Introduction
While on his way to Hiroshima, it was around 7:30 a.m. when Captain William Parsons inserted the detonator along with the explosive charge into the bomb. It was around 8:16 a.m. (Japanese time) when the bomb exploded in Hiroshima over Dr. Shima’s Clinic. The glowing fireball had a temperature of about 50,000 degrees. Soon after this attack, another major city of Japan was attacked. It was basically the idea of General Leslie Groves, General Farrel and Admiral Purnell to launch two atomic bombs on Japan; the first bomb would demonstrate power and the second would tell the Japanese about the great arsenal of USA (Nelson, 2014). The explosion has been best described by a viewer in the aircraft in the following words:
“"We watched a giant pillar of purple fire 10,000 feet high, shoot upward like a meteor coming from the earth instead of from outer space- It was a living thing" (Nelson, 2014).
Three days after this, an American bomber; b29, dropped another bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Smoke began to rise from the city at noon on 9th August, 1945. Alas! A massive destruction had taken place making Japan’s defeat quite visible.
Background of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Being slightly above the sea level, the city of Hiroshima estimates an area of about 26 square miles. It is one of the most important cities of Japan mainly known for its military significance as conspicuous from the presence of the second army Headquarters which controls the defense system of the Southern part of Japan. Before being attacked, the city was famous for being the storage point, the communication center and it was also known as the area for assembling the troops. Furthermore, while over viewing the architecture and construction of the city, it would be correct to put that the center of this city was populated with strongly built concrete buildings as compared to the outer area and the outskirts that contained small wooden structures, houses and industrial plants. As a matter of fact, Hiroshima had a lot of wooden structures spread throughout the area which made it more vulnerable to fire. In contrast, there were several concrete buildings present in the city due to the prevalence of being hit by the earthquakes. On the other hand, Nagasaki being a residential and commercial hub, is situated at the beginning of a bay because of which, the city is recognized to form the best harbor. Nagasaki having a mountainous and an irregular terrain, had been an important sea part in the South of Japan, and was important for the industries of ships, ordnance and military equipments it had. Nagasaki was an area having wooden constructions which were built very close to each other. The structure can be imagined from the fact that there was no typical format which created a gap or a specialized area for residential and commercial buildings; houses were made next to industries (Finch, 1979).
The end of World War II saw the Nazi Germany surrender during the 1945. On the other hand, in response to Japanese refusal to surrender, the allies decided to invade the land. It was the Potsdam declaration of 26th July 1945, where USA along with UK and China openly announced the destruction of Japan which was formulated in the form of the Manhattan Project. It was however, on 6th August, 1945, Harry Truman; the U.S. President announced the ignition of the atomic weapon over Hiroshima. The bomb nicknamed as Little Boy, had a power of more than 20,000 tons of TNT which resulted in a massive destruction killing about 130,000 people. Three days after this incident, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, another city of Japan. This explosion killed over 70,000 people. Six days after the second attack, Japan surrendered. This marked the end of the Second World War (Barnaby, 2014).
As a matter of fact, even before the bombs were dropped, Japan continued to face a series of destruction. It was in the middle of 1944, United States of America was at a war with Japan. Continuous large scale aerial attacks were launched on Japan.
Reasons of Attack
Attacking the two cities of Japan can be seen as an experiment, a war, revenge and justification. There are mixed reasons for the atomic bombing which vary according to the studies, view points and realities. Some of the major reasons for using these bombs for the first and last time in history are briefly mentioned below:
- It was a cost-effective step to end the war at its earliest. The foremost purpose of USA was to win the war. As a result, Truman chose the option of atomic bombing to end the war in the quickest possible manner. It was also the best measure to save large US casualties.
- Another reason that has been stated is the justification of the cost beared by the Manhattan Project that was approximately $1,889,604,000
- The Soviet Union was a topic of concern. This is due to the fact that at by the end of war, they had a military control especially over the Eastern Europe. Therefore, the U.S. felt a dwelling need to use the atomic bomb before letting the Soviet come in war with Japan.
- It was in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor; the attack over the US naval base by the Japanese navy. This attack took place as a preventive measure to stop the US fleet from interfering with the actions of Japan related to overseas territories of UK, USA and Netherlands (Finch, 1979).
