Hiroshima Bombing Essay

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The war in the Pacific was one that was truly amongst the Japanese and the Americans. After the bombing in Pearl Harbor in 1941 by the Japanese the tension between these two countries grew incredibly. But the years 1944 and 1945 are huge for the war in the Pacific. So much happens that leads to the surrender of the Japanese forces. It also forever changes military tactics with the production and use of the atomic bomb. This paper will discuss the firebombing of Tokyo, the dropping of the atomic bombs and lastly the surrender of Japan. The bombing of Tokyo was one of the first major moments leading up to an Allied victory. This took place on the night of March 9-10, 1945. General Curtis LeMay was leading this air strike by the Americans. The …show more content…
The first dropping of a bomb was on August 6, 1945, and then a few days later another is dropped on the 9 of August 1945. The bomb was dropped by the United States on Japanese cities in hopes of a final end to the war. Before America decided to drop the bomb they did consider options. They were probably always going to drop it but since they had no way of knowing what it would do they did have to create a backup plan if it didn’t work. They created Operation Downfall. This would have been an on land attack, by putting soldiers on the ground in Japan. If it came to this it was estimated that American would lose around 500,000 deaths in this operation. This would be more than any in the whole world. This was not an option for America unless the bombs didn’t …show more content…
The plane that dropped the bomb is known as the Enola Gay, flown by Colonel Paul Tibbets. The bomb was ten feet and called the "Little Boy” it was created using uranium-235, a radioactive isotope of uranium. “Within three miles of the explosion, 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings were demolished” . The city was completely destroyed and full of rubble. “Hiroshima 's population has been estimated at 350,000; approximately 70,000 died immediately from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radiation within five years” . No surrender came after the destruction of the first city. The military of Japan didn’t want to give up. This was partially for their culture that surrendering was so incredibly low and cowardly. this came from the belief that death is worse than surrendering for your country. So that led to the dropping of the second bomb. “ In 1953, a report by the US Strategic Bombing Survey put the number of deaths at 35,000, wounded at 60,000 and 5,000 missing. In 1960, the Japanese put the number of dead at Nagasaki at 20,000 and the number of wounded at 50,000. Later, the Nagasaki Prefectural Office put the figure for deaths alone at 87,000 with 70% of the city 's industrial zone destroyed” . These numbers are horrific. The Americans after the bombing are happy that it finally leads to the war ending. Also they were happy that their men were not killed in these bombings. It was seen

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