Hiroshima Bombing Timeline
INTRODUCTION
At approximately 8.15am on 6 August 1945 a US B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing around 80,000 people. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, causing the deaths of 40,000 more. The dropping of the bombs, which occurred by executive order of US President Harry Truman, remains the only nuclear attack in history. In the months following the attack, roughly 100,000 more people died slow, horrendous deaths as a result of radiation poisoning.
Since 1942, more than 100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on the bomb’s development. At the time, it was the largest collective scientific effort ever undertaken. It involved 37 installations across the US, 13 university laboratories and a host of prestigious participants such as the Nobel prize winning physicists Arthur Holly Compton and Harold Urey. Directed by the Army 's chief engineer, Brigadier General Leslie R. …show more content…
Groves, the Manhattan Project was also the most secret wartime project in history. At first, scientists worked in isolation in different parts of the US, unaware of the magnitude of the project in which they were involved. Later, the project was centralized and moved to an isolated laboratory headed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Los Alamos, New Mexico. On 16 July 1945, scientists carried out the first trial of the bomb in the New Mexico desert. President Truman received news of the successful test whilst negotiating the post-war settlement in Europe at the Potsdam Conference.
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BOMBING
Even before the outbreak of war in 1939, a group of American scientists–many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe–became concerned with nuclear weapons research being conducted in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its own atomic weapons development program, which came under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the U.S. entry into World War II. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with spearheading the construction of the vast facilities necessary for the top-secret program, codenamed “The Manhattan Project ” (for the engineering corps’ Manhattan district).
Over the next several years, the program’s scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission–uranium-235 and plutonium (Pu-239). They sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a workable atomic bomb. Early on the morning of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project held its first successful test of an atomic device–a plutonium bomb–at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The ten-year preparatory period known as the commonwealth regime in the Philippines was rudely interrupted when the Japanese, looking for territories not only to accommodate their excess population but also their manufactured goods, started the war in the Pacific. Japanese naval bombers attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in December 1941. The United States declared war against Japan and the war in the Pacific was formally on.
Pearl Harbor One of the factors that led the Americans to acquire the Philippines was the belief that the colony would be a strategic importance to the United States. It was then thought that with the Philippines under the United States, no foreign power would dare to antagonize her. President Theodore Roosevelt expressed this vies in January 1906 when, in a letter to Major-General Leonard Wood, he declared that, “Japan had no immediate intention if moving against United States”. Yet, because of the rising power of Japan, he expressed his apprehension, a year later, to Elihei Root. “I am more concerned”, he said, “over the Japanese situation than almost any other”. On July 06 of the same year, he again wrote General Wood, then in command in the Philippines, directing him how to hold the Philippines in case of a Japanese attack. In view of what Roosevelt considered a Japanese menace, he wrote William H. Taft, Secretary of War, that he considered giving the Philippines immediate independence to avoid a Japanese attack. This idea was based on a supposition that the Philippines was, in a military point of view, a lialbility rather than an asset to the United States. Japan was expanding in surrounding areas. Manchuria was occupied in 1932. Five years later, China proper was invaded. In 1940, Japan occupied the French-Indo China and the following year the whole French colony was occupied. The Japanese menace was now too obvious to be ignored. With the Japanese troops concentrating in the Southeast Asia, Filipino an American leaders feared that the Philippines could be the next target of the Japanese expansion program. On July 26,1941, The Phlippine reserve and regular forces were incorporated into the United States Army under the command of General MacArthur. The combined forces were called the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE). At the same time, the United States, Great Britain, and Holland imposed economic sanctions in Japan. The United States, in particular, froze Japanese assets in the United States, therefore preventing Japan from using these assets to their advantage. Nevertheless, the United States exerted all efforts to come to a peaceful understanding with Japan. In September 1941, Japan, apparently to discus American-Japanese problems in a peaceful manner, sent Admiral Nomura to Washington. It was believed that Nomura would propose peace to the American officials in order to avert wars. It was while Nomura was presenting his government’s peace proposals to the Secretary of State Cordell Hull that the Japanese bombers surprised Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and sank the cream of the American Navy.The bombing occurred in the early morning of December 07, 1941, 07:44 am in Hawaiian time. The treacherous bombing of the Pearl Harbor drove the American people to frenzied anger. The American naval and military losses at Pearl Harbor amounted to 2,897 men. The tragedy struck deep into the hearts of the Americans. People gathered at the White House Washington waiting for President Roosevelt’s message to Congress. It was Monday, December08, 1941, Washington time. President Roosevelt declared war against Japan towards the end of his speech. Across the Atlantic, on December 08, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of England faced the House of Commons and declared to the world that Great Britain would declare war on Japan. The European war, which commenced in 1939, now expanded to become the Second World War.
