Hirshima Bombing! Essays - Atomic Bombings Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki

Hirshima Bombing! HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BOMBING Fifty four years ago, the detonation of the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima (and later on Nagasaki) ushered to the Nuclear Age. It was a moment full of horror, in which the eyes of the whole world were opened to the unimaginable possibility of nuclear holocaust. The experience on what happened to those cities and what is still happening to many of the survivors there, leads to explore what happened to America as a consequence of Hiroshima; both the bomb's existence in the world, and the United States having used it. The dropping of the bomb was born out a complex abundance of military, domestic and diplomatic pressures and concerns. The popular tradition view that dominated the 1950s and 60s, put by President Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, was that the use of the bombs was a solely military action that avoided the loss of as many as a million lives in the upcoming invasion of the Island of Kyushu. But while the attacks brought peace, they were al so two of the worst-caused disasters. United States was willing to use nuclear weapons at whatever expense to enemy forces, civilians, infrastructure, or, indeed, the global environment. Many issues have been unresolved and have created a debate on the proliferation and use of the nuclear arms as a result of this. Hiroshima marks a powerful psychological turning point in our attitude toward our own science and technology, because it not only exceeded all previous limits in destruction but had, in effect, declared that there were no limits to destruction. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. Taking the Americans by surprise 19 ships were sunk and about 2,400 American soldiers and sailors were killed. Four years later, on August 6 and August 9, 1945 the Americans would take the Japanese by surprise by destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two atomic bombs. The attack on Pearl Harbor four years earlier was one of the justifications President Truman gave for his decision. Over 240,000 Japanese civilians died--the attack on Pearl Harbor was returned 100 times over. At 2:45 A.M. local time, August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay left the Pacific island of Tinian on a bombing mission. The target: Hiroshima. At 8:15 A.M. Japan time, the first atomic bomb dropped in history The Little Boy (made of uranium) exploded a minute later after being released, at approximately 580 meters above the center of Hiroshima. The temperature of the air at the point of explosion reached several mil lion degrees Celsius. At the moment of explosion, intense heat rays and radiation were released in all directions, and a blast erupted with incredible pressure on the surrounding air. As the unimaginable blast subsided after the blowing from the hypocenter toward the outlying areas, a vacuum of air and pressure was generated in the center. The wind reversed direction and began blowing towards the center from the outlying areas with the intensity of another blast. The shock wave traveling directly from the center of the explosion and the shock waves reflected from the ground and buildings affected each other, creating a variety of significant damage on the ground. After ten seconds, the shock wave had traveled approximately 3.7 km from the hypocenter. The cloud generated by the disturbed air resulting from the explosion was lifted upward by strong currents. As the pillar of radiation-laden smoke reached the bottom of the stratosphere, it spread out horizontally to a diameter of sever al kilometers, forming the shape of a mushroom cap. The top of the atomic cloud reached an altitude of 17,000 meters. After developing into its final stage, the mushroom cloud was dispersed by the wind and dissipated into the surrounding air. In an instant, the explosion reduced the city to a scorched plain, wiping out countless precious lives and inflicting devastation on all city functions. Anyone within a mile of the explosion from the atom bomb became a bundle of smoking black charcoal within seconds. The intense heat that came together with the explosion caused houses and all combustible material in the downtown area to spontaneously combust.