Victims lie with charred skin and ash filled lungs, missing limbs and deformed figures. Yet they consider themselves the lucky ones. On August 6th 1945 horror struck in Hiroshima and three days later Nagasaki suffered the same fate. Dropped by the US army, these nuclear weapons were the newest terror of World War II. The atomic bombs dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unjustified and their effects are inexcusable. Not only did the bombings kill hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, but they also set the nuclear arms race into motion. Maybe it would have been worth it to end the war, but these bombs did no such thing. Supporters of the bombing say the loss of Japanese lives was worth ending the war and saving thousands of allies’ …show more content…
Not only were hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed, but the few survivors are scarred for life both physically and mentally. “The immediate death toll of the two bombs [is] at 200,000 people” (Dahi). This shows the sheer scale of this catastrophe and that’s just the people who died. It is estimated that there were over one million casualties (Dahi). Only an estimate can be provided as the complete destruction assured it was impossible to find all the bodies and missing people. One survivor, Akihiro Takahashi, has missing ears, deformed fingers, and is weakened by chronic illness. A writer for the New York Times describes him as, “a living testimonial to the horrific results of the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima” (Takahashi). Takahashi, who was only 14 at the time, described how the bomb was unlike any other terror in war. He said when the bomb is dropped, “a fireball is created with a temperature of millions of degrees Celsius… followed by a wind that reached 440 meters per second.” He then went on to say, “I myself was blown 10 meters by the blast, and the wind caused [my] skin to peel off, eyes to pop out, and intestines to be blown out of [my] stomach.” The excruciating physical pain caused by this is hard to even imagine, let alone the mental scaring of
This demonstrates how it was mentally scarring for their people to experience. Students were at loss since they were too young to understand what to do in a case like this. The bombing of Nagasaki caused 39,000 deaths and left 25,000 injured. The historical narrative, Hiroshima as Victimization argues that
(Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The bomb killed eighty thousand people instantly. Radiation exposure killed tens of thousands more. The bomb destroyed ninety percent of one of Japan’s biggest cities in an instant. Therefore, the event that occurred at Hiroshima was a huge shock to the
To conclude, the bombs dropped saved the lives of Americans and Japanese people supporting making the necessary decision by the military to drop the atomic
In an attempt to get Japan to surrender to the Allies, in August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the nation. The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the second on Nagasaki. Although these bombs did contribute to Japan’s surrender and the end of the war, the use of this atomic weapon was an irrational and horrible decision. The United States should have abstained from using the two atomic bombs on Japan for the sake of civilian lives and possible alternatives to their decision. These bombs not only had detrimental effects on Japan, they also led to an arms race amongst several nations.
During WWII there were many deaths and terrible battles but the worst of all of them was America dropping the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This tactic of bombing a city was the wrong decision by America, it was completely barbaric and was an act of total war something no country should ever use. The main issues with this decision was that it wasn’t an attack on a military base like Pearl Harbor but it was an attack on a populated city and Japan was prepared to surrender because they knew America and the Allied Powers would win the war. The main argument others have is that the Atomic bomb saved lives by creating a fast end to the war so it wouldn’t be strung out resulting in more deaths on both sides but Japan was prepared to surrender
On August 6,1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki were attacked by atomic bombs that were dropped by the U.S Military. Over 200,000 people were killed. The United States used the bomb to end the war with Japan, which began in 1941 when Japan launched an unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. Many people believe that dropping the atomic bombs was the right thing to do because if they did not use it, there would be four more years of fighting and hundreds of thousands more US soldiers would have died because the Japanese refused to surrender.
The bombs caused so much damage that the cities bombed over 70 years ago are still recovering from the mass destruction today. For example, statistics show that 192,020 people died in Hiroshima, either instantly or over time because of
In addition to the bomb affecting their homes and cities, it affected their physical self as well. Document 9 states, “The three main types of physical effects associated with a nuclear explosion are : blast and shock, thermal radiation, and nuclear radiation; each have the potentiality for causing death and injury to exposed persons … among them, apart from genetic effects, are the formation of cataracts, life shortening, and leukemia.” Many life threatening situations can happen to a person if in contact with a nuclear bomb. Which shows how deadly a nuclear bomb is and how it should not be
WWII was close to an end with the Allied forces winning, however Japan would refuse to surrender to the U.S. That was when a new weapon at the time, an atomic bomb, was in the hands of the U.S and was experimented with. The bomb was launched at a city in Japan called Hiroshima and demolished it. This issue of new technology affected the people of Hiroshima by causing many deaths and everlasting destruction, similar to WWII. Document 2 states how the city’s rivers were filled with corpses of people desperately seeking water and destroyed buildings. The people of Japan were wondering how a single bomb could do that much damage considering a standard bomb used in war could never be that powerful.
As a result of Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, and the United States suffering the lives of nearly 1200 crewmen, afterward not responding to the attack immediately, we were bound to return soon enough recharged and ready for war. Merely 4 years later, the summer of 1945 as the conjuring of the bomb began, The United States finalized their combative weapon to defeat Japan entirely. This weapon became the most powerful yet, an atomic bomb that no country has ever anticipated. The atomic bombs “Little boy, and Fat man” destroyed, “wreckage of the city, in gutters, along the river banks, tangling tiles and tin roofing, charred trees”, without any doubt, “instantly, 70,000 Japanese citizens were
”(the annual observance of Hiroshima’s destruction)) The bomb also was a necessary to shorten the war. Yes, it did killed the civilians and there were a lot of casualties. But would it be worth to sacrifice men to invade Japan and have to fight and killed the whole population. These veterans were saved from the bomb and it relieved other soldiers that were wounded at Europe and now healed, were going to fight at the Pacific. (Suddenly, secretly, covertly–I rejoiced.
the bomb’s code name was “Little Boy”. Three days later, on August 9th, 1945, America dropped another bomb on Nagasaki with the code name “Fat Man”. As many as 200,000 deaths were caused by “Little Boy” alone and many people would die of radiation for years to come. The dropping of the Atom bomb on Hiroshima is an extremely debatable issue with no right or wrong answer. In this essay I will describe both sides to the argument then conclude using my final opinion on whether I am for or against the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima.
Not only did the bomb kill thousands of people, houses and buildings got burned down, causing so many to be poor and homeless. Before the U.S. dropped the bomb on the Japanese, Japanese was already losing in the war and was ready to surrender. In the document 2 it states, “The use of the barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender…” This text proves that the Japanese was already about to surrender.
This image shows how big of a threat and danger Japan is- it also shows how important it is to bring Japan down. The atomic bombs are justified because of Japan’s aggressions towards U.S. The United States’ use of atomic bombs on Japan is justifiable because it saved thousands of American lives; the Japanese were given fair warning, and their aggressions towards the U.S.
According to U.S. estimated, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the bomb, 140,000 were injured many more were made homeless as a result of the bomb and some of them were missing. A very dangerous radiation reached over 100,000 kilometers. In the blast, thousands of people died instantly. The city is completely destroyed, there are 90,000 buildings and 60,000 of them were completely destroyed by the explosion. In all, approximately 33% or ⅓ of Hiroshima is completely destroyed.