Could you ever image seeing a flash of light and having an entire building crash right on top of you? That was the reality of the people in Hiroshima when they were hit with a nuclear bomb in World War II. A nuclear bomb is an explosive device that blows up due to nuclear reactions. Hiroshima- a city in Japan had an explosion from the first ever nuclear bomb to be used in war causing lots of damage to the city and people. Before the nuclear bomb Hiroshima was a beautiful little city in Japan where people went to visit, shop, and live. People rode their bikes, pushed wagons, walked and rode their boats down the river. They all had an idea something was going to happen from hearing about it on the radio and all the talk around town. Not knowing the exact time something was going to happen was horrifying for the people all over. The nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima not only destroyed the environment but also destroyed the lives of both the people killed and the survivors that lost so much that day. As the bomb went off, the beautiful city of Hiroshima was destroyed within seconds. The immediate heat that had reached up to ten million degrees celsius combined with the blinding flash of light from the bomb is when the citizens of Hiroshima knew it was the end. “Everything flashed whiter than white she had ever seen.” (Hersey 1169) said a survivor from the bombing. Some of the people didn 't die from the bomb itself but from the falling buildings and tree debris. The blast
Wilfred Burchett, an Australian Journalist visited the once thriving Japanese city of Hiroshima, just one month after the devastating atomic bomb and did not approve of the devastation it caused. The bomb (little boy) was dropped over the city, killing over 70,000 people and injuring the same number. He was the first correspondent to enter Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped. “I was people in who … are dying … from these effects of bombing … They lost their appetites, their hair fell out … their flesh began rotting away from their bones” (Source A.).
On August 6, 1945, An american B-29 bomber named Enola Gay which was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb on a Japanese City called Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and killed about 80,000 people. 10,000 people later died from radiation exposure. Hiroshima was 500 miles from Tokyo, was selected as the first target.
The bombs caused so much damage that the cities bombed over 70 years ago are still recovering from the mass destruction today. For example, statistics show that 192,020 people died in Hiroshima, either instantly or over time because of
This was the first nuclear bomb ever deployed. This horrific explosion killed 90% of Hiroshima’s population, combining the 80,000 of whom the bomb killed immediately, and those who later died of radiation exposure. Three days later, another bomb was dropped Nagasaki, which killed another 40,000. These brutal attacks on the Japanese ended with the Japanese surrender in WWII. America became the first to use an atomic weapon during
This bombing raid was extra-ordinary, because unlike the previous bombing raids, which consisted of large numbers of planes, this bomb was delivered by a single plane flying solo above the city. The reason people came out of their shelters to watch is because the plane delivered the bomb on a parachute, thinking it was just a harmless scouting plane, the citizens resumed back to their normal every-day life before it detonated. Previously bombing raids delivered fire bombs, which were different as they mainly targeted the wooden infrastructure and agricultural aspects of Japan, rather than the innocent citizens who could escape and rebuild a life. This cause of dropping the bomb destroyed everything, living or not, with extreme heat and radiation.
Two-thirds of the city’s buildings were destroyed and a 4 mile radius around the blast cite was instantly incinerated, leveling the city. Within 30 minutes of the blast, a “black rain” began over the city dropping dirt, dust and radioactive materials on the city and miles away. This spread the contamination well beyond Hiroshima. This initial bomb did not force the Japanese to surrender. Three days later on August 9, 1945, a second bomb was used on the city of Nagasaki causing Japan to surrender.
This left a black mark in the shape of the person sitting there. Hiroshima before the bombing An aerial view of Hiroshima before the blast. Showing a crowded Japanese city stretching all the way to the mountain rage as shown towards the top of the photo. Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima.
By dropping the Atomic bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States was able to bring an end to the war very quickly which resulted in the prevention of further loss. However, on the other hand, there are strong arguments against the use of the atomic bomb. The victims of the bombing went through serious trauma, 370,000 Japanese civilians all shared similar psychological traits such as lingering fears, imbalances, and breakdowns. Some Japanese survivors walked through dead bodies to escape their houses.
On August 6 at about 8 am, above the Japanese city Hiroshima, two bombers B-29 appeared. The citizens of Hiroshima had noticed, that the aircraft was very small and everyone thought that it was just an ordinary military intelligence. People continued to work without any panic and bustle, acknowledging that this aircraft was actually a deadly weapon called the atomic bomb. After the bomb has reached the target and hit the ground, there was a deafening explosion, which tore the sky and the earth instantly. Blinding flash and terrifying blast covered the whole city with smoke.
Hiroshima, a book by John Hersey, contained details of six people who were part of the people who had survived the nuclear bombing that occurred on Monday August 6, 1945. It was a disastrous morning that claimed the lives of so many people. Dr. Masakazu Fujii, was in his private hospital reading a magazine when the bomb went off. He was flung into the river and squeezed in between two large timbers. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura who had just fed her three children was the closest to the bomb site.
Hiroshima August 6th of 1945 was a nice and sunny day, but it will be remembered one of the most important day for the world. 7:09 am the alarm of the Japan military base went on; the radar detected a bomber at the top of the city but it were gone at 7:31 am. But 45 minutes later another bomber “Enola Gay” came again and drop a new tested bomb that’s named “Little Boy”. It exploded five hundred and seventy meters upon the air and created a seventy thousands meters square fire ball, it raised up about six thousands meter tall. Under that fire ball is pure hell for the civilian, it also created a threes to four thousands degree celsius heat and it burned people into ashes within a second.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened during World War II. World War II was coming to a close and the Japanese were holding on to what little land they had claimed. Meanwhile allowing their people and the people in the surrounding countries to starve. This is because the Japanese would not have surrendered without the bombings, there would have been more Asian civilian casualties had the war gone on, and finally that the Invasion of Japan would have resulted in more American casualties. The evidence clearly shown through historical documents will justify that the bombings were catastrophic and caused many civilian casualties, but was necessary to end World War II.
The first bomb wiped out about 90% of Hiroshima, after the nuclear explosion 40,000 more people began to die from the radiation from the bomb. The second bombing which was on Nagasaki happened August 9th only
Firstly, a summary and basic knowledge will be needed to meet the requirements for understanding the full story. John Hersey’s book Hiroshima implies that the author is just simply wanting to bring awareness of the situation to make the general public comprehend the tragedy. In order for Hersey to be able to make his book, and inform his audience, he asked for 6 people to give their firsthand accounts of the occurrence. Two of them were doctors, two women, and two religious men were used to perceive the whole situation from the most painful moments to the happiest. At the beginning of the book our first character is Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto who is described as a community leader and a Methodist Pastor who luckily is unscathed by the explosion but trouble starts once fire caused by the explosion spreads throughout the town like wildfire forcing him to leave his location.
According to U.S. estimated, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the bomb, 140,000 were injured many more were made homeless as a result of the bomb and some of them were missing. A very dangerous radiation reached over 100,000 kilometers. In the blast, thousands of people died instantly. The city is completely destroyed, there are 90,000 buildings and 60,000 of them were completely destroyed by the explosion. In all, approximately 33% or ⅓ of Hiroshima is completely destroyed.