Prior to the outbreak of World War Two, the Americans had started to develop nuclear weapons for the feared the Germans were close to creating one. This was known as the Manhattan Project. While it was led by American scientists, the United States used refugee German scientists to help develop an atomic bomb. These scientists were using uranium-235 and plutonium-239 which were radioactive isotopes and primary components of the atomic bomb. Within a few years, the scientists had created a working atomic bomb. Its first successful test was on July 16, 1945, in a test site in New Mexico. At this point in the war, the Germans had surrendered already. However, the Japanese honored their no surrender tradition and continued to fight. Unfortunately, for them, there was only so much they could do as America continued to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific. Yet, the Japanese fought fiercely and inflicted many casualties upon the Americans. The United States tried to get Japan to accept surrender terms through the Potsdam Declaration but the Japanese rejected it. Several of the top American commanders favored an all-out invasion of Japan that would result in heavy American casualties, however, President Truman wanted to use the atomic bomb to avoid bad press. The US army decided to go with the atomic bomb strategy and on August 6, 1945, they bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima with Little Boy. The damage was astounding yet it did not get Japan to surrender. But three days later when another B-29 bombed the Japanese city of Nagasaki with Big Boy the Japanese had accepted their fate and surrendered. That marked the end of the most devastating war ever.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
https://www.ndl.go.jp/constitution/e/etc/c06.html
It is incredibly sad how much devastating force had to be used in order to end the war. The Japanese policy of no surrender is actually called "bushido." Bushido, which translates to "the way of the warrior," refers to the samurai code of conduct that was prevalent in feudal Japan. However, by the turn of the 19th, bushido was being applied to society as a whole. Bushido was used to emphasized loyalty and sacrifice, including the practice of seppuku (self disembowelment), and often contributed to a greater sense of nationalism, especially during difficult periods and war like the Meiji Restoration, the Sino-Japanese war, and WW2. One infamous example of bushido during WW2 are the deadly kamikaze pilots, who initiated suicide missions to inflict severe damage on the enemy.
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bushido
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-bushido-code-the-eight-virtues-of-the-samurai/
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-bushido-195302https://www.britannica.com/topic/kamikaze
I think this is a great post as it demonstrates the Japanese tradition of no surrender and also illustrates the decision on how the United States would deal with the battle in the Pacific. It is very sad how much damage was inflicted upon the Japanese especially the ordinary citizens living in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosive yield on Hiroshima was equal to 15,000 tons of TNT. Because of this, it destroyed almost 70% of all buildings and caused an estimated 140,000 deaths. The Nagasaki bomb was very destructive, too, killing 74,000. It is very sad how many people were harmed in order for this war to end.
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https://www.icanw.org/the-facts/catastrophic-harm/hiroshima-and-nagasaki-bombings/
This blog was very interesting yet disheartening to read. It's so sad to see how wartime can lead people to forget their morals. I'm sure that some people thought this act of nuclear warfare was justified (because of the bombing in Pearl Harbor), but in my opinion, turning to mass killings of innocent people is never justified or ok. In an article I read, bombings killed between 90,000 and 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 and 80,000 people in Nagasaki, whether due to the actual bombing or later illnesses like radiation sickness. The majority of the dead in both cities were civilians, which to me, is quite horrifying.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Hiroshima-and-Nagasaki
I really liked reading this blog post as it was informative and intriguing. I knew that the bombings were insanely destructive due to the nature of an atomic bomb, but after doing some more research, I was stunned by the severity of the radiation emitted. When researchers collected a jawbone sample from a victim 1 mile from the detonation location, they found that the jawbone experienced 9.6 grays of radiation. To put that into perspective, 5 grays can kill a person, so double the amount of radiation was experienced by that victim of the bomb. This shows the power of atomic bombs and how it has the possibility of wiping out humanity.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/05/02/a-single-jawbone-has-revealed-just-how-much-radiation-hiroshima-bomb-victims-absorbed/