The tragedy of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been nearly wiped from American textbooks, as well as those in Japan, causing many people in the modern world to have little to no knowledge of the fact that nuclear warfare is not just an edgy science fiction fantasy- It was the reality of those who were unfortunate enough to be within the area of the explosions on August 6th and 9th, 1945. The statistics and testimonies given on the nuclear bombings should be more than enough to wipe the idea of the use of nuclear warfare off the list of options during times of conflict and turmoil.
In very recent news, there have been multiple threats of the use of nuclear weapons from multiple different countries. With these threats and concerns
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During World War II, the American army, as well as President Harry Truman decided that the conditional surrender of Japan was not enough to end the American-Japanese side of the war, and that if it were to end, the Japanese would have to surrender unconditionally. The Americans decided to use a recently invented super weapon, a nuclear bomb created using uranium-238. The uranium bomb was nicknamed “Little Boy” and was carried across the ocean by three American bomber planes. On August 6th, 1945, at 8:25 AM, the Little Boy dropped out of The Enola Gay, the American B-25 bomber that had carried the bomb, and exploded approximately 43 seconds later just over a small hospital in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9th, 1945, another American bomber plane had dropped the hydrogen powered nuclear bomb over the Japanese city of Nagasaki The blast had killed many people immediately, and left many others to perish from severe wounds, infection, famine, and acute radiation poisoning. Those that had survived the entire experience had to live with the emotional scars of having to watch their family, their friends, everything they had been familiar with, perish. The emotional toll that the bomb had taken on survivors was extremely heavy and was not often spoken of. In the documentary film, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,a man recalls what he had first seen after he had regained consciousness after being knocked unconscious by the blast that had come from the
For decades, Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States of America, will always be remembered as the man who took the decision to launch the atomic bomb in two cities of Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The president takes measure, which was a very important decision and any President would ever have to make. Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, is known for the decision to drop the bomb in Japan in August 1945.
Atomic Bomb The use of the atomic bombs on Japan was necessary for the revenge of the Americans. These bombs took years to make due to a problematic equation. The impact of the bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people and the radiation is still killing people today. People today still wonder why the bombs were dropped. If these bombs weren’t dropped on the Japanese the history of the world would have been changed forever. The Atomic bomb took 6 years to develop (1939-1945) for scientists to work on a equation to make the U-235 into a bomb. The most complicated process in this was trying to produce enough uranium to sustain a chain reaction. The bombs used on the cities cost about $2 billion to develop, this also making the U.S. wanting to use them against Japan. “Hiroshima was a major military target and we have spent 2 billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history- and won.” (3) The bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighted 4.5 tons and the bomb used on Nagasaki weighted 10 kilotons. On July 16, 1945, the first ever atomic bomb was tested in the Jamez Mountains in Northern New Mexico, code named “Gadget.” The single weapon ultimately dropped on Hiroshima, nicknamed “Little Boy,” produced the amount of approximately twenty- thousand tons of TNT, which is roughly seven times greater than all of the bombs dropped by all the allies on all of Germany in 1942. The first Japanese City bomb was Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. An American B-29 bomber, named Enola Gay, flown by the pilot Paul W. Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” uranium atomic bomb. Three days later a second bomb named ”Fat Boy,” made of plutonium was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. After being released, it took approximately one minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion, which was about 2,000 feet. The impact of the bombs on the cities and people was massive. Black rain containing large amounts of nuclear fallout fell as much as 30km from the original blast site. A mushroom cloud rose to twenty thousand feet in the air, and sixty percent of the city was destroyed. The shock wave and its reverse effect reached speeds close to those of the speed of sound. The wind generated by the bombs destroyed most of the houses and buildings within a 1.
“Little Boy” and “Fat Man”, the world’s first two nuclear bombs were dropped in two major cities in Japan: Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of August 1945. This “experiment” by the United States Government completely demolished the two cities, killing over 150,000 people instantly and nearly 50,000 people died from aftermath as well as radiation.
After Truman decided to bomb Japan, they had to plan it out. They first had to decide where to release the bomb. They ended up choosing Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan as their two locations. Hiroshima was a significant military city in the war. It confined two army headquarters and was Japan’s communication center (World War 2 Atomic Bomb 1). Hiroshima was also a huge industrial city and had not been bombed before so it would let Japan see the wrath of the United States (Koeller 1). The planning and actual event of the bombing went great. On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 in the morning the bomb was dropped. The bomb that landed in Hiroshima was called the “Little Boy” (World War 2 Atomic Bomb 2). The bomb ended up killing about 170,000 people. 70,000 people died the first day and 100,000 people died in the next few months due to the radioactivity of the bomb and burns fro...
