Even after the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8th, the war against Japan continued. The United States threatened to destroy Japan in the Potsdam declaration, but this threat was ignored by the Japanese. This prompted the use of the atom bomb. The first atom bomb was dropped on Heroshima on August 6. Three days later, another atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
On August 6, 1945, American plane dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion utterly destroyed more than half of the city. About 90,000 people were killed immediately; another 40,000 were injured, many of whom died in an agony from radiation sickness. Three days later, the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and killed 37,000 people and injured another 43,000. Together, the two bombs eventually killed an estimated 200,000 Japanese civilians.
The city of Hiroshima was the primary target. The city held at that time an estimated population of 300,000 to 400,000 people. According to the United Nations in 1976, the death toll of the 'Little Boy' had reached 140,000 people, give or take a couple tens of thousands of people. All buildings near Ground Zero were completely destroyed and anyone near four-kilometers of the explosion was killed and the deadly gamma radiation spread many miles out. The former economic house of Japan was left with bloody pools and rooting dead bodies.
World War II was a disastrous, worldwide conflict that affected all the corners of the earth. Even after VE day in Europe, the war continued for more than 3 months, until VJ day in mid-August of 1945. This war in Japan ended a short time after the atomic bombing of two cities in Japan. However, the decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima was a diplomatic measure calculated to intimidate the Soviet Union in the post Second World War era, rather than a strictly military measure designed to force Japan’s unconditional surrender. The US at the time of the bombing of Hiroshima was led by Harry S. Truman, who had been pushed into the position of leadership by the death of Roosevelt.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed millions of people, left families with nothing, and leveled cities. The war would have gone on for a couple more years if we had not dropped the bombs and sent troops to Japan instead. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified. This is one of the pros for the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of the pros for dropping the atom bombs is that the Japanese would have not surrendered.
About 90,000 people were killed immediately, and another 40,000 were injured (many of whom died from radiation sickness.) Three days later, a second atomic strike on the city of Nagasaki killed about 37,000 people and injured another 43,000. Together the two bombs killed an estimated 200,000 Japanese civilians. President Truman tried to defend his use of the atomic bomb, claiming that it "saved millions of lives" by bringing
Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. They left a death toll of 210,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People were in grief over
Controversy still exists about dropping the two atomic bombs on Japan. Killing 100,000 or more innocent people just to have an influence in war. The atomic bomb is considered the most powerful mass destructive weapon since the 1940’s. The Creation of the bomb took approximately 63 years ago. (Rodreyer, Smith) The creation of the bomb was considered by many scientists during the 1930’s and 1940’s.
It only took one nuclear bomb, in 1945, to kill approximately 100,000 people. This was the bomb at Hiroshima, Japan. Exposure to radiation or radiation sickness, was the main cause of deaths associated with this bomb. Radiation sickness is primarily “a form of damage to organic tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation” (Radiation poisoning). The readers of “Hiroshima”, by John Hersey have learned this information, and other symptoms and effects of nuclear bombs as well.
The atomic bombs were dropped on the sixth and the ninth of August in the year 1945. The estimated death count of civilians from Hiroshima and Nagasaki shot up to a depressing number of 220,000. Six days after the bomb was dropped in Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers, which officially ended the Pacific War and therefore concluded World War II. In the book Hiroshima, John Hersey expounds the severity of a war, vindicating how combat brutally affects the lives of civilians. Throughout his heart-touching novel, Hiroshima, John Hersey clearly makes known through the text’s influential characters, disturbing plot, and detailed setting, that he was strongly against the decision to drop the bomb.