The Atomic Bomb
No one knows exactly how many people were killed in the initial blast, because thousands disappeared without a trace. The official estimates vary between seventy thousand and eighty thousand. Many more were injured. Thousands died after days, months, and years later from radiation effects of the atomic bomb. This explosion, that was used to end World War II, is one of the most controversial subjects in our nations history. Many will argue that this weapon did not have to be used, that it took too many lives, that there was a better way out, but this bombing was a military necessity. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 named Enola Gay left took off to bomb the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The crew of Enola Gay were told that no one could be sure what would happen when the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. The bomb was dropped from an altitude of 31,600 feet and detonated at 1,800 feet above the center of the city. The atomic bomb wiped out 4.1 square miles of Hiroshima, about sixty !percent of the city. The powerful atomic bomb crashed with the explosive power of 20,000 tons of TNT. President Harry S. Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb on two Japanese
Japan took pride in their country, and thought that there may need to be a change in the way that they were approaching the war. The Russian territorial expansion definitely played a factor in the dropping the bomb on Japan. The Soviets were slowly helping the Chinese with the war against Japan and later would get railroads in China and Manchuria. The most obvious reasons would be to prevent the Russians from expanding any more and to keep them out of Japan, where they would hamper the peace process and gain even more territory. General Anami, who became the War Minister of Japan in April 1945, exemplified the persistence of the Japanese to the extreme. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. Many historians argue the atomic bomb by coming up with alternatives. (Long) All of the countries involved were trying to create the atomic bomb to use for their !efforts. "They argue that there were alternatives to using the bomb: naval blockade, modification of unconditional surrender terms, conventional bombing, and waiting just a little longer to see if the Soviet Union's August 9 entry into the war would prompt the Japanese to surrender. " To President Truman, he had two choices, a land invasion on the Japanese mainland, or the use of the a-bomb. Stalin, when hearing about the success of the Manhattan project (the testing of the atomic bomb) acted as if it was not important. If the Germans had won that race they probably would have used it continuously in Russia and Britain until Hitler got what he wanted which was world domination and the extinguishing of the Jewish race. He talks about this when he said, "Nevertheless, I pleaded with the Japanese in my speech announcing Germany's surrender, begging them to surrender, too, but was not too surprised when they refused"(Truman 52).
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