HIROSHIMA &

NAGASAKI BOMBING

GROUP 8
The Atomic Bombing of Japan
On 6th August 1945 the Americans dropped
the world’s first atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, a military base.
Three days later they dropped another bomb
on Nagasaki, the planned landing point for
the US invasion of Japan.
On 10th August 1945, the day after the
bombing of Nagasaki, Japan surrendered.
Terror Bombing
Terror bombing was used by both sides during the
Second World War.
The tactic was first perfected by the Germans who
used it as a key part of their Blitzkrieg attacks in
both Europe & Russia/.Both the RAF & USAF
bombed Germany throughout the war.
The main aim of terror bombing was to destroy
key industrial and military centres and their
workers in the hope of destroying morale.
The Fire Bombing of Tokyo
The capture of Iwo Jima and
the total destruction of the
Japanese air force meant that
the USA could now bomb
every major Japanese city.
In May 1945, the USA
decided to firebomb the
capital city Tokyo.
It was hoped that the massive
civilian casualties would
break Japanese morale and
force them to surrender.
 Manhattan Project
Code name for the secret US
program to develop a nuclear
bomb during WWII
The idea came from Albert
Einstein’s 1939 letter to FDR in
which he suggested that an atomic
bomb could be built
In 1942, Enrico Fermi, a
physicist, successfully controlled
the first nuclear reaction in his
reactor.
The Manhattan Project
Based in Los Alamos, New Mexico
Led by nuclear physicist Robert
Oppenheimer
By July 1945, the team had developed 3
bombs
The first was tested successfully over the
New Mexico desert on July 6, 1945
 The Decision to Drop

Nazi Germany surrendered

unconditionally at 2:41 a.m.,
May 7, ending World War II
I n Europe. At midnight May
8, the guns stopped firing.
The Pacific war with Japan,
who was Germany's ally,
continued.

U. S. President Harry S.
Truman, English Prime
Minister Winston Churchill,
and Soviet Premier Joseph
Stalin met in Potsdam,
Germany between July 17
and August 2, 1945, to
discuss strategies to end
the war in the Pacific.
Bombing of Japan

The atomic bomb

named "Little Boy" was
dropped on Hiroshima
at 8:15 the morning of
August 6, 1945.
“Fat Man” was dropped
on Nagasaki three days
later on August 9, 1945.
“ My God, What Have We Done?” John Lewis,
Co-Pilot of the Enola Gay
 Enola Gay B – 29 Superfortress

Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese

city of Hiroshima. It was flown by Paul Tibbets on the right
Map Showing the Damage Done to
Hiroshima

The centre of
the explosion
was hotter than
the surface of
the sun!
Photo of atomic bomb exploding over
Nagasaki (9 August 1945)

Burnt remains of the

victims of Nagasaki
Photograph of Hiroshima
After being released, it took about a minute for
Little Boy to reach the point of explosion. Little
Boy exploded at approximately 8:15 a.m. (Japan
Standard Time) when it reached an altitude of
2,000 ft above the building that is today called
the "A-Bomb Dome."

The July 24, 1995 issue of Newsweek writes:

"A bright light filled the plane," wrote Lt. Col. Paul
Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that
dropped the first atomic bomb. "We turned back to
look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that
awful cloud...boiling up, mushrooming." For a
moment, no one spoke. Then everyone was talking.
"Look at that! Look at that! Look at that!" exclaimed
the co-pilot, Robert Lewis, pounding on Tibbets's
shoulder. Lewis said he could taste atomic fission;
it tasted like lead. Then he turned away to write in
his journal. "My God," he asked himself, "what
have we done?"
(special report, "Hiroshima: August 6, 1945")
Blast
All wooden houses were destroyed within a radius
of two kilometers from the hypocenter. Even
concrete structures were crushed by the power of
the blast.
Windows were smashed at a distance of sixteen
kilometers.
Although the bomb Little Boy was ready
for use on August 2, 1945, bad weather
delayed dropping it over Japan.