The Japanese Offensive The general offensive plan of Japan was ot strike immediately at the rich Dutch and British possessions in the Southeast Asia, specially Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). To do this , the Japanese naval air forces had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in order to neutralize it, and then to attack the Philippines in order to cut the American’s lines of communications in the Pacific. The subjugation of the Philippines was a part of the general plan of conquering the rich countries in Southeast Asia so that their natural resources could be used to bolster up Japan’s war Machine. While Pearl Harbor was being attacked, Japanese bombers and naval guns were shelling Wake Island. The less than 400 American Marines fought back heroically but were smothered by the numerical superiority of the attacking enemy. Simultaneously, the enemy struck at Guam and Midway Island, which fell on the same day. In Southeast Asia, the Japanese advanced against Malaya on their way to capture Singapore. In the Philippines, four hours after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed several places in the Philippines simultaneously. Clark Field was bombed in the morning of December 08,1941 and American planes on the ground were destroyed. Air attacks were conducted against Davao, Baguio and Apparri on the same day.Nichols Field and Sangley Point suffered the same fate as Clark Field. To spare Manila, General MacArthur declared the city as an Open City on December 26,1941. Guns were withdrawn in the city in order to comply with the requirements of the international law regarding an open city. MacArthur’s headquarters at Intramuros was evacuated. But the Japanese did not respect the Manila as an Open City. Sending bombers in broad daylight over the city, the Japanese bombed Manila.
Proposed demonstration
In early May 1945, the Interim Committee was created by Stimson at the urging of leaders of the Manhattan Project and with the approval of Truman to advise on matters pertaining to nuclear energy. During the meetings on May 31 and June 1, scientist Ernest Lawrence had suggested giving the Japanese a non-combat demonstration.
The possibility of a demonstration was raised again in the Franck Report issued by physicist James Franck on June 11 and the Scientific Advisory Panel rejected his report on June 16, saying that "we can propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the war; we see no acceptable alternative to direct military use." Franck then took the report to Washington, D.C., where the Interim Committee met on June 21 to re-examine its earlier conclusions; but it reaffirmed that there was no alternative to the use of the bomb on a military target.
Like Compton, many U.S. officials and scientists argued that a demonstration would sacrifice the shock value of the atomic attack, and the Japanese could deny the atomic bomb was lethal, making the mission less likely to produce surrender. Allied prisoners of war might be moved to the demonstration site and be killed by the bomb. They also worried that the bomb might be a dud since the Trinity test was of a stationary device, not an air-dropped bomb. In addition, only two bombs would be available at the start of August, although more were in production, and they cost billions of dollars, so using one for a demonstration would be expensive.
Leaflets
B-29s dropping bombs. There are twelve circles with Japanese writing in them.
This type of leaflet was dropped on Japan, showing the names of 12 Japanese cities targeted for destruction by firebombing. The other side contained text saying "we cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked ..."
For several months, the U.S. had dropped more than 63 million leaflets across Japan warning civilians of air raids. Many Japanese cities suffered terrible damage from aerial bombings, some were as much as 97% destroyed. LeMay thought that this would increase the psychological impact of bombing, and reduce the stigma of area bombing cities. Even with the warnings, Japanese opposition to the war remained ineffective. In general, the Japanese regarded the leaflet messages as truthful, but anyone who was caught in possession of one was arrested. Leaflet texts were prepared by recent Japanese prisoners of war because they were thought to be the best choice "to appeal to their compatriots".
In preparation for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, U.S. military leaders decided against a demonstration bomb, and against a special leaflet warning, in both cases because of the uncertainty of a successful detonation, and the wish to maximize psychological shock. No warning was given to Hiroshima that a new and much more destructive bomb was going to be dropped. Various sources give conflicting information about when the last leaflets were dropped on Hiroshima prior to the atomic bomb. Robert Jay Lifton writes that it was July 27, and Theodore H. McNelly that it was July 3. The USAAF history notes eleven cities were targeted with leaflets on July 27, but Hiroshima was not one of them, and there were no leaflet sorties on July 30. Leaflet sorties were undertaken on August 1 and 4. It is very likely that Hiroshima was leafleted in late July or early August, as survivor accounts talk about a delivery of leaflets a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped. One such leaflet lists twelve cities targeted for firebombing: Otaru, Akita, Hachinohe, Fukushima, Urawa, Takayama, Iwakuni, Tottori, Imabari, Yawata, Miyakonojo, and Saga. Hiroshima was not listed.