The Attack
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki left serious repercussions that last till today. At 8 15 A.M., when some of the industrial workers were at work as compared to many who were on their ways along with children heading to their schools, a bomb exploded. Imagining the situation itself is quite dramatic and painful. No heart can bear the sorrow engraved in imagining a scenario where children are crying, mothers are shouting and fathers are dying. It was more of a surprise attack where people were not only caught in the open, but even those finding shelter in houses, were targeted. As mentioned earlier, it was greatly because of the wooden buildings and the flat and circular terrain of the city, that Hiroshima was devastated. A major part of the city was swept by fire completing burning an area of approximately 4.4 square miles. About 100,000 to 180,000 were killed and an equal number was injured. In contrast, the attack on Nagasaki was not an epitome of a fire storm. The valley where the bomb was dropped was completely wiped off. However, the number of casualties was lower than what was recorded in Hiroshima. An area measuring 1.8 square miles approximately was affected. Hence the difference in destruction of the two cities also lies in their layouts because of which Hiroshima faced greater loss as compared to Nagasaki.
Chemicals Involved
A uranium fission bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in contrast to plutonium bomb that was targeted on Nagasaki. The atomic bomb damaging Hiroshima wan a gun-type explosive that used two masses of U-235. While a bomb dropped over Hiroshima is formed via the nuclear fission of two masses of Uranium (U-235), a Pultonium-239 as used in the case of Nagasaki, can have similar effects despite its composition of a fissionable isotope. Plutonium-239 is produced in breeder reactors which are surrounded by a Uranium blanket that makes use of the reaction between U-238 and neutrons. Once plutonium is produced through this procedure, it is separated from other products present. In this way, a lower amount of technology is required to produce a nuclear weapon. Although the plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was tested earlier, the atomic bomb over Hiroshima was never tested. The bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima was made up of highly enriched uranium which was kept in two or more pieces till the time of detonation. Following this, the pieces were formed together due to the limited generation time for fission. This resulted in a chain reaction taking the form of a massive explosion causing great loss to Hiroshima (Pastore, 1987).
Effects of the bombings on humans
Upon interviewing the survivors of the atomic attack, individuals tell their stories with deep sorrow and regret (Lifton, 1963). Seeing thousands of people die was certainly not easy for anyone; the heart certainly feels extreme pain in seeing a family member as well as a stranger lose out. With a hope in the eye, a prayer in the heart, a plea of help over the tongue, and an expectation in the eye, was the perfect scenario of the dying person in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attack. The foremost psychological impact of the bomb can be viewed as a sudden shift from a normal routine life to an encounter with death. Studies show the awe of terror faced by the survivors specifically because of coming in contact with the corpses and disfigured faces. This despair evaded when people came across several such bodies. This lasted for longer periods of time gradually paving its way to depression. Individuals were not only struck with psychological and emotional problems. There were other fatal issues that resulted because of the explosion (Lifton, 1963).
Adverse health effects
The major humanly effect of the bombing was the large number of deaths and injuries. As a matter of fact, the exact number of casualties will always remain obscure because of a large amount of unrecognized people along with those who were driven out of the city. Therefore, the accurate number remains unknown. For this reason, the estimated amount of casualties is between 100,000 and 180,000, and 50,000 to 100,000 for Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. While examining the reasons for death and injuries, the immediate effect is accredited to burns and the falling debris. In addition, there was a considerable amount of people who died because of the effect of the radiation. Apart from the various reasons of death, the survivors of the atomic bombings suffered serious radiation diseases. These diseases generated from the gamma rays brought by the fission process. Japanese report that individuals near the site of the explosion that did not die immediately, were soon admitted to a hospital. All these patients reported symptoms of bloody diarrhea and their blood reports explicitly demonstrated lower white blood cells and inflamed organs. Other individuals showed a number of symptoms which began to appear in several weeks. Nausea, vomiting, inflamed mouth and throat, hair loss and fever were among some of the symptoms which kept re-appearing. In a similar manner, radiation also effected the reproduction of males where individuals at a distance of 5000 ft of ground zero, suffered from a lower sperm count. In contrast, pregnant women faced miscarriages along with pre-mature babies who did not survive and babies which survived, suffered from Microcephaly. This can be further validated from the fact that after two months of the blast, the rate of abortion, miscarriages and re-mature birth rose to 27% as compared to the older rate of 6%. Moreover, the Japanese were unable to provide adequate care to the patients because of which survival became certainly impossible. Even though the acute illnesses were healed gradually, the after effects in term of Leukemia and Keloids became more evident. Even several years after the atomic attack, an increase in survivors developing leukemia continued to increase. Later on, these individuals became highly susceptible in contracting cancers. It might be easy to state that the atomic bombings resulted in a number of various diseases. On closer look, it is essential to consider the mounting pain attached to each of these illnesses (Oughterson and Warren, 1956).
