Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki



When Harry S. Thurman came to presidency, the war with Japan was in chaos, there were too many casualties and there was need for immediate acting. The proposal for the Atomic Bomb was made and Thurman knowing little about it supported it, and then it was accepted by congress, then it was dropped in Hiroshima, Japan was devastated but reluctant to surrender, therefore they dropped another bomb in Nagazaki, which made Japan finally surrender on August 15th, 1945.

Allies perspective
August 18th, 1945

On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb known as “The Little Boy” dropped down in to the city of Hiroshima. The bomb consisted of 12 to 15,000 tons of TNT and destroyed an area of five square miles. 60 percent of buildings were destroyed that day. Japanese estimated that the total death toll was about 118,661 civilians, but later estimates that the final toll was about 140,000 people out of 350,000 in Hiroshima. Those who survived suffered long-term sickness and disability. After the first one, three days later the United States sent another atomic bomb, only this time a Nagasaki. This one was much bigger, stronger and spread more wide weighing about 4,050 kilograms. Since Nagasaki is surrounded by mountains the destruction of the bomb wasn’t as strong, only spreading the most at 2.6 square miles, about 74,000 civilians killed and some injured only. With the two atomic bombs hitting Japan they had no choice but to surrender. They surrendered to the Allied Forces on August 14, 1945.

Japanese perspective
As it was still a normal day for Dr. Michihiko Hachiya, everything was as usual a bright sunny day and having a good day’s rest. All of the sudden there was a bright light that covered everywhere; at first he thought it was just a stone lantern of some kind. But after the light had faded away, he noticed that his whole was destroyed, his shirt and pants were even gone. As he was trying to get out into open field he noticed that his wife was also missing, so he shouted out her name again and again until finally she emerged out from the floor. They immediately went into the direction of the hospital, Dr. Michihiko Hachiya noticed every house was destroyed. Continuing on, Dr. Michihiko Hachiya started to lose energy every few minutes. He told his wife that she would have to gone on without him first so then she could call for help. His wounds were getting worse, he was losing more and more blood. While moving on in a slow pace he came out to a open road where he saw others houses removed from the bomb, he saw other people injured, holding their arms and crying for help. As he watched he noticed everyone’s face had an expression of suffering in them, nobody was making any sounds. While others were moving toward the hospital, Dr. Michihiko Hachiya joined them in march and finally was able to reach the Communications Bureau.