Potsdam ultimatum
On July 26, Allied leaders issued the Potsdam Declaration outlining terms of surrender for Japan. It was presented as an ultimatum and stated that without a surrender, the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland". The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the communiqué. On July 28, Japanese papers reported that the declaration had been rejected by the Japanese government. That afternoon, Prime Minister Suzuki Kantarō declared at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was no more than a rehash (yakinaoshi) of the Cairo Declaration and that the government intended to ignore it (mokusatsu, "kill by silence"). The statement was taken by both Japanese and foreign papers as a clear rejection of the declaration. Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet reply to non-committal Japanese peace feelers, made no move to change the government position.
Under the 1943 Quebec Agreement with the United Kingdom, the United States had agreed that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without mutual consent. In June 1945 the head of the British Joint Staff Mission, Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, agreed that the use of nuclear weapons against Japan would be officially recorded as a decision of the Combined Policy Committee. At Potsdam, Truman agreed to a request from Winston Churchill that Britain be represented when the atomic bomb was dropped. William Penney and Group Captain Leonard Cheshire were sent to Tinian, but found that LeMay would not let them accompany the mission. All they could do was send a strongly worded signal back to Wilson.
The Bombing On the morning of 6 August 1945 an American B-29 bomber, the 'Enola Gay ', dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The bomb was dropped by parachute and exploded 580m (1,900ft) above the ground. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people were killed instantly. The heat from the bomb was so intense that some people simply vanished in the explosion. Many more died of the long-term effects of radiation sickness. The final death toll was calculated at 135,000. As well as residents of Hiroshima, the victims included Koreans who had been forced to come to Japan as labourers, and American prisoners-of-war who were imprisoned in Hiroshima.
The blast destroyed more than ten square kilometres (six square miles) of the city. And the intense heat of the explosion then created many fires, which consumed Hiroshima and lasted for three days, trapping and killing many of the survivors of the initial blast. Thousands of people were made homeless and fled the devastated
city.
Hiroshima was chosen because it had not been targeted during the US Air Force 's conventional bombing raids on Japan, and was therefore regarded as being a suitable place to test the effects of an atomic bomb. It was also an important military base. The Allies feared that any conventional attempt to invade the Japanese home islands would result in enormous casualties, and the bomb was seen as a way of bringing the war against Japan to a swift conclusion. In addition, it may also have been a way of demonstrating American military superiority over the Soviet Union. Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima in August 1945. The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered. Nagasaki was not America 's primary target. This was Kokura. The three potential targets for a second bomb were Kokura, Kyoto and Niigata. Nagasaki was only added to a list of potential targets when Kyoto was withdrawn (it had been the secondary target for a second bomb) because of its religious associations. The third potential target was Niigata - but this was withdrawn from the list as the distance to it was considered to be too great. Therefore, the Americans were left with just two targets - Kokura and Nagasaki.
Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding city and a large military port. But it was not a favoured target as it had been bombed five times in the previous twelve months and any damage caused by an atomic bomb would have been difficult to assess. Also, the way Nagasaki had grown as a port meant that the impact of a powerful bomb might be dissipated as the city had grown across hills and valleys. The city was also broken up with stretches of water. However, fate and the weather was to be Nagasaki 's undoing.
Whereas the 'Enola Gay ' had had a relatively uneventful journey to her target at Hiroshima, the same was not true for the plane picked to drop the next atomic bomb - 'Bockscar '. Both 'Bockscar ' and 'Enola Gay ' were B29 Superfortress bombers. The crew of 'Bockscar ' gathered for their takeoff at 03.40 hours, August 9th, at Tinian Island. The flight commander, Major Sweeney, found that one of the fuel pumps on the B29 was not working. 800 gallons of aviation fuel had to sit in its fuel tank - it could not be used for the engines but the plane had to carry its weight and get nothing in return from the fuel.
