The Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki

Introduction

This happened in the second world war when the first atomic bomb was unleashed upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan.

It is important to remind you of the world war which spanned from 1939 to 1945. The European ally of Japan, which was chiefly Germany had recently surrendered to the western Europe and the United States. Japan as well were expected to sign peace treaty as offered by the United states. Defeat seems inevitable for Japan and in the wake of this, they increased their brutality towards their Asian counterpart, China.

The Manhattan Project

Even before the start of the second war, The United States of America had made movement to develop atomic weapons (maybe because Germany have started developing theirs). They had organized scientists in the related fields and are supervised by the military scientists and leaders. The aim is not to be caught off-guard by the development in atomic weapons from Germany.

In 1940, The U.S government ordered the productions of the nuclear weapons. The responsibility of carrying out the work was under the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the war development. The U.S Army Corps of Engineers were the supervisors of the project coded "Manhattan Project".

The raw materials needed for the project were Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239. These materials (elements) were made available within few years. A team led by J.Robert Oppenheimer in Mexico managed to turn these materials into workable atomic bombs. It was afterwards tested at the Trinity test site, Alamogordo, New Mexico.

"Little Boy and Fat Man"

After the defeat of Germany in the world war, it became inevitable that Japan would lose out on the battle and so they increased their brutality in the pacific. The allies demanded that japan surrender but they ignored the warning which threatened "prompt and utter destruction".

In order to minimize the number of U.S casualities, the U.S military decided to use atomic bombs on strategic places in Japan over the conventional bombing previously used. Besides this, the use of the atomic bomb would not only bring an end to the war more quickly, but also make sure U.S remains in position to determine the post-war fate.

Hiroshima is a manufacturing center with not less than 350,000 population, located some miles away from Tokyo. The 9,000 pounds Uranium-235 bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29 bomber which dropped the bomb over the city. The bomb known as "Little Boy" exploded about 2,000 feet above Hiroshima destroying 5 square miles of the city.

The Japanese leaders were unmoved by the Hiroshima bombing and so the U.S military selected Nagasaki, a secondary target because of heavy clouds over the primary target, the city of Kokura. The plutonium bomb known as "Fat man" which weighed 10,000 pounds was dropped over the city. The topography of the city limited the effect of the bomb to just 2.6 square miles.

The Bombing Effect

Due to the adverse effect of the bomb on the cities, the Japanese leader, Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender on the national broadcast news. This news sparked celebrations in U.S and the allied nations as "Victory in Japan" is celebrated.

The bombing wiped out entirely two cities of Japan's infrastructure. The amount of death tolls over the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains unknown although there are rumours of estimates of about 70,000 to 135,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000 to 80,000 people in Nagasaki were claimed to be dead from exposure to the bomb blasts and prolonged exposure to the radiation.

The radiation effect of the bomb were said to be felt over some more years in the area and surrounding area but all these are yet to be confirmed.