Essay on Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6, 1945, during World War 2, an American B-29 bomber aircraft dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The initial explosion and radiation wiped out almost 90 p.c of the city and 80,000 innocent people or more were killed immediately or within minutes of the impact (History1); many thousands more would later die due to radiation exposure. Exactly three days after the bombing of Hiroshima the second B-29 bomber dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Killing about half of what the first atomic bomb had done approximately 40,000 people on impact (History 1), but was still very severely threatening to the nation. These two major events lead to Japan’s Emperor at the time Hirohito agreeing to the country’s surrender of World War II utilizing a radio address on August 15, only six days later, citing the devastating power and veracity of “a new and most cruel bomb.”

The Manhattan Project was a core research and development during World War II that manufactured the first of many nuclear weapons in the US alone. From 1942 through 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Also, in charge was Nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who designed the atomic bombs. The Army part was designated, Manhattan District; Manhattan gradually became the main official codename and stuck for decades to come. For security reasons, the project took place in Los Alamos National Laboratory in the desert of New Mexico for the most part. It was a government-funded project that in the end cost nearly $2 billion (about $23 billion in 2018 dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and to produce fissile material, with less than 10% for the development and production of the weapons. Not including the manpower and the B-29 bomber planes that executed the project(Brookings institute 1). The Manhattan project ended World War two in the fastest and with the least harm done to America and our soldiers, with every step being critical and necessary to ending the war.

Each worker at the Manhattan Project went through a rigorous mandatory background check conducted by the FBI ensuring that they had no criminal history or suspicious connections that could put the controversial program endanger. It could often take many weeks for employees to get cleared, sometimes the FBI would contact relatives or earlier employers to clear any suspicions that may be raised during the process of his or her investigation. Every employee that was working at any of the Manhattan Project sites had a badge for security that displayed their photo, job position, and clearance level. Their level of clearance almost always depended on their job. The measures were so extreme that even the mail coming and going out of Los Alamos was censored. Officials would meticulously inspect every single individual piece of mail, making sure that any and all information regarding the site's location, work activity, or details were removed from the writing. In many cases, military officials would also follow up with civilians whose letters had something uncommonly suspicious, such as coded puzzles or suspected or questionable words. Every district worker, whether scientist, construction worker, had to sign a mandatory form pledging silence about the Project. The security and secrecy were so important for a project like this because if the public did find out about it there is a very high chance the entirety of the project could be put in danger. For example, the government could get much hate for the project and may be forced to move the whole operation or even delay the manufacturing of the first atomic in a life or death arms race with many other nations. Another example of a problem with the public knowing what was taking place in Los Alamos National Lab and other places among America may have gotten in the way of the first trinity test and may have gotten hurt or killed. This would force the government to shut down the operation and potentially lose the war. Making the Manhattan Project irrelevant.

In the simplest terms to explain the process of combustion of an atomic bomb is when the neutron bombards the nucleus of an atom of, isotopes uranium-235 or plutonium-239, it makes that specific nucleus split into two separate pieces. Each of which is now a nucleus with about half the protons and neutrons of the starting isotope. The process of splitting releases, a great amount of thermal energy, as well as gamma rays and two or more neutrons. Under some conditions, the single neutron will strike another isotope, thus bombarding more of the surrounding nuclei, which will most likely emit more neutrons that will split still more nuclei rapidly creating a chain reaction. Creating the explosion of what is known as an atomic bomb.

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The devastation of the first nuclear bomb was not certain to be either big enough to end the war or even too large that it would have caused a major an unwanted change in the world's atmosphere or geography. Or in other words, nobody knew how large the explosion was going to be or if it was going to set off the necessary chain reaction in the nucleus. This is where the first atomic test comes into play. This test commonly referred to as the 'Trinity' test was conducted near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. The site is located in the desert 120 miles south of Santa Fe. The scientist and other high ranking officials part of the Manhattan Project were around 10,000 yards away to overlook as the first mushroom cloud reached over 40,000 feet into the morning desert air. The tower in which the actively tested bomb sat when detonated was vaporized practically instantly. As the test concluded the bomb had been compared to the power and energy release of approximately 20 kilotons of TNT (History 3). This gave the number part on the Manhattan project a great insight into the pure power and future capabilities of the first atomic bomb and what it could do in warfare. This test also narrowed the wide range of destruction that was recently unknown. In other words, the test was necessary to the success of the project.