'Bockscar ' carried an atomic bomb that differed from 'Little Boy ' carried by 'Enola Gay ' for the Hiroshima bombing. 'Fat Man ' was not a gun-type bomb but used the implosion method; it had a circle of 64 detonators that would drive pieces of plutonium together into a supercritical mass. 'Little Boy ' had used Uranium 235. 'Fat Man ' weighed about 10,000 lbs and was 10 feet 8 inches long. It had the explosive capacity of about 20,000 tons of high explosives. By the time 'Bockscar ' got near to its primary target, Kokura, it became clear that the weather had saved the city. The city was covered by cloud. Sweeney made three runs over the city but could find not break. With lack of fuel an issue, he decided to move to his only other target - Nagasaki. Sweeney only had enough fuel for one run over the city and not enough to fly back to Tinian. He would have to land at Okinawa.
The weapons expert on 'Bockscar ' was Commander Ashworth. Sweeney had been ordered that only a visual run was allowed - not a run guided by radar. Ashworth told Sweeney that radar would have to be used if Nagasaki was covered in cloud - it was. Most of Sweeney 's bombing run was done using radar but at the last minute a break in the cloud was found by the bomb aimer. He targeted a race track and at 28,900 feet, 'Fat Man ' was dropped.
As Nagasaki had been targeted in the past, people in the city had become blasé when the air raid siren sounded. The same was true on August 9th. The irony was that Nagasaki was well served with good bomb shelters and far fewer people would have been killed or injured if the air raid sirens had been listened to. The surrounding hills had tunnels dug into them which would have been very effective for the people who could have reached them.
'Fat Man ' was a very effective bomb. Its blast was bigger than 'Little Boy 's ' but its impact was reduced by the natural topography of the city. Where the bomb blast hit at its peak, massive damage was done. An area about 2.3 miles by 1.9 miles was destroyed but other parts of the city were saved from the blast. Curiously, the city 's train service was not interrupted and the fire damage that followed Hiroshima did not occur in Nagasaki as many parts of the city were broken up by water. The fires simply could not cross these gaps and they burned out.
However, considerable damage was done to the city. The horrific injuries suffered at Hiroshima were also witnessed at Nagasaki. The city 's medical facilities were not totally destroyed by 'Fat Man ' as at Hiroshima - but nobody was capable of coping with those who were injured in the blast.
One survivor, Sadako Moriyama, had gone to a bomb shelter when the sirens sounded. After the bomb had gone off, she saw what she thought were two large lizards crawling into the shelter she was in, only to realise that they were human beings whose bodies had been shredded of their skin because of the bomb blast.
Death and injury in Nagasaki and the surrounding areas, depended on where people lived. Those who lived on the Koba hillside, just three and a half miles from ground zero, were protected from the blast by a mountain. People caught up in the blast came to Koba for help and Fujie Urata, who lived in Koba and had seen a large flash, could not believe what she was seeing. She described people with great sheets of skin hanging off of their bodies; grotesque swollen faces; torsos covered with large blisters.
As in Hiroshima, many in Nagasaki died after the immediate impact of the bomb had gone away from mysterious ailments which we now associate with radiation poisoning. No-one, understandably, knew what to do to help the victims of this newest of illnesses.
In 1953, a report by the US Strategic Bombing Survey put the number of deaths at 35,000, wounded at 60,000 and 5,000 missing. In 1960, the Japanese put the number of dead at Nagasaki at 20,000 and the number of wounded at 50,000. Later, the Nagasaki Prefectural Office put the figure for deaths alone at 87,000 with 70% of the city 's industrial zone destroyed.
PICTURES
Aftermath
Present Nagasaki and Hiroshima
REFERENCES http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki http://www.atomcentral.com/hiroshima-nagasaki.aspx http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/200708230009.html http://www.nucleardarkness.org/hiroshima/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652262.shtml http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/bombing_of_nagasaki.htm https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=hiroshima+and+nagasaki+bombing+facts&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=677&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=GteHVNGJDoLDmAX-54CYAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=present+condition+of+hiroshima+and+nagasaki&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=CF4URCxlSfZ4iM%253A%3BKWR5az0IutPW1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Facvoice.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F11%252Fscreen-shot-2013-11-18-at-1-56-04-pm.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Facvoice.com%252F2013%252F11%252F18%252Fhiroshima-and-nagasaki-a-lesson-in-surviving-trauma%252F%3B599%3B372 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1
Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombing…………………………………………………….....2 Pearl Harbor……………………………………………………………....3 The Japanese Offensive………………………………………………….4 Proposed demonstration…………………………………………………..5 Leaflets…………………………………………………………………….6 Potsdam ultimatum………………………………………………………..8 The Bombing………………………………………………………………9
The Bombing………………………………………………………………………………14
References………………………………………………………………………………..17
At approximately 8.15am on 6 August 1945 a US B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing around 80,000 people. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, causing the deaths of 40,000 more. The dropping of the bombs, which occurred by executive order of US President Harry Truman, remains the only nuclear attack in history. In the months following the attack, roughly 100,000 more people died slow, horrendous deaths as a result of radiation poisoning.
