Hiroshima Bombing Effects

On August 6th, 1945 a bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The plan was authorized by Harry S. Truman and it was the first time in history that a nuclear weapon was used in war. The bombing of Hiroshima has raised many questions about nuclear weapons used in war; the bomb had many negative long-term effects, which include physical, environmental moral issues. The three main causes of the bombing were that the United States wanted to end the war quickly to minimize casualties, they wanted to observe the effects of a nuclear weapon, and Japan refused to surrender to the U.S. The three main effects of the bombing were, the bomb caused significant damage to the city of Hiroshima, moral and legal issues arose, and global politics were considerably …show more content…
The bomb caused significant damage to the city and its inhabitants. The bombing devastated the citizens, Cheek (2005) explains that “The immediate death toll according to estimates from a joint Japanese and American report issued in 1966 was greater than 70,000, including two American prisoners of war, with another 70,000 casualties.” The bomb also caused a lot of environmental damage. The immediate impact nearly destroyed the city, Cheek (2005) explains that “Of the city 's 76,000 buildings, all but 6,000 were damaged and 48,000 were totally destroyed over an area of about eleven square kilometers.” In a split second Hiroshima’s infrastructure was practically nonexistent; homes, transportation systems, and buildings were destroyed and the entire city was completely uninhabitable. The bombing also caused significant psychological damage to the people of the city. The bombing caused hysteria among the people, they were traumatized and constantly afraid. Prior to the bombing, mass air raids were common and people had become accustomed to seeing a plane or small groups of planes so they payed little attention to them, but “after the atomic bombings the appearance of a single plane caused more terror and disruption of normal life than the appearance of many hundreds of planes had ever been able to cause before” (“The Atomic bombings of...,” …show more content…
The bomb brought up many moral and legal questions considering how much damage the bomb caused and how the operation was carried out. Many people were upset, especially Americans, who felt ashamed in their country for being the one’s responsible for all the damage. Very few people praised the bombing but many people openly criticised the decision to bomb the city, saying that the U.S. committed a crime against humanity, and that the United State’s decision would influence other countries to consider using nuclear weapons (Steele, n.d.). David Lawrence, editor of the United States News, was one of the most outspoken critics of the bomb and he compared the atomic bomb to gas chambers used by the Nazis during the Holocaust, Lawrence (1945) wrote "If the right to use the atomic bomb is sanctioned, then the right to invent weapons that will deal a so-called merciful death--indeed as quick and instantaneous as the lethal chambers of Buchenwald--is also sanctioned.” More legal and moral issues arose when people realized how poorly this operation was carried out. After the bombing, many people involved in the bombing of Hiroshima talked about what happened with the project, one of which was General Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, and he made many statements that showed exactly how poorly the situation was handled and the little planning that went into this project. He admitted that "There