There are many reasons why the US may have thought it was justified to drop two atomic bombs on two of Japan's major cities. One of these reasons and the more common explanation is that it brought the war to a screeching halt that would have otherwise claimed many more lives over many more months or even years. It was believed that the only alternative to the use of an atomic bomb was an invasion of Japan, which would have almost definitely involved the loss of many more US soldiers. American forces invaded the island on February nineteen, 1945, and therefore the succeeding Battle of amphibious assault Iwo Jima lasted for 5 weeks. It has become to be known as one of the bloodiest fighting of warfare II, it’s believed that every one however of all 21,000 Japanese forces on the island was killed except about 200, as were nearly 7,000 Marines(HISTORY). Once the fighting was over, the strategic price of the assault on Iwo Jima came into question. With much of the Japanese military force out of the question, they have become very weak but didn't give up any hope until necessary. Another event that further weakened the Japanese forces was the battle of Okinawa, additionally referred to as Operation Iceberg, befell in April-June 1945. It resulted in the largest casualties with over 100,000 Japanese casualties and 50,000 casualties for the Allies (History Net 2). It was a hard-fought eighty-day battle for the Island of Okinawa that some have delineated it as the “typhoon of steel”. With the military of Japan having lost a bit less than 200,000 troops in just two battles japan's army was diminishing rapidly. The predicted casualties of both sides of the war were well above 1,000,000 soldiers according to numerous sources. By using the atomic bombs not only did it show the sheer power of the US military but also in a way saved lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Another reason why the US knew it was necessary to bomb Japan to end the war was that they are known for using, Bushidō, code was ironed into use for hawkishness, to gift war as purifying, and death an obligation. This was conferred as revitalizing ancient values and 'transcending the modern'. Bushidō would offer a religious defense to let troopers fight to the end. It was known that they weren't going to surrender even with losing almost 200,00 troops. Unless something major happened, larger than Okinawa and Iwo Jima, for example, the use of an atomic bomb which had a very high chance of forcing Japan to surrender.

Others in the opposition give the reason that it was not necessary or justified to drop the two atomic bombs on Japan since Even secretary of war at the time of this event Henry Lewis Stimson was not convinced that the use of atomic bombs was essential to reduce the dependency of an invasion. Japan had no allies from neighboring countries, their naval force was almost destroyed, and many of its cities had been undergoing air attacks. A combination of both thorough bombing surrounding cities that had been economically dependent on other sources for food and essential materials, and the persistent threat of Soviet initiation in the war, would easily have been enough to end the war in a more peaceful manner, or more so than seizing the lives of tens of thousands of people.

The immediate aftermath in the urban center was a nightmare. Quite forty p.c of the town was destroyed. Major hospitals had been completely planar. Schools, churches, and houses had merely disappeared. Transportation was not possible in what was left of the cities. The Atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima was razed and burnt around 70 p.c of all buildings and caused an estimated 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945 (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 1), along with increased rates of cancer and chronic disease among the survivors. A slightly larger bomb was detonated over Nagasaki just three days after leveled 6.7 km2 of the city and killed 74,000 people by the end of 1945 (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 2). Ground temperatures reached 4,000°C and radioactive rain poured down from the sky onto unexpecting victims. 42 of 45 hospitals were confirmed non-functional; most cases happen to be severe burns. All of the burn beds in Japan would be insufficient to care for the survivors of a single atomic bomb on any city. Both in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, almost all victims died without treatment to ease their suffering and pain before death. Some of the long term effects were 5 to 6 years after the bombings, and a couple of decades later survivors began to be affected by thyroid, breast, respiratory organ and different cancers much higher than traditional rates for Japan. For solid cancers, the other risks associated with radiation exposure still increase throughout the time period of survivors even to the present day, nearly seven decades once the bombings. Girls exposed to the bombings whereas they were pregnant older higher rates of miscarriage and deaths among their infants. kids exposed to radiation in their mother’s female internal reproductive organ were a lot of doubtless to possess intellectual disabilities and impaired growth, similarly as multiplied risk of developing cancer. So for generations and decades to come after the bombings there continued to have a serious effect on many people's lives. The tradeoff between a few cases of miscarriages, abnormalities while giving birth and cancer had been much tamer than continuing to fight talking the lives of well over 1,000,000 people.

The bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki while they seemed destructive at the time were very important to the lives of hundreds of thousands that didn't have to die fighting. without the bombing, the war may have gone on for many more years but it only lasted six days before Japan agreed to surrender. This was surprising since after losing so many troops they didn't feel the need to and due to their Bushido fighting tactic of never surrender we would have never thought Japan would surrender. But after seeing what the US was capable of it took less than a week before their Emperor at the time, Hirohito agreed to the country’s surrender of World War II. Every single step of the process of building and planning the use of the bombs was necessary for the project to work as well as it did. For example, if the security and secrecy weren't as important to the project the whole operation could be shut down due to civilians, bombarding the sight. Or if the first trinity test had not been run in the remote desert of New Mexico scientists may have had no idea if they needed to change anything or the other officials and officers so that they could pinpoint the devastation of the bomb. Without any of the steps, the Manhattan Project could have been a complete failure and could have cost the lives of millions of people.