Since 1942, more than 100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on the bomb’s development. At the time, it was the largest collective scientific effort ever undertaken. It involved 37 installations across the US, 13 university laboratories and a host of prestigious participants such as the Nobel prize winning physicists Arthur Holly Compton and Harold Urey. Directed by the Army 's chief engineer, Brigadier General Leslie R. …show more content…
Groves, the Manhattan Project was also the most secret wartime project in history. At first, scientists worked in isolation in different parts of the US, unaware of the magnitude of the project in which they were involved. Later, the project was centralized and moved to an isolated laboratory headed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Los Alamos, New Mexico. On 16 July 1945, scientists carried out the first trial of the bomb in the New Mexico desert. President Truman received news of the successful test whilst negotiating the post-war settlement in Europe at the Potsdam Conference.
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BOMBING
Even before the outbreak of war in 1939, a group of American scientists–many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe–became concerned with nuclear weapons research being conducted in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its own atomic weapons development program, which came under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the U.S. entry into World War II. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with spearheading the construction of the vast facilities necessary for the top-secret program, codenamed “The Manhattan Project ” (for the engineering corps’ Manhattan district).
Over the next several years, the program’s scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission–uranium-235 and plutonium (Pu-239). They sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a workable atomic bomb. Early on the morning of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project held its first successful test of an atomic device–a plutonium bomb–at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The ten-year preparatory period known as the commonwealth regime in the Philippines was rudely interrupted when the Japanese, looking for territories not only to accommodate their excess population but also their manufactured goods, started the war in the Pacific. Japanese naval bombers attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in December 1941. The United States declared war against Japan and the war in the Pacific was formally on.
Pearl Harbor One of the factors that led the Americans to acquire the Philippines was the belief that the colony would be a strategic importance to the United States. It was then thought that with the Philippines under the United States, no foreign power would dare to antagonize her. President Theodore Roosevelt expressed this vies in January 1906 when, in a letter to Major-General Leonard Wood, he declared that, “Japan had no immediate intention if moving against United States”. Yet, because of the rising power of Japan, he expressed his apprehension, a year later, to Elihei Root. “I am more concerned”, he said, “over the Japanese situation than almost any other”. On July 06 of the same year, he again wrote General Wood, then in command in the Philippines, directing him how to hold the Philippines in case of a Japanese attack. In view of what Roosevelt considered a Japanese menace, he wrote William H. Taft, Secretary of War, that he considered giving the Philippines immediate independence to avoid a Japanese attack. This idea was based on a supposition that the Philippines was, in a military point of view, a lialbility rather than an asset to the United States. Japan was expanding in surrounding areas. Manchuria was occupied in 1932. Five years later, China proper was invaded. In 1940, Japan occupied the French-Indo China and the following year the whole French colony was occupied. The Japanese menace was now too obvious to be ignored. With the Japanese troops concentrating in the Southeast Asia, Filipino an American leaders feared that the Philippines could be the next target of the Japanese expansion program. On July 26,1941, The Phlippine reserve and regular forces were incorporated into the United States Army under the command of General MacArthur. The combined forces were called the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE). At the same time, the United States, Great Britain, and Holland imposed economic sanctions in Japan. The United States, in particular, froze Japanese assets in the United States, therefore preventing Japan from using these assets to their advantage. Nevertheless, the United States exerted all efforts to come to a peaceful understanding with Japan. In September 1941, Japan, apparently to discus American-Japanese problems in a peaceful manner, sent Admiral Nomura to Washington. It was believed that Nomura would propose peace to the American officials in order to avert wars. It was while Nomura was presenting his government’s peace proposals to the Secretary of State Cordell Hull that the Japanese bombers surprised Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and sank the cream of the American Navy.The bombing occurred in the early morning of December 07, 1941, 07:44 am in Hawaiian time. The treacherous bombing of the Pearl Harbor drove the American people to frenzied anger. The American naval and military losses at Pearl Harbor amounted to 2,897 men. The tragedy struck deep into the hearts of the Americans. People gathered at the White House Washington waiting for President Roosevelt’s message to Congress. It was Monday, December08, 1941, Washington time. President Roosevelt declared war against Japan towards the end of his speech. Across the Atlantic, on December 08, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of England faced the House of Commons and declared to the world that Great Britain would declare war on Japan. The European war, which commenced in 1939, now expanded to become the Second World War.
