Much has changed in the art of war since the great catapults and glorious legions of ancient Rome and Greece; the armour clad knight of the middle ages and the samurai of the far East. The methods of war have changed, as have tactics, technology, weapons, and most of all politics. Spears and swords have been replaced with fully automatic machine guns; heavy cavalry with tanks, and chariots with supersonic jet fighters and bombers. Yet the one invention, the destructive power of which is too great to compare with anything in the past for it makes all other weapons seem completely insignificant, came about during World War 2; it was the atomic bomb. The extraordinary destructive power of the bomb was demonstrated twice, in Hiroshima and in Nagasaki, which left the world at awe. The atomic bomb was the ultimate weapon, if in the right hands to protect peace, and if in the wrong, to lead to total annihilation. The history and politics of the 20th Century in a large part evolve around the atomic bomb, its consequences and the power struggle to be The Superpower on earth. The question stands: was the atomic bomb really necessary to end the Second World War and what are the consequences of such destr
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The Japanese scientists were kidnapped and tortured to attain information about the a-bomb; all of this plus the determination of the USSR lead to the first successful blast of a Soviet atomic bomb in 1949, which ended America’s monopoly on nuclear weapons. The last and most significant stage of the cold war was 1958 to 1962; both the United States and the Soviet Union began the construction on intercontinental ballistic missiles. On August 6th, 1945 the order was given and a B-29 bomber carried the atomic bomb “Little Boy” from the Tinian Island and dropped it on the Japanese city of Hiroshima destroying it, killing almost 80,000 immediately and injuring another 70,000. In 1955 the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) was formed to give warning of any incoming attack and make it possible to launch weapons of retaliation in time. These countries became the two superpowers on earth, both possessing weapons of mass destruction.
The atomic bomb was necessary to end the Second World War and show Japan that there are consequences for bombing the United States, but in modern day, for many countries possessing this terrible destructive force, there is a new threat; one of nuclear holocaust and total annihilation at the press of a button. On one hand this is good since each knows that the other side would have time to fire back therefore both would be destroyed, but on the other hand, if this at some point is pushed aside or becomes irrelevant, earth will be faced with a nuclear holocaust, it’s greatest and most likely it’s last nightmare. The goal of the project led by General Leslie Graves was to create an atomic weapon that the U. If history had not gone the way it did, the North American continent could have well been a pile of radioactive ashes. What is disturbing is the fact that on April 12th, 1945, only four days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese successfully tested their atomic bomb near an islet in the Sea of Japan. After this incident it became obvious that neither country wanted war hence they mutually feared a nuclear holocaust. ”3 On August 15th, 1945 the Japanese government agreed to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered. This triggered an immense conflict between the countries and would have ended with war, had not the Soviets withdrawn their missiles. These two catastrophic attacks led to the end of World War 2.
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