The morning of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were like any other morning in Hiroshima, the air raid warnings went off at about 7am and ended at about 8am. With not a plane in site they got the all clear, at least that’s what was thought. America dropped one of the biggest atomic bombs made at the time right on Hiroshima, since the bomb the people and town of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have never been the same. After the bombing in Hiroshima the survivors had to go about their lives and move on from all the destruction brought upon them. Some survivors though, showed hatred and anti American feelings towards the situation because all the grief and devastation that had been done. While other survivors didn’t show that
“With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces”- President Truman. In the 1945, President Truman was faced with an atomic dilemma in the most destructive war that mankind has seen so far. His choices were to either bomb Japan or let more American soldiers die. He chose to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He chose the most likeable choice in America at the time. If I was able to tell President Truman one thing, it would be, drop the atomic bombs on Japan and end the four year war for America. Japan started the war on America with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America repaid the debt back to Japan many fold(top secret).
On August 6, 1945, the first bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Three days later on August 9, the second bomb hit Nagasaki. Whether the United States made a moral and ethical decision is still an ongoing debate. President Truman was faced with a difficult choice. The U.S. chose to adopt a stance that seemed to limit the amount of casualties in the war, by significantly shortening it with the use of atomic weapons. It was certainly a reasonable view for the USA to take, since they had suffered the loss of more than thousands of lives, both military and civilian. To the top rank of the US military the death toll was worth it to prevent the “many thousands of American troops that would have been killed in invading Japan.” This was a grave
How different would the world be if America had never dropped the bomb on Japan to end World War II? If America had simply offered Japan a way to surrender by simply threatening the use of the atomic bomb, would Japan have surrendered? The world will never know, however Leo Szilard, one of the scientists that created the atomic bomb, tried to make a plea for this to happen. A month before the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in WWII, Leo Szilard and 59 scientists stood up for what they believed in and tried to alter the thinking and decision that the President was making.
In today’s society many countries and even citizens of the United States question the U.S. government’s decision to get in involved in nuclear warfare. These people deemed it unnecessary and state that the U.S. is a hypocrite that preaches peace, but causes destruction and death. Before and during World War II the U.S. was presented with a difficult decision on whether or not to develop and use the atomic bomb.
Adrian Shocks Mrs. Daniels English 3B 1/23/14. Why Was the Bomb Dropped The United States dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was a decision with immense thought behind it. To this day, there are arguments that support both sides of the decision. In the end, dropping the bomb was the best option for the United States. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an abundance of options and dropping the bomb was the most appealing in all aspects.
Although nuclear technology can be used for good, it can also be used for destruction. One example of this was the bombing of 2 Japanese cities using the a...
The bombs had raised hell on earth for those few minutes and produced a tremendous amount of casualties. The way people had died was shocking...
The world’s conflict over nuclear weapons all began with President Truman’s decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was coming to a close but Japan would not surrender. So, on August 6, 1945, the bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. It was triggered by a gun mechanism where a small piece of uranium-235 was fired down a barrel into a larger piece. This caused an explosion of 15 kilotons, or 15,000 tons of TNT, killing 90,000 to 166,000 people. Surprisingly, Japan did not surrender, so on August 9, 1945, the bomb Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. It was triggered when shock waves from high explosives set off the plutonium-239 core. It caused an explosion of 20 kilotons, or 20,000 tons of TNT, and killed 60,000 to 80,000 people. This second attack really sent the message to Japan, and they finally surrendered on August 15, 1945. World War II was finally over, but the Cold War began with the reveal of the United States’ nuclear power. It is believed that dropping the bombs saved both Japanese and American lives by ending the w...
Hiroshima, the beautiful city of peace. On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, this beautiful city was doomed to be destroyed by the most powerful nuclear weapon ever used on humans. In just seconds, the bright skies and the shimmering rivers were all gone and were replaced with smoky, hot air and fire, a clear definition of hell. Thousands and thousands of men, women, and children were killed from the bomb, and even though the war has ended, the people of Hiroshima suffered for days, weeks, even years of diseases from the radiation of the atomic bomb. Even people who didn’t get infected from the radiation suffered from the trauma of that day, for the rest of their lives.
In 1945, when the Americans bombed Hiroshima, Japan, approximately 140,000 men and women were instantly killed by the effects of American nuclear defense. With such extreme brutality and force how many people must die for one to finally realize the strengths of nuclear bombs and what damage they can cause. Nuclear weapons should be outlawed because they kill thousands of innocent humans at a time, destroy the environment, and inviolate human’s right to moral and personal freedoms.