The Japanese Offensive The general offensive plan of Japan was ot strike immediately at the rich Dutch and British possessions in the Southeast Asia, specially Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). To do this , the Japanese naval air forces had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in order to neutralize it, and then to attack the Philippines in order to cut the American’s lines of communications in the Pacific. The subjugation of the Philippines was a part of the general plan of conquering the rich countries in Southeast Asia so that their natural resources could be used to bolster up Japan’s war Machine. While Pearl Harbor was being attacked, Japanese bombers and naval guns were shelling Wake Island. The less than 400 American Marines fought back heroically but were smothered by the numerical superiority of the attacking enemy. Simultaneously, the enemy struck at Guam and Midway Island, which fell on the same day. In Southeast Asia, the Japanese advanced against Malaya on their way to capture Singapore. In the Philippines, four hours after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed several places in the Philippines simultaneously. Clark Field was bombed in the morning of December 08,1941 and American planes on the ground were destroyed. Air attacks were conducted against Davao, Baguio and Apparri on the same day.Nichols Field and Sangley Point suffered the same fate as Clark Field. To spare Manila, General MacArthur declared the city as an Open City on December 26,1941. Guns were withdrawn in the city in order to comply with the requirements of the international law regarding an open city. MacArthur’s headquarters at Intramuros was evacuated. But the Japanese did not respect the Manila as an Open City. Sending bombers in broad daylight over the city, the Japanese bombed Manila.
Proposed demonstration
In early May 1945, the Interim Committee was created by Stimson at the urging of leaders of the Manhattan Project and with the approval of Truman to advise on matters pertaining to nuclear energy. During the meetings on May 31 and June 1, scientist Ernest Lawrence had suggested giving the Japanese a non-combat demonstration.
The possibility of a demonstration was raised again in the Franck Report issued by physicist James Franck on June 11 and the Scientific Advisory Panel rejected his report on June 16, saying that "we can propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the war; we see no acceptable alternative to direct military use." Franck then took the report to Washington, D.C., where the Interim Committee met on June 21 to re-examine its earlier conclusions; but it reaffirmed that there was no alternative to the use of the bomb on a military target.
Like Compton, many U.S. officials and scientists argued that a demonstration would sacrifice the shock value of the atomic attack, and the Japanese could deny the atomic bomb was lethal, making the mission less likely to produce surrender. Allied prisoners of war might be moved to the demonstration site and be killed by the bomb. They also worried that the bomb might be a dud since the Trinity test was of a stationary device, not an air-dropped bomb. In addition, only two bombs would be available at the start of August, although more were in production, and they cost billions of dollars, so using one for a demonstration would be expensive.
Leaflets
B-29s dropping bombs. There are twelve circles with Japanese writing in them.
This type of leaflet was dropped on Japan, showing the names of 12 Japanese cities targeted for destruction by firebombing. The other side contained text saying "we cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked ..."
For several months, the U.S. had dropped more than 63 million leaflets across Japan warning civilians of air raids. Many Japanese cities suffered terrible damage from aerial bombings, some were as much as 97% destroyed. LeMay thought that this would increase the psychological impact of bombing, and reduce the stigma of area bombing cities. Even with the warnings, Japanese opposition to the war remained ineffective. In general, the Japanese regarded the leaflet messages as truthful, but anyone who was caught in possession of one was arrested. Leaflet texts were prepared by recent Japanese prisoners of war because they were thought to be the best choice "to appeal to their compatriots".
In preparation for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, U.S. military leaders decided against a demonstration bomb, and against a special leaflet warning, in both cases because of the uncertainty of a successful detonation, and the wish to maximize psychological shock. No warning was given to Hiroshima that a new and much more destructive bomb was going to be dropped. Various sources give conflicting information about when the last leaflets were dropped on Hiroshima prior to the atomic bomb. Robert Jay Lifton writes that it was July 27, and Theodore H. McNelly that it was July 3. The USAAF history notes eleven cities were targeted with leaflets on July 27, but Hiroshima was not one of them, and there were no leaflet sorties on July 30. Leaflet sorties were undertaken on August 1 and 4. It is very likely that Hiroshima was leafleted in late July or early August, as survivor accounts talk about a delivery of leaflets a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped. One such leaflet lists twelve cities targeted for firebombing: Otaru, Akita, Hachinohe, Fukushima, Urawa, Takayama, Iwakuni, Tottori, Imabari, Yawata, Miyakonojo, and Saga. Hiroshima was not listed.
