Bombing+of+Hiroshima

Page Done by Brady Trettenero Sources: History 12 Workbook by Jerry Falk Wikipedia.org [] []


 * What Exactly Happened?**

At 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945,a B-29 Bomber from the United States Army Air Forces, dropped the worlds first nuclear weapon "Little Boy" in Japan on the city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb over Nagasaki, Japan. At the time of its bombing, Hiroshima was a city of considerable industrial and military significance. It was a maj or Japanese city that would be a great target for bombing. It was the first atomic bomb used in warfare and it greatly impacted the Japanese.Hiroshima was a manufacturing center of some 350,000 people located about 500 miles from Tokyo it was was selected as the first target. After arriving at the U.S. base on the Pacific island of Tinian, the more than 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29 bomber christened Enola Gay(after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets). The plane dropped the bomb--known as "Little Boy"--by parachute at 8:15 in the morning, and it exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city.The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.
 * Why did the USA drop the Bomb? **

Japan was not going to surrender. If the USA invaded the Japanese mainland, they would have lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers. There we would have been stalemate occupation for years. The USA was peventing the death of their soldiers as well as the death of their civilians. The atomic bombs were used on Japan in order to force Japan to surrender unconditionally, without having to resort to a bloody invasion which would cost the lives of tens of thousands of Allied troops and millions of Japanese, military and civilian lives. The USA also wanted revenge for Pearl Harbour where they suffered 2,403 deaths and 20 ships being damaged. Saving allied lives was the top priority though. After the island hopping throughout the Pacific, it was clear that an invasion of the four main islands of Japan would be horrific. Japanese resistance would be beyond fierce. Allied causalities would be in the 100's of thousands at a minimum.The bomb was also dropped to keep the Soviet Union out of the Pacific and China.

It was also done to assist the prisoners of war who were in China,Manchuria, and Japan. Japan had a military force of over 9 million soldiers. Through battles like Midway, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Guadacanal, and other "island-hopping" battles, 1.5 million soldiers either were killed or wounded enough so they couldn't fight. That meant that if Operation Olympic (the invasion of the main island of Japan) were to occur America would have to fight every soldier they had defeated before four times over. Even if they hadn't of dropped the atomic bomb, Hiroshima and Nagasaki would still have been targets for attack. This is because Hiroshima was a large industrial city that contained the 2nd Japanese Army Headquarters, which was operating all the defense systems in Southern Japan; Hiroshima also had communication centers for armies, storage points, and troop assemblies. Small industrial plants were also in the outskirts of the city.

Japan would not put an end to the war. They had convinced every citizen to fight to the death using sticks, pitchforks and even rocks to keep away an invading force. Japan had attempted to take over the pacific, killing anyone who got in their way. They refused to surrender because they still believed that they could force better terms of surrender if they held out longer. They believed that they could kill over a million U.S. troops if the US attempted to invade the Japanese mainland. Estimates varied greatly depending on who ran the numbers. Nuclear devices had just been created that were capable of causing unimaginable damage to life and property. Imagine what would have happened back home if the citizens found out that the US had a device that could have stopped the war and the President didn't use it and instead almost a million troops were killed in an invasion attempt. It had cost a ton of money and would have been a huge waste not to use it.


 * Was it Justified?**

This is very debatable but for the most part they were justified. The Japanese had attacked Pearl harbour when the two countries were in peace negotiations. The Japanese deceived America and they had to do something in return. If there would have been a conventional invasion of the Japanese home islands they estimated that the US would have taken over 1 million casualties. There can't be the complaint that the US was morally wrong and the Japanese wasn't because the Japanese invaded China and participated in the Rape of Nanking where 300,000 Chinese civilians died and many small children were raped. WWII had gone on for many years, many people had died, and it looked like Japan would never surrender so the war would continue and more and more lives would be lost. This act can be seen as justified because they prevented excessive casualties and were getting revenge for Pearl Harbor. **What was the Significance?** Ending World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opened the door that led to the Cold War. These nuclear weapons gave way for the arms race that lasted for four decades between the United States and the U.S.S.R. Though no nuclear weapons have been detonated since, other countries have obtained them, and have threatened their use, in scenarios similar to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atom bomb raids were the end product of an entire new idea of physics - and they probably saved several million lives of both the Japanese and American. It was the first time the atomic bomb had ever been used and it showed how big of a superpower the US really was. The atomic bomb not only destroyed the city of Hiroshima, but also effected thousands of people and caused thousands of deaths immediately after the bombing. The people exposed to the high temperature of the heat waves and radiation experienced third and second-degree burns. The atomic bomb survivors were also impacted over a long period of time. People exposed to radiation after the bombing have been noted as having an excess risks of cancers. Atomic bomb survivors have been more frequently diagnosed with cases of cancers than those not exposed to radiation. Bomb survivors have frequently had cases of cancers such as stomach, lung, liver, colon, breast, ovarian, thyroid and skin cancers. Also sixty percent of bomb survivors have had keloids, or painful swellings of twisted flesh. Cases of leukemia occur more often in people who were exposed to radiation. Thousands suffered immensely from the bombing as it has deadly long-term effects. media type="youtube" key="NF4LQaWJRDg" height="315" width="420" align="right"

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