This day in History 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

History.com ^ | August 6, 2007 | Staff

[abb]

The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War.

Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having been warned by Albert Einstein that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. By the time the United States conducted the first successful test (an atomic bomb was exploded in the desert in New Mexico in July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan in the Pacific, however, continued to rage. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.

In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have suggested that the weapons had a two-pronged objective. First, of course, was to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end and spare American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union. By August 1945, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had deteriorated badly. The Potsdam Conference between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill (before being replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima. The meeting was marked by recriminations and suspicion between the Americans and Soviets. Russian armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe. Truman and many of his advisers hoped that the U.S. atomic monopoly might offer diplomatic leverage with the Soviets. In this fashion, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan can be seen as the first shot of the Cold War. If U.S. officials truly believed that they could use their atomic monopoly for diplomatic advantage, they had little time to put their plan into action. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race began.

[mainepatsfan]

Not to mention the fact there very well could have been a North and South Japan.

[caver]

“BTW, someone ask the author how he feels about Russia starting up Cold War II. pooty started this one all by his lonesome!”

There’s a number of Soviet cheerleaders on FR lately. They’ll be along shortly trying to rewrite the Commies history.

[caver]

A very likely possibility.

[COBOL2Java]

Red Dawn over Mecca

[ovrtaxt]

And to think some people actually flip out over Tancredo’s ‘nuke Mecca’ policy.

I have no problem with that.

[LibLieSlayer]

Yep... lots of enemies hang here these days.

LLS

[ASA Vet]

The U.S. lost almost 100,000 KIA in WW-III, it wasn’t cold.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

One of those might have been my dad. He had mostly recovered from a crash landing in India (he was a pilot in the CBI Campaign) but was notified in ‘45 that because of a pilot shortage, the AAF would need his services again for the invasion. Fortunately, he wasn’t needed for a second tour.

[econjack]

Are they sure they can’t blame George Bush?

Wait a few hours...as we speak, the MSM is ironing out the last few details of their version of the Time-Warp Continuum theory which shows conclusively that GW is responsible for WWII.

[chimera]

Yep, stand by for our annual rite of self-flagellation. Every year it happens, without fail. I’m so weary of it.

[chimera]

I’m probably one. My Dad was in Germany awaiting orders for the Pacific campaign when they dropped the bomb. He’d survived D-Day and the campaigns in Northern France and into Germany, and was probably headed over for the invasion of Japan. Instead, he came home to marry the girl he loved, raise his family, and live a good and decent life. Dropping those bombs saved many an American family. In wartime, you look out for your own and don’t worry as much about your enemy.

[SJSAMPLE]

"exactly 62 years after the United States detonated the first-ever nuclear bomb over Hiroshima"

Those guys at the Trinity test site would surely have been surprised by this statementm ;)

[LibLieSlayer]

GOD bless him!

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

GOD bless your Dad!

LLS

[Lou L]

they rarely if ever report about the japanese death marches and always report but step over the sneak attack of the japanese...

Believe it or not, I watched a great documentary on the "final months" of the war in the Pacific last night, on PBS of all places.

The Japanese had a chance to surrender after we fire-bombed Tokyo in May of 1945. They did not (they refused to even consider it.)

The Japanese planned to use the Battle for Okinawa, in the summer of 1945, as a bargaining chip to perhaps achieve a conditional surrender--one in which they could maintain their imperial government. Despite a three-month battle in which Japan finally lost, they did not surrender.

Japan knew at that point, an invasion of their mainland was imminent, but did everything they could to hold their ground. Perhaps a half million or more American forces were projected to lose their lives in such an invasion, and probably far more Japanese.

To their credit, Japan fought an honorable war, but they refused to surrender prior to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan had ample reasons to surrender prior to August, 1945, but nothing compelled the, as did the atomic bombs.

[Pistolshot]

The explosive detonated at White Sands, NM in July was an implosive device similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki. Called the 'Gadget', it was mounted on top of a tower for the detonation. My grand-uncle remembers seeing like a 'sunrise' in the south that morning. He lived in Taos at the time, about 400 miles away.
The Little Boy, as it was known, was a 'gun' type of device, that the scientists were pretty confident would work as it did. The problem with the gun type is to increase yield meant increasing size.
The implosive device would limit the need to make a larger and larger device that might not have been feasible to carry by air.

[Pistolshot]

For more information on experiments.

Nuclear Weapon Archive.

[Ragnar54]

The Japanese should consider the alternative. We could have kept building and dropping atomic bombs for months (the Carhtaginian solution). Instead, we let them surrender and then we rebuilt Japan into a modern, civilized, economically strong society. The nuclear medicine the Greatest Generation applied was good for Japan. It would be good for any country run by a death cult "religion". We would be justified in applying this cure to any country using suicide bombers to murder thousands of American troops.

Fly the flag today. Set off fireworks tonight.

[Brujo]

To their credit, Japan fought an honorable war, ...

I think there are any number of veterans of the Pacific campaign who might dispute that.

[dfwgator]

The results speak for themselves. The two atom bombs ended WWII. End of argument.

And saved even more Japanese lives than American lives.