Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Japanese and the American had begun their rivalry long before the bomb, over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days after the previous bomb, were dropped. The complicated story of Japan and The United States was started by the Japanese and eventually ended when the bomb has detonated.
On Dec 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that is located in Hawaii. That moment later drew The United States to World War II. The attack resulted in more than 2,000 deaths. A year later after that, Enrico Fermi – a physicist at the University of Chicago – completed his experiment of building the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in part of an atomic program conducted by American scientists called the Manhattan Project. (Regencia, 2015)
Over the next several years, a part of the Manhattan Project team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer attempted to construct all of the materials that have been researched in Los Alamos, New Mexico into a workable atomic bomb. After it has been assembled, on July 16, 1945, Manhattan Project convened a successful trial of a plutonium bomb at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico. (HISTORY Editors, 2009)
After several days after the Trinity test, the United States, Britain, and China demanded the immediate and unconditional surrender of Japan on July 26, 1945, called the Postdam Declaration. However, the letter was rejected by Japan. Later, to bring the war to a quick end, America’s president Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb over Japan.
On August 6, 1945, a month after the arrival of the Postdam Declaration, the United States aircraft Enola Gay dropped a bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” over Hiroshima at 8:15 AM. The explosion killed 70,000 people immediately and the total death toll accelerated to 140,000 by December 1945. The radiation released from the explosion also damaged Japan by following sickness and cancer resulted from the bombing.
"The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things - human and animal - were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure set up by the blast," Tokyo radio explained in the aftermath of the explosion, according to a report by The Guardian in August 1945. (Al Jazeera Media Network, 2019)
After the disaster in Hiroshima already happened, the Japanese stood on their ground not wanting to surrender to the war. Seeing the situation, three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the American set a strategy to detonate another bomb on Kokura. However, with certain difficulties to struck, the city of Nagasaki was chosen instead. The bomb nicknamed “Fat Man” was dropped on the targetted city on August 9, 1945, instantly killed at least 40,000 people. (NPR, 2005)
Finally, after the catastrophe, on August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender and was formally signed on September 2 which almost brought World War II to an end.
The power of the atomic bomb was tragically unfortunate for the Japanese. Thousands of living were gone all of a sudden. Nowadays, a nuclear weapon such as the atomic bomb has its regualations due to the danger it causes both the civilians, soldiers, and other living things and the deadly radiation aftermath.
Bibliography
Al Jazeera Media Network. (2019, August 7). Hiroshima atomic bomb: The US nuclear attack that changed history. Retrieved from Al Jazeera Media Network: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/hiroshima-atomic-bomb-nuclear-attack-changed-history-190806100602771.html
HISTORY Editors. (2009, November 18). Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Retrieved from History: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
NPR. (2005, August 5). NPR. Retrieved from Timeline: The Road to Hiroshima: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4785786
Regencia, T. (2015, August 5). Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Timeline to disaster. Retrieved from Al Jazeera Media Network: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2015/08/hiroshima-nagasaki-timeline-disaster-150805094934812.html
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