The Atomic Bomb

The Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Boom!  On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. These bombs are ultimately what ended World War II by causing Japan to surrender.  Whether or not the bombs were necessary is an extremely controversial topic throughout the world. The bombs caused mass destruction and had a horrible aftermath. Although people have their own opinions on whether or not the bombs were a necessary tactic, Japan was very stubborn during WWII, and they would not have surrendered without the use of deadly force such as the atomic bomb. 

                The aftermath of the bombs can still be seen today in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Whether it’s the famous “atomic shadows” which look similar to painted outlines of people on the walls lining the city’s streets, or the areas still giving off low levels of radiation.  Although the bombs did have a horrible effect on Japan, they were not dropped for nothing. In order to understand the story, you need to see the full picture. It all started seventy seven years ago.  In the year 1939, Nazi Germany was becoming a threat to the entire world. throughout the 1930s Germany gained more and more power until they eventually started the Second World War. While invading Europe, the Nazis attacked Poland.  This one attack sparked a small flame that would eventually become the raging bon-fire known as World War II.

                   As Germany and Europe were involved in war with many other countries taking sides and joining in. America realized eventually the war would come to them.  Having realized this, some of the political figures of America devised an idea. One night a few of these people met at a place known as the Bohemian Grove, a location typically known as a mysterious and strange place where many presidents, celebrities, and influential people have been known to visit.  The idea was for a special research project. A project touching base on many different things ranging from new high energy weapons to time travel technology! This program would give America a leading edge when the war came to them. This program came to be known as “The Manhattan Project”(Manhattan Project: 1).

               The Manhattan Project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves.  The head physicist was J. Robert Oppenheimer. The project started out very small in 1939 but eventually grew to employ more than 130,000 people, and cost more than 2 billion dollars (about 26 billion in 2016 dollars).  Throughout the span of the project there were many eyewitness reports of strange events. There was a report in 1943 of a ship involved in something known as the Philadelphia experiment. This was an experiment conducted by the U.S. Military in which a ship called the U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort USS Eldridge was claimed to have been rendered invisible to enemy devices.  Some believe the entire story is a hoax because the military claims no such experiment was ever conducted. However, those who do believe it was real claim it was linked to the Manhattan Project.

                When the bombs were dropped in 1945, the acting president was Harry S. Truman. (Harry Truman: 2)  Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8, 1884. From 1905 to 1911 Harry served in the Missouri National Guard and in 1917, when America entered WWI he helped organize the second regiment of the Missouri field artillery.  On June 28, 1919, Harry married Bess Wallace. They only had one child and the named her Mary Margaret, who was born on February 17, 1924. In 1922, Truman was elected to be one of three judges of the Jackson County Court, and in 1934 was elected to the United States senate.  Truman played a large role in passing many different laws such as the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and the Transportation Act of 1940. In July, 1944 Truman was elected to run as Vice President with Franklin D. Roosevelt. On January 20, 1945 he took the vice presidential oath and was sworn in.  However, only 82 days later President Roosevelt died unexpectedly on April 12, 1945. After Roosevelt’s death Truman was sworn in as the thirty third United States President. Truman is quoted as calling his first year in office “the year of decisions”. He oversaw the ending of the war in Europe, participated in a conference in Potsdam, Germany, did his part in defeating Germany, and played a massive role in defeating Japan.  After three more years, Truman did many things to prove he had the courage and the will to do what was necessary and in 1948 he won reelection. Truman retired in January, 1953 and died December 26, 1972 and his wife Bess died October 18, 1982. They are now buried beside each other in the Truman Library’s courtyard.

                            During the time between 1939 and 1945 Germany had grown very powerful.  During the war they had either convinced many countries they were the good guys, or they just attacked and took the countries over.  The Nazi Regime was Germany’s army during WWII. They were very powerfull and were one of the biggest threats to any of the countries fighting the massive war. The Nazis were ruled by a dictator named Adolf Hitler.  Hitler was born April 20th 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. Hitler remained an austrian citizen until 1932 when he moved to Germany and received citizenship. He took charge as leader of the Nazi party on June 29 1921 and led them until April 30th 1945 when he committed suicide in one of his bunkers .Adolf Hitler was revered as a god by thousands of people who followed him loyally.  Hitler hated anyone who did not have blue eyes and blonde hair and believed they deserved to die, which was kind of ironic considering he had black hair and brown eyes. He also believed the Germans were racially superior to all other races, and the Jews were inferior. Hitler led his massive army across the globe taking over country after country. He put Jews in concentration camps where they were beaten, malnourished, experimented on, and eventually killed in gas chambers.  Over six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime in a horrible event known as the Holocaust. Hitler’s “final solution” became known as the Holocaust.  The Holocaust came to life under the cover of World War II, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland. After Germany had finally been defeated and Hitler was dead the United States government allied with some of the German scientist who helped us create the atomic bombs and win the war in the first place. However, even though in the end, the German forces contributed to America’s victory, the war never would  have even started if they hadn’t attacked in Europe.

