Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

8/3/2019 Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

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Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

On Monday, August 6th 1945, the United States of America

destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the atomic bomb named

Little Boy, killing an estimated 150,000 people. Three days later on

August 9th, the second bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki,

killing another 80,000 civilians.

Americas involvement in World War II consisted of two main

conflicts. They and the Allied Powers fought Nazi Germany all over

Europe. These battles involved mostly ground infantry, involving

solders and tanks. These conflicts are much more publicized than the

Pacific War. The Pacific War was the war between the US and Japan,

the result of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7th,

1941. The war was named after the battlefield they fought on, the

Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. and the Japanese, referred to as the Japs by

Americans, fought over the vast ocean with mostly battleships,

submarines, and planes. The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force were the

most significant branches of the U.S. military. From 1941 until the day

the Atomic bomb was dropped, the strategy was very simple. The U.S.

landed on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, and then

attacked one island at a time, moving north to the heart of Japan,


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destroying cities with a variety of bombs.

In 1941 the earliest raid, the Doolittle raid, bombers took the

Japanese by surprise when they dropped bombs on five different cities,

the most important being Tokyo. This raid did not do very much

damage, killing only fifty and wounding four hundred.

Most of the bombing done by the U.S. Air Force occurred in the

last year before the atomic bombings. During this time, B-29

Superfortresses bombarded Japanese cities with incendiary bombs

filled with thermite, a mixture of metals that burns at 4,000 F. When

thermite burns, it creates its own oxygen, so it cannot be smothered. In one of the most

devastating raids, Operation Meetinghouse, thousands of thermite bombs were dropped

on Tokyo, a city build of wood. The result was 100,000 civilians killed in one night.

By the end of 1944, U.S. bombs were responsible for the deaths of 500,000 men,

women, and children. But even though the U.S. promised to continue the raids, the

Japanese still refused to surrender.

The Manhattan Project had been researching and refining atomic

weapons technology sense 1939. Directed by Major General Leslie

Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Manhattan Project was

originally incepted out of fear of a Nazi atomic bomb. Only now do we

know that the Nazis' atomic bomb development was a low priority to

Hitler. Ignorant of this information, the US invested heavily in the

Manhattan Project, resulting in the designing and development of the


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first atomic weapons in the world. As the Allied Powers defeated

Germany in May of 1945, the intent of the Manhattan Project shifted

towards using atomic force on the Japanese.

The two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were selected to be the

targets of the atomic bombs for various reasons. They were built in a

place were the explosions could do the most damage. The ground was

relatively flat, and there were no structures like mountains or hills that

would protect anyone from the force of the detonation. In terms of

location, the cities were in places unlikely to be defended by the

Japanese. If they shot down the plane and recovered the bomb, the

atomic bomb could be used against us. Both cities were big enough to

be worth bombing.

The U.S. had been offering surrender treaties to Japan throughout the duration of

the war. On July 26th, the U.S. presented the Potsdam Declaration. As one writer states,

[The Potsdam Declaration] was presented as an ultimatum and stated that without a

surrender, the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in the inevitable and complete

destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the

Japanese homeland They rejected. The purpose of the bombs was to bring Japan to its

knees, and leave it no other option than to surrender.

On the morning of Monday August 6 th, the B-29Enola Greypiloted by Paul

Tibbets dropped Little Boy above Hiroshima. The atomic explosion shattered the quiet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum


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morning. It sent a heat wave through the city, incinerating everything and everyone

within miles, killing 180,000 innocent people.

Three day later, the U.S. dropped another, this one named Fat Man. It killed

another 80,000 people.

On the 15th, the Japanese surrendered, later making it official by signing the

Instrument of Surrender on September 2nd, ending World War II.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Ch

oice_of_targets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan - Doolittle_Raid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_device
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Choice_of_targetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Choice_of_targetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan#Doolittle_Raidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_devicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Choice_of_targetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Choice_of_targetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan#Doolittle_Raidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_device

Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

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