The Japanese had made it clear that they were willing to fight until the last man was standing to achieve their imperialist goals. For this reason, the US would drop two atomic bombs on the small island nation.
On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people, tens of thousands more people would later die from radiation exposure. Three days later, on August 9th, a second B-29 bombers dropped the world's second deployed atomic bomb over the city of Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender on August 15th, bringing World War II to an end.
The Manhattan Project
Even before the break out of WorId War II in Europe, Nazi Germany had been experimenting with nuclear weapons research. A group of American scientists, many of whom were refugees from fascist states in Europe, became concerned with Germany's research.
In 1940, the US government began funding its own atomic weapons program. This program was under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the US entry into World War II. The US Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with the construction of the vast facilities necessary to house the top secret Manhattan Project.
Over the next several years, the Manhattan Project's scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission- uranium-235 and plutonium-239. Those materials were sent to Los Alamos, New Mexico where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn th-se materials into a functional atomic bomb.
On the early morning of July 16, 1945, the Yan ha Han Pro. iect hela its first successful test of an atomic device-a plutonium bomb-at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
By the time the Trinity test had been completed, Germany had already been defeated by the Allied powers. Japan, however, promised to fight to the bitter end despite there being clear signs as early as 1944 that a Japanese defeat was imminent.
In 1945, the Japanese Imperial Forces were growing increasing desperate for a win. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, Japanese forces inflicted heavy casualties to the Allies, totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, this proved that when Japan was faced with defeat, they were more deadly rather than relenting. In late July, Japan's militarist government rejected the Allied demana for surrender put in the Potsdam Declaration which threatened the Japanese with "swift and utter destruction" if they refused.
General Douglas MacArthur and other top military c. mmanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan that had already been in effect and following up the conventional bombing with a massive invasion. This plan was codenamed Operation Downfall. MacArthur and the other military commanders told President Harry S. Truman that Operation Downfall could result in over one million casualties. To avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided to use the atomic bomb in the hopes of bringing the war in the Pacific to a swift end. Proponents of using the atomic bomb believed that its power wouldn't just end the war but would also put the US in a dominant position in the postwar period.
"Little Boy" and "Fat Man"
Hiroshima was a manufacturing center with a local population of 350, 000 and was 500 miles away from Tokyo. Hiroshima was chosen as the first tarket.
After arriving at the US base on the Pacific island of Tinian, the more than 9,000 pound uranium-235 bomb was loaded on a modified B-29 bomber named "Enola Gay" (named after the pilot's mother). The plane drooped the bomb, known as "Little Boy," by parachute at 8:15am on August 6, 1945. It exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city.
Although the city was completely devastated, its destruction failed to elicit an immediate Japanese surrender. As a result, on August 9, 1945 at 11:02am, "Fat Man", the plutonium bomb, was dropped on Nagasaki. "Fat Man" was more powerful than the uranium bomb dropped at Hirshimai with a weight of nearly 10,000 pounds. "Fat Man" produced a 22-kiloton blast. This second bomb, although more powerful than the first, caused less damage; due to Nagasaki's topography, a city nestled in valleys surrounded by mountains, the bomb's destruction was limited to 2.6 square miles.
Japanese Surrender
At noon on August 15, 1945, Japan's Emperor Hiro hit-announced his country's unconditional surrender via radio broadcast. The formal surrender agreement between Japan and the US (and the other Allied nations) was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the US battleship the USS Missouri which was anchored in Tokyo Bay.
The Japanese surrender brought about the end of World War II, but that doesn't mean we're done with our WWII series. Next time, we'll begin examining the actions the US took during World War II on the battlefront and the homefront.
Good article Marie and thank's for pointing out that we had to drop "two" atomic bombs before the Japanese surrendered. Many historians overlook that fact and feel they would have just capitulated. Your right and they would have fought to the last man, plus costed us many more lives as well. We did the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it 😊
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