On
August 6, 1945 the US dropped an atomic bomb ("Little Boy") on
Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later a second atomic bomb ("Fat Man")
was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. These were the only times nuclear weapons
have been used in war.
Reasons
for the bombing-
Many
reasons are given as to why the US administration decided to drop the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reasons include the following:
·
The
United States wanted to force Japan's surrender as quickly as possible to
minimize American casualties.
·
The
United States needed to use the atomic bomb before the Soviet Union entered the
war against Japan to establish US dominance afterwards
·
The
United States wanted to use the world's first atomic bomb for an actual attack
and observe its effect.
Given
all of these reasons, the US was in quite a hurry to drop the bomb. Shortly
after successfully testing history's first atomic explosion at Trinity, New
Mexico, on July 16, 1945, the order to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was issued
on July 25.
The
impact of the bombing on Hiroshima
Hiroshima
stands on a flat river delta, with few hills to protect sections of the city.
The bomb was dropped on the city centre, an area crowded with wooden
residential structures and places of business. These factors meant that the
death toll and destruction in Hiroshima was particularly high.
The
firestorm in Hiroshima ultimately destroyed 13 square kilometres (5 square
miles) of the city. Almost 63% of the buildings in Hiroshima were completely
destroyed after the bombing and nearly 92% of the structures in the city had
been either destroyed or damaged by blast and fire.
Estimates
of total deaths in Hiroshima have generally ranged between 100,000 and 180,000,
out of a population of 350,000.
The
impact of the bombing on Nagasaki-
Due
to the hilly geography of Nagasaki and the bombing focus being away from the
city centre, the excessive damage from the bombing was limited to the Urakami
Valley and part of downtown Nagasaki. The centre of Nagasaki, the harbour, and
the historic district were shielded from the blast by the hills around the
Urakami River.
The
nuclear bombing did nevertheless prove devastating, with approximately 22.7% of
Nagasaki's buildings being consumed by flames, but the death toll and
destruction was less than in Hiroshima. Estimates of casualties from Nagasaki
have generally ranged between 50,000 and 100,000.
The
fact that the Nagasaki bomb was more powerful and also the narrowing effect of
the surrounding hills did mean that physical destruction in the Urakami Valley
was even greater than in Hiroshima. Virtually nothing was left standing.
The
city of Hiroshima invites people from around the world to participate in making
paper cranes to remember those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This action
started in memory of Sadako who was two years old when the atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima and later died of leukaemia caused by the exposure to
nuclear radiation. Believing that folding paper cranes would help her recover,
she kept folding them until she passed away on October 25th, 1955, after an
eight-month struggle with the disease.
Courtesy-www.cnduk.org
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