Atomic Bomb Essay -- essays research papers

Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima On the quiet morning of August 6, 1945, the United States shocked the world by dropping an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. (www.grolier.com) Hiroshima was a major industrial city with an estimated population of almost 400,000 people. A B-29 bomber was loaded with the Atomic Bomb and left the United States Pacific air base at 2:45 a.m. local time and dropped the bomb at 8:15 a.m. The bomb was detonated one minute after being dropped. The atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy", which was dropped on the Hiroshima City, exploded at an altitude of 580 meters above a hospital close to the present A-bomb Dome. (Brown, p.38) The mushroom cloud resulting from the explosion reached an estimated altitude of five hundred and twenty meters over Central Hiroshima. The atomic bomb blast obliterated three-fifths of the city within seconds. The atomic bomb gave off uranium-235 and was equivalent in power to approximately 15 kilotons of TNT gunpowder. (www.enviroweb.org) The fireball resulting from the explosion emitted an intense thermal heat, which caused severe burns and loss of eyesight. Most of the people exposed to thermal rays died. In addition, the impact of the bomb landing on the ground created an enormous shock wave closely followed a quick expansion of air. The result was the immediate death of 75,000 people. (www.grolier.com) The long-term effects of the bomb on the environment and children are horrible. Atomic blasts cause many prolonged injuries such as, keloids, cataracts, leukemia and other cancers. (earthbase.org) The total death count for the atomic bombing is estimated at 140,000. This means that almost as many people died from the long-term effects as were killed in the initial explosion. People who think that dropping the bomb was right say that the bomb was the one event that ended the war. Americans believed that the Japanese would fight until the very last man even if there were a dropping of the atomic bomb. Luckily for them the war ended. The reason the United states dropped the atomic bomb was because they wanted the unconditional surrender of Japan. Personally I think they could get Japan to surrender using a different type of method. I think they would have surrendered on their own because the axes powers where starting to diminish. Germany surrendered before they dropped the bomb and the re... ...ll with rain. Because of the wind, the rain did not fall directly on the hypocenter but rather in the northwest region (Koi, Takasu area) of Hiroshima and the eastern region. Nowadays, the radioactivity is so miniscule that it is difficult to distinguish from trace amounts of radioactivity caused by atmospheric atomic-bomb tests. In reading many quotes by bomb survivors and leaders in the Japanese government, I came to the conclusion that they had a lack of respect of for the United States. It wasn’t just from the bombing but from the treatment of them back in the United States but from the mistreatment of the Japanese. The government thought that the Japanese were spies and were giving them military secrets. The government in my eyes thought that the Japanese were no good and looking for trouble. The United States was prejudice against the Japanese. With the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the whole world just assumed that dropping atomic bombs was now fair. This happening started what we called the Cold War. The Cold War was basically a bunch of countries pointing nuclear weapons at each other. This was total chaos throughout the majority of the century.