The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was justified at the time as being moral – in order to bring about a more rapid victory and prevent the deaths of more Americans. Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right thing to do. The rest died from exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks. Two brothers who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima four days earlier, August 10, 1945. ‘Seared to death’: The atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. Chisako Sasaki drew this image of a girl at a window on the second floor of a burning house. "While I was rushing to get them water, a military policeman yelled at me to stop. Not all the drawings depict bad memories. Success! With only the clothes on their backs, they waited under the blazing sun for departure. Hiroshima And Nagasaki : picture shows local residents walking near Aioi Bridge in Hiroshima, after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima … Visits by foreign tourists to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum hit a record high of 338,891 in 2015. Hiroshima’s weather report for … The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has collected thousands of drawings made by survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Torao Izuhara/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Like cattle, injured survivors were loaded into rail cars to escape the ruined city. Then-President Harry S. Truman authorized the attack on Hiroshima. Truman had tasked a committee of advisers, chaired by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, to deliberate whether to use the atomic bomb on Japan. ", PHOTO: "These children had been injured by the bomb and taken to the army hospital for treatment but had soon died," she said. Nearly one million of the casualties occurred during the last year of the war, from June 1944 to June 1945. ", PHOTO: Password reset email has been resent. Attempting to bring an earlier end to World War II, U.S. President Harry Truman made the fateful decision to drop a massive atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. At 11:02 a.m., another atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki. On this date 74 years ago, the US dropped the first of two atomic bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing more than 70,000 people instantly. Sam Rushay, the Supervisory Archivist at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, told CNN: “At the time, there was a wide consensus in support of the decision to strike among the members of the committee. One plant's tall smokestack remained standing, and it scared us at night. To complete your CNN profile and ensure you are able to receive important account information, please verify your email address. "I put my hands together and just prayed to Namu Amida Buddha," she said. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. However, Truman stressed the necessity of the decision referencing how the US had "been shot in the back" in the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan and saying that the decision to use the two nuclear bombs saved the lives of 250,000 Allied troops and 250,000 Japanese by helping to prevent an invasion. (National Archives Identifier 22345671) This week marks the 75th anniversary of the United States bombing the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why was the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima? In 1945, the Pacific War between the Empire of Japan and the Allies entered its fourth year. On 9 th August the Soviet Union entered the war in Asia, as promised. When the United States dropped the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, it exploded just above the building. The date is significant because it wasn’t the day after the Hiroshima bombing, but rather, the day the Soviet Union entered the Pacific theater by invading Japanese-occupied Manchuria on three fronts. Most Japanese military units fought fiercely, ensuring that the Allied victory would come at an enormous cost. It was founded as a castle town in the 16th century and lies at the head of Hiroshima Bay, an embayment of the Inland Sea. ", Torazuchi Matsunaga remembered soldiers carrying children's corpses on stretchers to a temporary crematorium. The purpose of this research paper is to explore the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, examine the causes, interpretations and consequences of the bombings. … My chest suddenly seized with emotion. Bruce 7 August 2015 2. Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base on Hawaii, was bombed by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941. "I wept and wept.". "It seemed to offer a potentially magical solution that would spare a lot of pain," he told CNN. The neighbors couldn't move the pillar. The USS Indianapolis, after delivering the Hiroshima bomb materials to Tinian island in the Marianas, was sunk on July 30. Nagasaki was bombed a few days later. In fact, almost all of the victims were civilians, and the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (issued in 1946) stated in its official report: "Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets because of their concentration of activities and population." ", PHOTO: "Fires were still burning here and there, and the streets were so hot I could hardly get through," she said. While President Truman had hoped for a purely military target, some advisers believed that bombing an urban area might break the fighting will of the Japanese people. On August 6, 1945, the world dramatically entered the atomic age: without either warning or precedent, an American plane dropped a single nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. "Little Boy" was the codename for the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II. This 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a sorrowful reminder: a final spasm of killing engulfed those two poor cities. She was screaming her child's name while the bodies of dead students floated on the river below. "My father gathered charred tin sheeting and broken planks and built us a shack over the burnt ruins of his company. Targeting was finalized on July 25, 1945: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nilgata, Nagasaki. Some were trapped under heavy gates and houses. Rushay said that Hiroshima was one of four potential targets and that Truman left it up to the military to decide which city to strike. Her eyes were open wide. It is the 70th anniverssary of the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, which killed 90,000+ people on 6 August 1945 and which helped to bring World War 2 to an end. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States is one of the major menacing events of WW2; others being the Holocaust, bombing of industrial and population centres and so on. However, it was clearly not moral to use this weapon knowing that it would kill civilians and destroy the urban milieu. In 1958, the City Council of Hiroshima passed a resolution condemning Truman for refusing to express remorse for using atomic bombs and for continuing to advocate their use in an emergency situation. Each August, remembrance events are held in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. Masaru Shimizu/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Soldiers had been trained not to give water to burn victims, thinking it would worsen their condition. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima was a horror, but it was a moral horror. The park is located atop the busy commercial district obliterated by the atomic blast and contains a museum and monuments dedicated to those killed by the explosion. Keiji Harada/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, The memory of seeing two girls with blue-violet faces shocked Torao Izuhara so much that she never forgot it. At least 70,000 people were killed in the initial blast, while approximately 70,000 more died from radiation exposure. Kazuo Koya/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Sumie Sasaki was fortunate enough to find a bit of beauty amid all the horror. When I remember, I deeply regret that I obeyed. Hiroharu Kono/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He added that Truman and his military advisers feared a "very costly invasion" of Japan. Sasaki remembers the girl crying for help. "Fires were still burning here and there, and the streets were so hot I could hardly get through," she said. “The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold,” according to the Department of Energy’s history of the Manhattan Project. The US dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, killing up to 80,000 people. The bombing of Hiroshima was caused by the conflicts between the United States and Japan, as the result of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sueko Sumimoto remembered a mother standing on a bridge. If it was the Hiroshima bomb, why did Prime Minister Suzuki wait almost three days after he learned of it in the early morning of August 7 before he convened a meeting of the Supreme War Council on August 9? It exploded with an energy of approximately 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ) and caused widespread death and destruction throu… ‘Seared to death’: The atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. American scientists working on the Manhattan Project had successfully tested a working atomic bomb in July of 1945 after the surrender of Nazi Germany in May. Stimson was very adamant that the bomb be used.”, Charles Maier, a professor of history at Harvard University, said that while it was possible for Truman to have made another decision, he said “It would have been hard to justify to the American public why he prolonged the war when this weapon was available.”. Soldiers had been trained not to give water to burn victims, thinking it would worsen their condition. PHOTO: The Hiroshima Bombing Fifty four years ago, the detonation of the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima (and later on Nagasaki) ushered to the Nuclear Age. The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 75 years ago today. 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