Nuclear Bombs Little Boy and Fat Man Dropped in Japan

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Introduction
“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.

The City of Hiroshima
At first, four cities were chosen to be possible targets of the two atomic bombs: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Niigata and Kokura. Hiroshima was the first selected city due to its military and industrial values. It was an extremely important military center, having the 2nd Army Headquarters set inside.

Hiroshima is not only a significant military center but also a communication center. Being one of the major seaports in Southern Japan, many ships and boats come and leave everyday, making it to have a population more than 255,000. Its landscape also made it stand out to be the chosen city. It is surrounded by mountains meaning that it will increase the level of destruction making it a better potential target.

The City of Nagasaki
Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding city and a large military port. It had a lot of military industries including ships, military equipment and many other materials necessary for war.

Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki has been bombed several times before meaning that the casualty will be much fewer in Nagasaki. Kokura was chosen instead of Nagasaki for this reason, but due to the haze that morning, the plane flew to its second target. Even though, “Fat Man” was much larger than “Little Man” it still did less damage in Nagasaki due its terrain and how the civilians were prepared for bombings already.
The Manhattan Project
The M...

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...d not surrender quickly and the war will drag into a long-drawn-out time. It will force and lead to Truman’s alternative: invade Japan. This would not only increases the resources used, but also more importantly pushes the death count up by an extensive amount of number. The Japanese still had over 4 million troops and 4,800 kamikaze pilots for suicide bombings and missions. In addition, these figures show that the invasion will cost more lives than just dropping the atomic bombs. In addition, 1,700,000 – 4,000,000 American casualties, including 500,000 fatalities, and 5,000,000 – 10,000,000 fatalities were estimated to take the US to conquer the whole of Japan (Frank 1999). This is incredibly higher than the casualties caused by the two atomic bombs: 200,000.

Another major reason for dropping the two atomic bombs is that it showed everyone the horror of mankind.

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