At 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945,

a large portion of the city of Hiroshima
was destroyed when Little Boy was
dropped. Of a population of 256,000,
more than 70,000 people died
immediately. Approximately half of the city
had been levelled.
The picture above shows the devastating effect that the “Little Boy”
bomb had on just one small part of the city.
Comparing Effects of the Bomb to the 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami

In Japan
Survivors from Hiroshima

These victims are covered in

blisters created by radioactivity
Toll of Death

140,000 Killed in Hiroshima

(mostly civilians)
74,000 Killed in Nagasaki
(mostly civilians)
Casualties from the US bombing
of Japanese cities in 1945

140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
Killed
Fire Bombing of 140000
Tokyo
Hiroshima 100000
Nagasaki 81000
 Acute Effects

The most common acute disorders

were epilation; symptoms of
damage to mucous membranes
including diarrhea, dysentery,
melena and bleeding from gums;
and impeded blood-forming
functions.
The acute effects had largely
subsided by the end of December,
approximately five months after
the bombing.

Hair combed off of head in

3 strokes of a brush
Leukemia and Cancer
Cancers began to increase about 1960.

Some cancers for which a correspondence has been

confirmed between distance from the incidence are:
myeloma, ovarian cancer, urinary tract cancer, breast
cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, esophageal cancer,
stomach cancer.
Burn Victims
Birth Defects
Radiation harmed fetuses in various ways.
Some were stillborn.
Some children were born without obvious problems but had higher
mortality rates, even those who lived past infancy.
Development tended to be slower than that of other children.
Some were born with abnormally small heads, a condition known
as microcephaly.
Those who were exposed close to the hypocenter in early
pregnancy were likely to display microcephaly accompanied by
severe mental retardation that renders them unable to manage
everyday life without assistance.
 Radiation
The defining characteristic of an
atomic bomb that distinguishes it
from any conventional bomb is
radiation.
Those exposed within about 1000
meters of the hypocenter
received life-threatening doses,
and most died within a few days.
Decades later, that radiation was
still producing harmful
aftereffects. Leukemia and other
cancers appeared over the course
of 2 to 20 years, and radiation
effects still threaten the health of
the survivors.
 Human Shadow Etched in Stone
A person sitting on the bank steps
waiting for it to open was
exposed to the flash from the
atomic bomb explosion.
Receiving the rays directly from
the front, the victim undoubtedly
died on the spot from massive
burns. The surface of the
surrounding stone steps was
turned whitish by the intense heat
rays. The place where the person
was sitting remained dark like a
shadow.
 Black Rain
Soon after the explosion, a giant
mushroom cloud billowed upward,
carrying dirt, dust, and other debris
high into the air. After the explosion,
soot generated by the conflagration
was carried by hot air high into the
sky. This dust and soot became
radioactive, mixed with water vapor
in the air, then fell back to earth in
what came to be called “black rain.”

The black rain contained radioactive

material. Fish died and floated to the
surface in the ponds and rivers where
this rain fell. Many of the people who
drank from wells in areas where the
black rain fell suffered from diarrhea
for three months.
Hiroshima Today
 Different Interpretations
To frighten the
Russians so that they
wouldn’t confront the
West.
A military weapon to end
the war quickly, save lives
and keep the Russians out
of the war.

Eastern Europe Why did the USA drop

The Atomic Bombs on
Japan?

To test the weapon on Revenge for Pearl

live human beings to Harbor and Japanese
see what affect it had. war crimes against Allied
prisoners of war
Websites and Sources
http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/atomic.htm
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/bomb.htm ;
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/small.htm Primary documents from the
Truman Library   http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/peacesite/indexE.html Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum:
  http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/na-bomb/museum/museume01.html Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum:
http://hnn.us/articles/190.html The trial of Harry Truman
http://www.dannen.com/decision/index.html Full text documents on the dropping of the atomic bomb
http://www.vw.cc.va.us/vwhansd/HIS122/Hiroshima.html Article by David Hansen on the decision to drop the bomb
http://sun.menloschool.org/~sportman/ethics/project/topics/hiroshima/index.html Student website that outlines the pro
and con of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/hiroshim.htm Argument against the dropping of the bomb by Bill Gordon, a
masters student at Wesleyan University
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557001_4/Harry_Truman.html Encarta entry on Harry Truman
http://www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/index.html The A-Bomb www museum
http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_mainpage.html Links to WWII sites
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2125.html Links to A-Bomb sites
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/ Documents and sites from The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
http://www.doug-long.com/marshall.htm General George Marshall's argument for dropping the bomb