety of the planet, because when thinking about the Nagasaki bombing, and making it on a much bigger scale, with much more advanced technologies, its terrifying to imagine the aftermath of such an event.
Many people were killed, and cities destroyed after United States dropped the two bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in order to bring an end to the second World War, and although it did prevent more potential deaths,many families did fall apart, and the atomic bombs left much radiation in the areas. I think the United States shouldn't have dropped the bombs on Japan. This event was heartbreaking, but having pictures and interviews of the survivors are a great resource to look at when there is political conflict, they should remind us that wars and bombings shouldn't be an option to any problem.