Potsdam ultimatum
On July 26, Allied leaders issued the Potsdam Declaration outlining terms of surrender for Japan. It was presented as an ultimatum and stated that without a surrender, the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland". The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the communiqué. On July 28, Japanese papers reported that the declaration had been rejected by the Japanese government. That afternoon, Prime Minister Suzuki Kantarō declared at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was no more than a rehash (yakinaoshi) of the Cairo Declaration and that the government intended to ignore it (mokusatsu, "kill by silence"). The statement was taken by both Japanese and foreign papers as a clear rejection of the declaration. Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet reply to non-committal Japanese peace feelers, made no move to change the government position.
Under the 1943 Quebec Agreement with the United Kingdom, the United States had agreed that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without mutual consent. In June 1945 the head of the British Joint Staff Mission, Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, agreed that the use of nuclear weapons against Japan would be officially recorded as a decision of the Combined Policy Committee. At Potsdam, Truman agreed to a request from Winston Churchill that Britain be represented when the atomic bomb was dropped. William Penney and Group Captain Leonard Cheshire were sent to Tinian, but found that LeMay would not let them accompany the mission. All they could do was send a strongly worded signal back to Wilson.
The Bombing On the morning of 6 August 1945 an American B-29 bomber, the 'Enola Gay ', dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The bomb was dropped by parachute and exploded 580m (1,900ft) above the ground. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people were killed instantly. The heat from the bomb was so intense that some people simply vanished in the explosion. Many more died of the long-term effects of radiation sickness. The final death toll was calculated at 135,000. As well as residents of Hiroshima, the victims included Koreans who had been forced to come to Japan as labourers, and American prisoners-of-war who were imprisoned in Hiroshima.
The blast destroyed more than ten square kilometres (six square miles) of the city. And the intense heat of the explosion then created many fires, which consumed Hiroshima and lasted for three days, trapping and killing many of the survivors of the initial blast. Thousands of people were made homeless and fled the devastated
city.
Hiroshima was chosen because it had not been targeted during the US Air Force 's conventional bombing raids on Japan, and was therefore regarded as being a suitable place to test the effects of an atomic bomb. It was also an important military base. The Allies feared that any conventional attempt to invade the Japanese home islands would result in enormous casualties, and the bomb was seen as a way of bringing the war against Japan to a swift conclusion. In addition, it may also have been a way of demonstrating American military superiority over the Soviet Union. Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima in August 1945. The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered. Nagasaki was not America 's primary target. This was Kokura. The three potential targets for a second bomb were Kokura, Kyoto and Niigata. Nagasaki was only added to a list of potential targets when Kyoto was withdrawn (it had been the secondary target for a second bomb) because of its religious associations. The third potential target was Niigata - but this was withdrawn from the list as the distance to it was considered to be too great. Therefore, the Americans were left with just two targets - Kokura and Nagasaki.
Nagasaki was a major shipbuilding city and a large military port. But it was not a favoured target as it had been bombed five times in the previous twelve months and any damage caused by an atomic bomb would have been difficult to assess. Also, the way Nagasaki had grown as a port meant that the impact of a powerful bomb might be dissipated as the city had grown across hills and valleys. The city was also broken up with stretches of water. However, fate and the weather was to be Nagasaki 's undoing.
Whereas the 'Enola Gay ' had had a relatively uneventful journey to her target at Hiroshima, the same was not true for the plane picked to drop the next atomic bomb - 'Bockscar '. Both 'Bockscar ' and 'Enola Gay ' were B29 Superfortress bombers. The crew of 'Bockscar ' gathered for their takeoff at 03.40 hours, August 9th, at Tinian Island. The flight commander, Major Sweeney, found that one of the fuel pumps on the B29 was not working. 800 gallons of aviation fuel had to sit in its fuel tank - it could not be used for the engines but the plane had to carry its weight and get nothing in return from the fuel.
