Research paper: The First Atom Bomb Drop

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The First Atom Bomb Drop

The first atomic bomb drop took place on august 6 1945 at approximately 8.15 am on Hiroshima city in Japan. The bomb was dropped by a US B-29 bomber plane nicknamed Enola Gay after the mother of the pilot. The bomb killed 80,000 people immediately with many more dying due to poisoning by radiation (Pape 13). The dropping of the bomb occurred following the executive order from the US president at the time Harry Truman. This attack on Japan remains the only use of nuclear bombs in history.

Since 1942, over 100,000 scientists had been working on the development of the nuclear bomb. The bomb development was dubbed the Manhattan Project. At the time, the development of the atomic bomb was the biggest collective scientific work ever to be carried out. It involved 13 university laboratories, 37 installations across US, and a number of prominent participants such as Harold Urey and Arthur Holly Compton who were Nobel prizewinning physicists. Directed by the chief engineer in the army Brigadier General Leslie Groves, the project was the most secret project in history (Wainstock 34). Initially, the scientists involved in the project worked in isolation in various parts of the country, with each unaware of the size of the project that they were involved in. the project was later centralized and shifted to in isolated laboratory which was under the leadership of physicist Robert Oppenheimer in New Mexico. On July 16th 1945, the project was complete and scientists carried out a test of the bomb in a desert in New Mexico.

Reasons for the use of the atom bomb

There are a number of reasons why the US president at the time Harry Truman decided to use the atom bomb on Japan. The most important reason was to bring to an immediate end world war II that had been fought for a long time. Despite being defeated on numerous occasions, the Japanese refused to surrender (Wee and Robert 33). Although defeat to the Japanese was evident, and it was only a matter of when would they surrender, the Japanese themselves refused to believe in surrender and vowed to fight to the last man. American soldiers as well as civilians had grown weary of the war which had taken four years yet there was no hope of it ending soon with the Japanese been so resilient and resistant. American forces had occupied Iwo Jima and Okinawa and were strongly firebombing cities in Japan. However, Japan had 2 million military men stationed in the islands to guard against any invasion.

Before the use of the bomb, America and its allies made a demand to Japan for an immediate and unconditional surrender. They stated that refusal to surrender would lead to total destruction, although there was no mention of the atomic bomb. However, the Japanese military command refused to surrender. However, there were indications that Japan was ready to surrender under some conditions (Lawton 22). The refusal to surrender meant that the US and its allies had to continue warring with Japan. There were a number of options that could have been taken. One of them was a full scale invasion to Japan by the US forces. However, it was reasoned that this option would take long to end war as well as lead to a massive loss of life. To bring the war an end, the president commissioned the use of the bomb on Hiroshima. Despite the first bombing, Japan still did not surrender. It was after the second bombing on Nagasaki that Japan eventually gave in. this resulted to an end in the war.

Another reason as to why Truman decided to use the bomb on Japan was to demonstrate to the Soviet Union the military prowess of the United States. By august 1945, the relationship between the United and the Soviet Union had almost broken down. The Potsdam conference that was attended by the US president Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Russian leader Joseph Stalin did not yield any lasting solution to the stalemate that existed between the two countries. The meeting was marked by suspicion and recriminations between Soviets and Americans (Takaki 41). After the end of the meeting, it was evident that was hard for America and the Soviet Union to peacefully work together. The Soviet Union was also growing big in terms of their military power. It was becoming a concern to the US and Truman and his advisors felt that it was a matter of time before the Soviet Union challenged the US to war. In order to establish itself as a superpower, US decided to use Japan as a warning shot to the Soviet Union. This was to make Soviet Union to give up any ambition of challenging the US to war.

There was also no incentive to the US not to use the bomb. In 1940s, weapons were created in order to be used. By 1945, bombing of civilians was an established practice. The US had also already taken part in bombing Japan, where the firebombing campaign against Japan by the US that began in 1944 having already killed about 316,000 Japanese (Wee and Robert 61). The use of the atomic bomb was therefore just a continuation of the established bombing practice by the US. Truman also commissioned the use of the bomb to justify its cost. The Manhattan project cost about 2 billion dollars to be completed. To justify the cost, the bomb had to be used to good effect. The bombing of Japan provided an opportunity for Truman to demonstrate to the American people that the 2 billion dollars had been used to good effect.

The US was also motivated to bomb Japan as a response to the atrocities committed by the Japanese on the Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese in 1941. The attack was a surprise strike carried out by the imperial Japanese navy on the US naval base. This attack was intended to prevent the US against interfering with military actions carried out by Japan in Southeast Asia. The Pearl Harbor was attacked by 353 Japanese bombers, torpedo planes and fighter planes (Wainstock 42). In the attack, eight Navy battleships belonging to the United States were damaged, with four of them sunk. The attack also led to the damage of three destroyers, three cruisers, and an anti-aircraft training ship. One minelayer and 188 US aircrafts were also destroyed in the surprise attack. 2,403 Americans were killed in the attack while 1,178 were wounded. For the Japanese, their losses were light. The Japanese lost only 29 aircrafts and five submarines. They also had only 65 servicemen killed or wounded in the attack. The attack led to the entry of US into the World War II and the eventual use of the atomic bomb on Japan. Since the attack on Pearl Harbor was unprovoked, the US president felt justified to use the atomic bomb on the Japanese.

Destruction caused by the bombing

The bombing of Japan caused massive loss of life and property. After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, 80,000 people were instantly killed as a direct impact of the blast while 35,000 people were injured. 60,000 more people died in that year due to the effects of the bomb such radiation. On property, everything within one mile radius from ground zero was completely destroyed except for about 50 heavily reinforced concrete buildings. Most of these buildings were specially designed to resist earthquake shock (Lawton 72). However, the buildings had their interiors totally destroyed and all windows, sashes, frames and doors ripped out. Underground air raid shelters at ground zero had their roofs caved in after the explosion. Infrastructure in the city was destroyed. For instance, electric installations were completely damaged up to 5,500 feet. Homes were damaged up to a distance of 6,500 feet. All transportation services and utilities were disrupted for some time. However, these were replaced almost immediately in order to help in rescue missions. Water pipes suffered a massive damage. There were about 70,000 breaks in water pipes. The electric power transmission as well as distribution systems were severely damaged. The telephone system was also completely destroyed making hard for communication to take place (Wee and Robert 45). Companies in the city of Hiroshima were also destroyed. Generally, after the bomb blast, Hiroshima lay in ruins. The T-bridge barriers had been knocked down. Utility poles were destroyed while familiar landmarks that had given the city its identity were gone or unrecognizable. Many buildings, even the strong ones, suffered considerable damage. Some of them were gutted by fire, others pushed off from their foundations, while others were completely destroyed. Cemeteries were uprooted while churches become rubble in an instant.

There was also a lot of physical damage on survivors. Survivors in the blast sought relief from injuries they had suffered. However, over 90% of the medical personnel in the city had been killed or disabled. Medical supplies had also been destroyed. There was limited medical supply in the city which ran out quickly (Pape 61). This left many injured people unattended. As a result, many succumbed to their injuries. Many survivors also started to notice the impacts of the exposure to radiation from the bomb blast. The symptoms ranged from bleeding, nausea, and loss of hair.

After the bomb blast, there was rain. This rain carried radioactive materials to other regions leading to the bomb affecting more people than it was originally planned. The rain water ended up in rivers and other water bodies that were being used by people. As such, people suffered from diseases such as cancer (Takaki 89). The aftermath of the explosion was characterized by so many problems which included health, physical and psychological problems. People suffered from various physical and health problems because of the direct impact of the bomb or radiations that followed. Most of the survivors of the bomb were wounded physically and this made their lives to be hard. Most of them had to spend months in hospital because of the wounds sustained from the bomb blast. Since most of hospitals had been destroyed during the blast and most health workers killed, most of the survivors could not be given good medical care. The few remaining health workers who survived the bomb blast were unable to provide the needed medical care to patients since they were overwhelmed by the number of patients. This made some patients to succumb to their injuries since they could not get enough medical care that would allow them to heal from their wounds.

Other survivors were affected from the radiation from the bomb blast. Although some of the survivors did not sustain serious injuries, the prolonged exposure to radiation after the blast provided them with little chance of survival. Eventually, most of them developed complications such as cancer which killed them (Lawton 81). Psychologically, most of the survivors were negatively affected by the events of august 6. Most people developed psychological problems. Most of the survivors experienced nightmares at night due to the bomb blast while others were depressed. After the bomb blast, most survivors had to be referred to counselors to help them cope with the situation.

