Atomic Bomb Effects

Effects of the Atomic Bomb Ryan McNall Southern Vermont College

In our vast history of events, we have learned a lot about radiation. One event in time that had a big effect on what we know about radiation was when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. This attack started the nuclear warfare age and gave the world an idea of what radiation can do to your body if it is used in the wrong ways.
Before the attack on Japan, the United States learned of new developments in science that could change the age of modern warfare. The uranium atom was a major factor in the development of atomic bomb when German physicists learned it was possible to split them in half to produce bombs
of mass destruction. Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, were two scientists who knew of these new developments and its need to come to the United States. Albert Einstein expressed his feelings to President Roosevelt who was not interested at the time, but thought that it was something that could be possible in the near future (The Manhattan, n.d).
In 1941, the United States began a very secret operation called the Manhattan Project to produce an Atomic bomb. Arthur Compton and Harold Urey were two American physicists working on the project along with many other scientists across the country. J. Robert Oppenheimer was later named the head of the project at his laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico (The Manhattan, n.d). After a test was conducted to see what the bomb can do in July of 1945, President Truman felt this was the best choice to try and win the war against Japan and end WWII. On August 6, 1945, Harry Truman’s order to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima changed the life of many people forever. The United States put this attack on Japan because the United States wanted to force Japan to surrender, which would eventually end World War II (Atomic Bomb, n.d.). The bomb, codenamed “Little Boy” was dropped and as a result 80,000 people were killed. After the bombing occurred only ten percent of the doctors and about nine percent of nurses in Hiroshima lived which affected many people’s lives tremendously since there were not enough medical assistance to tend to the injured and deceased people (Atomic Bomb is, 2009).
I chose this topic because I remember seeing the effects of the radiation on people in the movie we watched on the first day of school. In the movie Fall Out, we saw that many people were affected by the bomb that dropped in Hiroshima where radiation caused a lot of deaths. I thought that this would be a good chance for me to learn more about what happened when the atomic bomb was dropped and about how this was a significant event in history teaching us about how radiation can affect people’s lives in many ways.
After the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the world would be affected forever as many people and generations have experienced many biological issues.
According to the article The Atomic Bomb, people who were very close to the bomb at the time of detonation, people who died instantly where left as black char on the ground because of the intense burns they got from the radiation (The Atomic, n.d). According to the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, most of diagnoses given to patients were also known as acute radiation syndrome. Someone who has acute radiation syndrome usually starts to see these effects between three hours to a few months after the explosion and exposure to a high dose of radiation. If the dose of radiation is low, the problem will become better over time however, on the other end of the spectrum if the dose of radiation is too high it can result in death in the two weeks following the attack. Most victims who died in the two weeks following the bomb explosion had severe abdominal damage and some also experienced bone marrow failure in the later end of those first two months (Acute, 2007). Some other problems people encountered after the bomb detonated included loss of hair, bleeding on different parts of the body, mouth and throat redness, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. In some cases, many people lost all of their hair depending on how bad the condition they were in. However, about two months after the bombing some people started to see their hair
grow back. (The Atomic Bombings, n,d).
As well as short term effects of the bomb, many people also experienced long term effects since the exposure to radiation was very intense and life changing.
According to the article Hiroshima Anniversary: What Actually Happened When the Atomic Bomb was dropped, people who had long term effects started to see those effects about a decade later. In 1956, cancer statistics increased tremendously which would later start a tumor registry done by Hiroshima and Nagasaki so they could take the data collected and learn how cancer can be a risk of a high dose of radiation. The article states that Leukemia would be the most fatal effect between two to eight years for many people and children. After the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation was formed to do studies on people who survived the attacks to see what kind of effects they encountered. Among the people who survived the atomic bomb in 1945, forty-six percent of the people who died were diagnosed with leukemia and another eleven percent of people died from other types of cancer between 1950 and 2000. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation found that the people who died from leukemia and cancer during this time were exposed to too much radiation from the bombs (Smith, 2014). Another long term effect that occurred after the attacks was the defects in future generation of the survivors. The most common birth defects in children after the attacks were anencephaly, cleft palate, cleft lip,
club foot, polydactyl and syndactyly (Birth, 2007).
After the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the world would change forever because of the biological effects of radiation from the bomb. Scientists took this event and collected data that would benefit the world so we can know how radiation can affect your body if too much dose is used. The most important thing taken from this event was that we took what we learned from the data collected and use this as the standard for radiation around the world. We can now use this in diagnostic x-ray so we do not over expose patients with radiation. We have learned that small amounts of radiation are better for us instead of getting a lot of radiation all in one shot which can be more harmful to the body (Popkin, 2015). The atomic bombs really set the stage for the world by teaching us about radiation protection to patients. Today we continue to use this strategy on a day to day basis so we can provide quality care and keep our patients safe at all times.

References
Acute radiation syndrome. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.rerf.jp/radefx/early_e/acute.html
Atomic Bomb | HISTORY. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history- of-ww2/atomic-bomb
Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/this-day- in-history/atomic-bomb-dropped-on-hiroshima
Birth defects among the children of atomic-bomb survivors (1948-1954). (2007). Retrieved from http://www.rerf.jp/radefx/genetics_e/birthdef.html
Popkin, G. (2015, August 5). Seventy Years Later, Atomic Bombs Still Influence Health Research. Retrieved October 3, 2015, from https://www.insidescience.org/content/seventy-years-later-atomic-bombs-still-influence-health-research/3086
Smith, L. (2014, August 5). Hiroshima Anniversary: What Actually Happened When the Atomic Bomb was Dropped? Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hiroshima-anniversary-what-actually-happened-when-atomic-bomb-was-dropped-1459894
The Atomic bomb. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-worldwar/ 5891
The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp22.shtml
The Manhattan Project. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp