Hibakusha

Hiroshima: Illuminating the Destruction The bombing of Hiroshima during World War II is often depicted through an American lens as a necessary barrage to end the worst wars in history. Despite this means to an end rationalization, the victims of this bombing are usually represented as an integer of casualties, rather than individual human beings. The perspectives of those affected by the bombing came to light when the book Hiroshima was written in 1946. Hiroshima is a nonfiction book written by…

Not only did the atomic bombs kill thousands of innocent Japanese civilians, but it also negatively affected the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its survivors. In the aftermath of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the atomic blast destroyed five square miles of the city and 63 percent of the city’s buildings were destroyed, while 92 percent of the buildings were completely destroyed or significantly damaged. The atomic bomb was still effective even after it was released because…

Motivation for the Bomb As the Manhattan Project drew to an end, President Harry S. Truman knew he was coming upon the most difficult decision of his life. He could drop a bomb that would vaporize thousands of lives but would end a war in Japan, or he could continue on and cause more American, Allied, and Japanese military casualties. Truman decided to use the first atomic bombs ever made, codenamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”, to obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to end what was…