The public opinion after it had happened

After the bombing, there was varied public opinion which initiated debate that is still ongoing to this day. However, most of the American people supported the idea of dropping the bomb on Japan. A poll taken a few days after the bomb blast indicates that 85 percent of the American supported the idea of bombing Japan. However, the remaining percent were opposed to it saying that it was not a good thing. Majority of the American people also supported the idea of developing the atomic bomb (Takaki 92). However, the minority were opposed to it. The main reason as to why most American supported the idea of bombing Japan was because of ignorance. The American government had created a lot of propaganda ahead of the bombing and this made the American public to go along with the idea of bombing Japan. The American did not really understand the magnitude of the bomb. Another reason for the big support of the bombing of Japan was the Pearl Harbor events which were still fresh in people’s minds. Most of the American citizens had not forgotten what had happened earlier courtesy of the Japanese. Most of them viewed the Japanese as evil. They therefore saw the use of the atomic bomb on them as a good way to get back at them for the atrocities that they had committed at the Pearl Harbor.

However, despite the majority of the American people supporting the bombing, there were others who were not supportive of the idea. This group was made of the informed individuals who were privy to the information about the real impact of the bomb. These individuals felled that the US was at fault for using the atomic on Japan. They cited a number of reasons for their disapproval of the bombing (Pape 91). The first one was that Japan had almost surrendered. At the time of bombing, Japanese forces were almost depleted. There were plans to have one final invasion that would have pushed the Japanese to surrender. Other people felt that the Japanese were ready to negotiate for a conditional surrender and that America and her allies should have listened to Japan. Instead, President Truman did not even consider negotiating with the Japanese and just went ahead to order the use of the atomic bomb on them.

Although the impact of the bomb was not fully known to majority of the American people, some of them knew what had happened. They knew about the massive casualties that had been caused because of the bombing. They realized that the bombing had caused massive loss of life and this saddened them. Although it marked the end of the war, they felt that the use of the bomb on civilians was wrong and that American should have looked for other ways of dealing with Japan other than the use of the bomb (Wainstock 97). Others were fearful of the implications of the bombing saying that it did not have a good bearing on the relationship between nations and this would result to continued conflicts. Some of the American people also felt that America had failed morally by bombing Japan. Most American people felt that America occupied a higher moral ground as compared to other nations in terms of the atrocities that some nations such as Germany had committed. These American people could not therefore bring themselves to justify the massive killings of the Japanese people. As such they criticized the government for failing in its moral obligations by bombing.

Opinion today

As the truth about the effect of the bomb became known with time, people started questioning the morality of the action. This is especially in the context of human rights. Many people today feel that the bombing of Japan was a huge violation of human rights. This is because almost all of the people who died during the bombing were defenseless civilians who posed no threat to America. The effect of the bombing had also made many people to be opposed to the development of nuclear weapons in many countries. People point to the effect that the use of atomic bomb had on Japan to try to inform people on what is likely to happen should such a bomb be used today (Wainstock 103). However, there are some people who believe that bombing of Japan was necessary in order to save many American lives. For the Japanese, most of them feel that the events are of the past and most of them would like to focus on the present. They also blame Japan for taking part in the bombing by refusing to surrender when they had a chance. However, most of them do not approve of the actions of America although they do not have any hard feelings against America.

Conclusion

Generally, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to massive loss of lives and property. The aftermath of the bombing was also devastating because most of the people suffered from radiation. The main reason as to why America decided to bomb was because of the refusal by the Japanese to surrender unconditionally. This made President Truman to decide to use the atomic bomb to make the Japanese to surrender as well as bring to an end world war II. Although most people feel that the bombing of Japan was necessary to preserve American lives, others feel that such an action was unnecessary since the Japanese were ready to negotiate with America in order to surrender.

Works cited

Lawton, Clive. Hiroshima: The Story of the First Atom Bomb. London: Franklin Watts, 2008. Print.

Pape, Robert A. Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Ithaca [u.a.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1996. Print.

Takaki, Ronald T. Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1995. Print.

Wainstock, Dennis D. The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: August 1945. New York: Enigma Books, 2010. Print

Wee, Patricia H, and Robert J. Wee. World War Ii in Literature for Youth: A Guide and Resource Book. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2004. Print.