Short-term effects of the incident
The death of humans and wildlife along with the destruction to the buildings were amongst the foremost short-term effects of the atomic bombings of 1945. The immediate fire storm further deteriorated the situation. Seeing buildings on fire, seeing individuals with cracked bones and bloody diarrhea was alarming where the immediate scenario showed a more horrible picture of burnt and forcefully thrown bodies. Those who did not immediately die began to immediately suffer from flash burns and the shock. Moreover, the wind pressure trapped many individuals inside and under buildings which caused their eventual death. In other words, the immediate death toll rose to 90%. Soon after being attacked, there were huge groups of people wanting to seek medical attention. There was only one aim in the air; to survive. These casualties and destruction was amongst the instantaneous effects of the incident. However, the survivors began to suffer as various symptoms started to come in front. The bomb detonating in the air affected the fall-out which eventually increased the impact of the blast. Till 5 months, the survivors continued to face the immediate effect caused by the blast. They reported headaches, nausea, insomnia and several other such symptoms of malfunctioned health (Pastore, 1987).
Long-term effects of the incident
The survivors were afflicted by rumors where one of the most gruesome was the idea of Hiroshima being uninhabitable for the next 75 years. This rumor was in other words, a message of death for the survivors who felt that even though the event of explosion passed away, death was still behind them. Rumors of the city not being able to grow vegetation and death coming in three years were also frequently spread amongst the survivors. The immediate resulting death and illnesses reflected the truth of the rumors.
Upon exposure to radiation, the chromosomes in the DNA break and rejoin in a different pattern. This abnormal pattern is known as chromosome aberration with which, many survivors of atomic bombings suffer and face genomic abnormalities. There are new techniques that help study the translocation of these chromosomes which is specifically present in the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Consequently, the effect of radiation persists in the lymphocytes for several years due to chromosome aberration (Nakano, 2001). Due to this, the effect on the somatic cells; cells excluding the cells of reproductive organs, has been closely investigated by the studies. Results suggest that radiation is seen to effect the mutation of the gene in the red blood cell (glycophorin A). In addition, the chromosomal aberrations with respect to somatic cells are also responsible for causing a number of non-congenital diseases amongst the survivors. As chromosomal aberration causes unhealthy as well as sterile individuals, the atomic attack of 1945 has brought serious physical damage of the survivors as seen in the long term. Research demonstrates a clear pattern of growth defect amongst individuals who were exposed to the bombings at an early age (Kyoizumi et al., 1996). The bomb is responsible to cause a decrease of 6cm in height especially affecting the fetus. The radiation was seen to cause physical and growth defect more in females as compared to their male counterparts (Nakashima et al., 2002).
The risk of Cancer greatly increased approximately 10 years after the explosion. Gensaku Obo, a Japanese Physician, was the first one to record the presence of cancer. Solid cancers tend to impact individuals of all the age group. However, with the aging process of the survivors, the impact of radiation developing cancer also increased (Sasaki et al., 2002). Between 1958 and 1998, 7,851 out of the 44,635 survivors were diagnosed with cancer (Preston et al., 2003). Upon testing animals it was visible that radiation caused earlier deaths. This finding was then corrected where tumors were seen to be a major cause for a shorter lifespan of the survivors. Radiation however, is investigated not to cause age related problems of breathing, vision, strength and grip, and is seen to cause cataract as well as atherosclerosis. The radiation generated from the explosion weakened the immune system of the survivors as it damages the lymphocytes and the white blood cells present in the bone marrow. The radiation damaged the white blood cells of the survivor making many individuals die a death because of active infection. Although the marrow cells recovered after two months of the explosion, the CD4 T lymphocytes were recovered incompletely this eventually made survivors more susceptible to a number of illnesses throughout their lives (Kusunoki, 1999).
The atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not only impact life and structure immediately, but it left a lasting damaging impact. For several years, the cities suffered with acidic rain. However, it was not only the loss of loved ones that afflicted pain, but seeing the whole blast and what it caused to everyone, was painful in itself. The long term effect of the bombing can be analyzed from the number of severe cases of depression which eventually developed over the period of time. Going through such an event, people developed post traumatic stress disorder where many survivors became prone to cancer and leukemia. Miscarriages and defected birth also resulted because of the attacks (Pastore, 1987).
Finally it took approximately two years to clear out the rubble and the debris. People continued to live in temporary homes and shelters as reconstruction of the infrastructure required a huge amount that was not provided by the Federal Government. The renovation was hence contributed by private organizations resulting in a slower re-construction of the city which continued for a substantial amount of time. Consequently, people continued to suffer at the hands of the blast and the process of re-building.
Environmental effects of the nuclear explosion
Apart from the damage caused to the humans, there were serious environmental effects of the nuclear explosion. With the explosion of the atomic bomb, the plutonium released high amount of energy. The immediate effect of blast was extreme heat and radiation which burnt away living as well as non-living things. The rays penetrated into whatever came in its way. Those who survived later became prone to cancer. A major impact of the explosion was the fallout; the radioactive particles resulting from the atomic explosion in the form of minute particles were seen all over the earth’s surface. Due to precipitation, these particles again return to the earth’s surface covering the animals and plants in dust as formed by radioactive layer. This is also conspicuous from the initial black rain which brought radioactive particles to the soil and these particles resulting from nuclear fission was detected in the farm even after several years of the explosion. In this way, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan’s two major cities affected the wildlife that suffered in way similar to humans. Animals and plants faced genetic and reproductive problems. Moreover, the explosion contaminated the sea salt that eventually gives rise to radioactive fishes. Japanese found fishes that were too contaminated to be consumed by humans. Therefore, the attack damaged the flora and fauna of Japan; whatever flew away, symbolized danger. The explosion increased the pressure to such an extent dogs and non-mammals were harmed. However, animals that did not die, suffered from fractures and tissue damages. Regardless of these primary hazards, a number of secondary factors contributing to environmental damage also existed. For example, flying debris also causes serious damage. Shattered glasses, metal and wooden pieces all effected life. The atomic explosion harmed the overall temperature. In other words, the dust particle and the ashes blocked the sun resulting in a decrease in the temperature of the world (Julian, 1979).
Conclusion
The 1945 atomic bombings on two major cities of Japan; Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is famous amongst everyone. Its popularity is not because of the underlying fact that it was dropped by America being the superpower. Instead, it is remembered because of the great loss it resulted in. Today, when the TV channels show how a 2 month child passed away in an accident or how a building caught fire, people feel sad. The incident of 1945 resulted in massive destruction to land, property, construction, humans, animals and plants. In addition, it destroyed families, hope, expectations and a future. The attack left several people without money and without their family. They were not only deprived of their loved ones, but they saw them die in front of their eyes. This pain made them die every day. It left several mothers with dead and handicapped babies. The bombing inflicted the earth with grief and pain bringing several fatal diseases and making several unexpected miseries a reality.
The attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki might be said to have occurred in reaction to the earlier Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It might also be accredited to American need to win the war or test its weapons. Regardless of the numerous reasons behind the attack, the bombing can never be justified because of the huge damage it caused. Generations were destroyed where every mother feared the illness with which her new child would be born with. People had lost hope. They did not even expect for a flower to grow again or for a life to survive (Shimazu, 1985). Today, the two cities might be busy in the hustle and bustle of life. Technology might have taken a boom and economy might have improved. But people still remember the incident that occurred several years back. With every new individual diagnosed with cancer, the event flashes in front. While children still cry for their parents and grandparents, the people of Japan will never forget what happened with them. They will never let go the incident that ceased life. The bombings destroyed human life and effected the environment in a manner that the radiation continues to leave its mark till today. Thus, despite the reasons portrayed by the American Government, the atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a horrible destruction by taking away lives, food, money, family, love, hope and dreams. The world will always pray to be saved from such an attack.
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