Nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: causes and consequences

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons in human history. Carried out by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II in order to hasten the surrender of Japan in the Pacific theater of World War II.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American bomber B-29 "Enola Gay", named after the mother (Enola Gay Haggard) of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" ("Baby") on the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb "Fat Man" ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.

The shock of the US atomic bombings had a profound effect on Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and Japanese Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori, who were inclined to believe that the Japanese government should end the war.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender, formally ending World War II, was signed on September 2, 1945.

The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.

Prerequisites

In September 1944, at a meeting between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Hyde Park, an agreement was concluded, according to which the possibility of using atomic weapons against Japan was envisaged.

By the summer of 1945, the United States of America, with the support of Great Britain and Canada, within the framework of the Manhattan Project, completed preparatory work to create the first working models of nuclear weapons.

After three and a half years of direct US involvement in World War II, about 200,000 Americans were killed, about half of them in the war against Japan. In April-June 1945, during the operation to capture the Japanese island of Okinawa, more than 12 thousand American soldiers were killed, 39 thousand were injured (Japanese losses ranged from 93 to 110 thousand soldiers and over 100 thousand civilians). It was expected that the invasion of Japan itself would lead to losses many times greater than those of Okinawan.

Model of the bomb "Kid" (eng. Little boy), dropped on Hiroshima

May 1945: Target selection

During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Targeting Committee recommended as targets for the use of atomic weapons Kyoto (the largest industrial center), Hiroshima (the center of army warehouses and a military port), Yokohama (the center of military industry), Kokuru (the largest military arsenal) and Niigata (military port and engineering center). The committee rejected the idea of ​​using these weapons against a purely military target, as there was a chance of overshooting a small area not surrounded by a vast urban area.

When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:

achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,

the first use of the weapon must be significant enough for international recognition of its importance. The committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was supported by the fact that its population had a higher level of education and thus were better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima, on the other hand, was of such a size and location that, given the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.

US Secretary of War Henry Stimson struck Kyoto off the list due to the city's cultural significance. According to Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, Stimson "knew and appreciated Kyoto from his honeymoon there decades ago."

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the map of Japan

On July 16, the world's first successful test of an atomic weapon was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons of TNT.

On July 24, during the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed Stalin that the United States had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Truman did not specify that he was referring specifically to atomic weapons. According to Truman's memoirs, Stalin showed little interest, remarking only that he was glad and hoped that the US could use him effectively against the Japanese. Churchill, who carefully observed Stalin's reaction, remained of the opinion that Stalin did not understand the true meaning of Truman's words and did not pay attention to him. At the same time, according to Zhukov's memoirs, Stalin perfectly understood everything, but did not show it and, in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting, noted that "It will be necessary to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work." After the declassification of the operation of the American intelligence services "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodor Hall, a few days before the Potsdam conference, even announced the planned date for the first nuclear test. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1944.

On July 25, Truman approved the order, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as the weather allowed, and in the future, the following cities, as bombs arrived.

On July 26, the governments of the United States, Britain, and China signed the Potsdam Declaration, which set out the demand for Japan's unconditional surrender. The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the declaration.

The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration, which had been broadcast over the radio and scattered in leaflets from airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government has not expressed a desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was nothing more than the old arguments of the Cairo Declaration in a new wrapper, and demanded that the government ignore it.

Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet response to the evasive diplomatic moves of the Japanese, did not change the decision of the government. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that the imperial power must be protected at all costs.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Combined Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was a few miles from the rest of the units and was carefully guarded.

On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the order for the combat use of nuclear weapons. This order, drafted by the head of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, ordered a nuclear strike "on any day after the third of August, as soon as weather conditions permit." On July 29, US Strategic Air Command General Karl Spaats arrived on Tinian, delivering Marshall's order to the island.

On July 28 and August 2, components of the Fat Man atomic bomb were brought to Tinian by aircraft.

Hiroshima during World War II

Hiroshima was located on a flat area, slightly above sea level at the mouth of the Ota River, on 6 islands connected by 81 bridges. The population of the city before the war was over 340 thousand people, which made Hiroshima the seventh largest city in Japan. The city was the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Main Army of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, who commanded the defense of all of Southern Japan. Hiroshima was an important supply base for the Japanese army.

In Hiroshima (as well as in Nagasaki), most buildings were one- and two-story wooden buildings with tiled roofs. Factories were located on the outskirts of the city. Outdated fire equipment and insufficient training of personnel created a high fire hazard even in peacetime.