'Bockscar ' carried an atomic bomb that differed from 'Little Boy ' carried by 'Enola Gay ' for the Hiroshima bombing. 'Fat Man ' was not a gun-type bomb but used the implosion method; it had a circle of 64 detonators that would drive pieces of plutonium together into a supercritical mass. 'Little Boy ' had used Uranium 235. 'Fat Man ' weighed about 10,000 lbs and was 10 feet 8 inches long. It had the explosive capacity of about 20,000 tons of high explosives. By the time 'Bockscar ' got near to its primary target, Kokura, it became clear that the weather had saved the city. The city was covered by cloud. Sweeney made three runs over the city but could find not break. With lack of fuel an issue, he decided to move to his only other target - Nagasaki. Sweeney only had enough fuel for one run over the city and not enough to fly back to Tinian. He would have to land at Okinawa.
The weapons expert on 'Bockscar ' was Commander Ashworth. Sweeney had been ordered that only a visual run was allowed - not a run guided by radar. Ashworth told Sweeney that radar would have to be used if Nagasaki was covered in cloud - it was. Most of Sweeney 's bombing run was done using radar but at the last minute a break in the cloud was found by the bomb aimer. He targeted a race track and at 28,900 feet, 'Fat Man ' was dropped.
As Nagasaki had been targeted in the past, people in the city had become blasé when the air raid siren sounded. The same was true on August 9th. The irony was that Nagasaki was well served with good bomb shelters and far fewer people would have been killed or injured if the air raid sirens had been listened to. The surrounding hills had tunnels dug into them which would have been very effective for the people who could have reached them.
'Fat Man ' was a very effective bomb. Its blast was bigger than 'Little Boy 's ' but its impact was reduced by the natural topography of the city. Where the bomb blast hit at its peak, massive damage was done. An area about 2.3 miles by 1.9 miles was destroyed but other parts of the city were saved from the blast. Curiously, the city 's train service was not interrupted and the fire damage that followed Hiroshima did not occur in Nagasaki as many parts of the city were broken up by water. The fires simply could not cross these gaps and they burned out.
However, considerable damage was done to the city. The horrific injuries suffered at Hiroshima were also witnessed at Nagasaki. The city 's medical facilities were not totally destroyed by 'Fat Man ' as at Hiroshima - but nobody was capable of coping with those who were injured in the blast.
One survivor, Sadako Moriyama, had gone to a bomb shelter when the sirens sounded. After the bomb had gone off, she saw what she thought were two large lizards crawling into the shelter she was in, only to realise that they were human beings whose bodies had been shredded of their skin because of the bomb blast.
Death and injury in Nagasaki and the surrounding areas, depended on where people lived. Those who lived on the Koba hillside, just three and a half miles from ground zero, were protected from the blast by a mountain. People caught up in the blast came to Koba for help and Fujie Urata, who lived in Koba and had seen a large flash, could not believe what she was seeing. She described people with great sheets of skin hanging off of their bodies; grotesque swollen faces; torsos covered with large blisters.
As in Hiroshima, many in Nagasaki died after the immediate impact of the bomb had gone away from mysterious ailments which we now associate with radiation poisoning. No-one, understandably, knew what to do to help the victims of this newest of illnesses.
In 1953, a report by the US Strategic Bombing Survey put the number of deaths at 35,000, wounded at 60,000 and 5,000 missing. In 1960, the Japanese put the number of dead at Nagasaki at 20,000 and the number of wounded at 50,000. Later, the Nagasaki Prefectural Office put the figure for deaths alone at 87,000 with 70% of the city 's industrial zone destroyed.
PICTURES
Aftermath
Present Nagasaki and Hiroshima
REFERENCES http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki http://www.atomcentral.com/hiroshima-nagasaki.aspx http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/200708230009.html http://www.nucleardarkness.org/hiroshima/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652262.shtml http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/bombing_of_nagasaki.htm https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=hiroshima+and+nagasaki+bombing+facts&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=677&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=GteHVNGJDoLDmAX-54CYAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=present+condition+of+hiroshima+and+nagasaki&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=CF4URCxlSfZ4iM%253A%3BKWR5az0IutPW1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Facvoice.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F11%252Fscreen-shot-2013-11-18-at-1-56-04-pm.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Facvoice.com%252F2013%252F11%252F18%252Fhiroshima-and-nagasaki-a-lesson-in-surviving-trauma%252F%3B599%3B372 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1
Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombing…………………………………………………….....2 Pearl Harbor……………………………………………………………....3 The Japanese Offensive………………………………………………….4 Proposed demonstration…………………………………………………..5 Leaflets…………………………………………………………………….6 Potsdam ultimatum………………………………………………………..8 The Bombing………………………………………………………………9
The Bombing………………………………………………………………………………14
References………………………………………………………………………………..17