In July 1945, The Manhattan Project had successfully created and tested the first atomic bomb.  The test was conducted at the Alamogordo Air Base in New Mexico. The two bombs eventually dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both very different from each other.  The code names of the bombs were “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”. (Little Boy: 3) “Little Boy” was the first atomic bomb to ever be used in warfare. It was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at approximately 8:15 AM on August 6th 1945 instantly killing around 80,000 people with thousand more dying later from after effects such as radiation poisoning and cancer.  Hours earlier, America had called for Japan’s unconditional surrender, the request was soon after denied leading America to drop the first bomb.  After dropping the “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, America called for Japan’s surrender for the second time, and it was once again denied by the leaders of Japan.  Three days after the first bombing, another bomb was dropped. On August 9th 1945 “Fat Man” was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.  It instantly killed around 40,000 people and again killed thousands more later due to after effects.  Both bombs had similarities and differences. The “Little Boy” was a “gun type fission weapon”. This name comes from the explanation of how the weapon works.  It detonates when a gun barrel inside of the bomb fires a uranium projectile at a uranium target. This crushes the uranium in a “critical” state where it then becomes unstable and starts a chemical reaction leading to an explosion.  The “Little Boy” weighed over 9,700 lbs. with a length of 10 ft. and a diameter of 28 inches, the uranium fuel weighed over 140 lbs. the target weighed 85 lbs. and the projectile weighed 55 lbs. The “Fat Man” was an “implosion type” weapon.  In order for this bomb to detonate a softball-size plutonium core was surrounded by several thousand pounds of high-power explosives. Because of the design, when the explosives went off, the blast was directed inwards. This crushed the plutonium core into a “supercritical” state which lead to an explosion.  (Fat Man: 4) The “Fat Man” weighed over 10,800 lbs. with a length of 10 ft. 8 inches and a diameter of 60 inches. The plutonium core only weighed 13.6 lbs. and was more than 10 times the efficiency of the “Little Boy”.

In the end this war turned out to be completely pointless. Countries like Germany did manage to gain new land, but by the end of the war, millions of dollars had been spent, hours and hours of planning had been poured into strategizing, and  so many soldiers had died it was hardly worth the effort. World War II was the most widespread war this world has ever seen. More than 100 million people from over 30 different countries were directly involved in the war. The biggest participants in the war threw all of their economic, industrial and scientific capabilities into  winning World War II ,and almost all failed. Because of the massive amounts of resources they threw into the war, many countries were left in poverty and distress after the war ended.

After the bombs had been detonated in both of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the aftermath proceeding the bombings actually ended up being more destructive and deadly than the actual explosions themselves.  When an atom bomb detonates it leaves behind massive amounts of radiation. In small amounts radiation is almost harmless, even bananas give off extremely low levels of radiation. However, radiation is a very powerful mutagen and when the human body comes in contact with large amounts of it genes will start to be disfigured and deformed which can lead to cancer, mutations in offspring, genetic abnormalities, and everything ranging from blindness to rotting skin.  Most people anywhere near the detonation site of the bomb were instantly incinerated. However, there were people who survived the blast because they happened to be in their basements or underground at the time of the explosion. These people were greatly affected by the massive amounts of radiation they were exposed to. this caused many of them to die mere weeks later from various types of cancer and other genetic diseases. These people were the lucky ones, people who were farther distances away from the blast were affected by enough radiation to mutate their genes, but not enough to instantly kill them or give them deadly diseases.  Instead their gene structure was mutated and they lived the rest of their lives with horrible deformities and abnormalities. Some of the people who were affected later went on to have children, the problem was, their children were being born with extra limbs or missing organs and many other genetic abnormalities caused by the mutated genes of their parents. There was of course the rare occasion where someone survived the blast and was only slightly affected by the radiation. A great example of this is a story about a man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi (Tsutomu Yamaguchi: 5). Mr Yamaguchi was a man born on March 16 1916 in Nagasaki, Japan.  During 1945 Tsutomu was a young man working for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. On August 6th 1945 Tsutomu was on a business trip in Hiroshima, at 8:15 when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, Tsutomu survived and fled back to his home city of Nagasaki. Upon his arrival back home he was shocked to find out he had walked away from the devastation in Hiroshima with nothing but minor burns. At 11 am. on August 9th 1945 Tsutomu was describing the blast in Hiroshima to his employer when the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Tsutomu was only 3 km from ground zero at the time of the explosion and still managed to survive again with minor injuries.  Tsutomu Yamaguchi went on to live till the age of 93 when on January 4th 2010 he died of stomach cancer. Although the cause of his cancer was thought to be the radiation from the explosions, he still managed to live another 65 years after the bombings until his death telling his story many times to many people across the globe.

While the Atomic bombs did cause much destruction and death they still ended the most devastating war this planet has seen in the last thousand years.  And while the bombs did create new problems they also helped us solve some. Today nuclear technologies help us guide rockets and missiles in combat, scientists are currently experimenting with nuclear energy to eventually harness it to power cities and towns, and without nuclear clocks your smartphone wouldn't even keep time properly.  And to this day the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare and it will hopefully remain that way for many years to come.

-Braden Schmidt 11-6-2019