The population of Hiroshima peaked at 380,000 during the course of the war, but before the bombing, the population gradually decreased due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack, the population was about 245 thousand people.

Bombardment

The main target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (Kokura and Nagasaki were spares). Although Truman's order called for the atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.

On August 6, at 1:45 am, an American B-29 bomber under the command of the commander of the 509th mixed aviation regiment, Colonel Paul Tibbets, carrying the atomic bomb "Baby" on board, took off from Tinian Island, which was about 6 hours from Hiroshima. Tibbets' aircraft ("Enola Gay") flew as part of a formation that included six other aircraft: a spare aircraft ("Top Secret"), two controllers and three reconnaissance aircraft ("Jebit III", "Full House" and "Street Flash"). Reconnaissance aircraft commanders sent to Nagasaki and Kokura reported significant cloud cover over these cities. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft, Major Iserli, found out that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and sent a signal "Bomb the first target."

Around 7 a.m., a network of Japanese early warning radars detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid alert was issued and radio broadcasts stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At about 08:00 a radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of incoming aircraft was very small—perhaps no more than three—and the air raid alert was called off. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard message was broadcast over the radio that it would be wise to go to the bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually seen, and that it was not a raid that was expected, but just some kind of reconnaissance.

At 08:15 local time, the B-29, being at an altitude of over 9 km, dropped an atomic bomb on the center of Hiroshima.

The first public announcement of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.

The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank entrance at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter

explosion effect

Those closest to the epicenter of the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to coal. Birds flying past burned up in the air, and dry, flammable materials such as paper ignited up to 2 km from the epicenter. Light radiation burned the dark pattern of clothes into the skin and left the silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside the houses described a blinding flash of light, which simultaneously came with a wave of suffocating heat. The blast wave, for all who were near the epicenter, followed almost immediately, often knocking down. Those in the buildings tended to avoid exposure to the light from the explosion, but not the blast—glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was blasted out of his house across the street as the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were at a distance of 800 meters or less from the epicenter died.

The blast wave shattered glass at a distance of up to 19 km. For those in the buildings, the typical first reaction was the thought of a direct hit from an aerial bomb.

Numerous small fires that simultaneously broke out in the city soon merged into one large fire tornado, which created a strong wind (speed of 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The fiery tornado captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not have time to get out within the first few minutes after the explosion.

According to the memoirs of Akiko Takakura, one of the few survivors who were at the time of the explosion at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter,

Three colors characterize for me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black because the explosion cut off the sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood flowing from wounded and broken people. It was also the color of the fires that burned everything in the city. Brown was the color of burnt, peeling skin exposed to light from the explosion.

A few days after the explosion, among the survivors, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of exposure. Soon, the number of deaths among survivors began to rise again as patients who seemed to be recovering began to suffer from this strange new disease. Deaths from radiation sickness peaked 3-4 weeks after the explosion and began to decline only after 7-8 weeks. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. The long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the explosion.

The first person in the world whose cause of death was officially indicated as a disease caused by the consequences of a nuclear explosion (radiation poisoning) was the actress Midori Naka, who survived the Hiroshima explosion, but died on August 24, 1945. Journalist Robert Jung believes that it was Midori's disease and its popularity among ordinary people allowed people to know the truth about the emerging "new disease". Until the death of Midori, no one attached importance to the mysterious deaths of people who survived the moment of the explosion and died under circumstances unknown to science at the time. Jung believes that Midori's death was the impetus for accelerated research in nuclear physics and medicine, which soon managed to save the lives of many people from radiation exposure.

Japanese awareness of the consequences of the attack

The Tokyo operator of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation noticed that the Hiroshima station stopped broadcasting the signal. He tried to re-establish the broadcast using a different phone line, but that also failed. About twenty minutes later, the Tokyo Rail Telegraph Control Center realized that the main telegraph line had stopped working just north of Hiroshima. From a halt 16 km from Hiroshima, unofficial and confusing reports of a terrible explosion came. All these messages were forwarded to the headquarters of the Japanese General Staff.

Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Hiroshima Command and Control Center. The complete silence from there baffled the General Staff, since they knew that there was no major enemy raid in Hiroshima and there was no significant explosives depot. The young staff officer was instructed to immediately fly to Hiroshima, land, assess the damage, and return to Tokyo with reliable information. The headquarters basically believed that nothing serious happened there, and the reports were explained by rumors.

The officer from the headquarters went to the airport, from where he flew to the southwest. After a three-hour flight, while still 160 km from Hiroshima, he and his pilot noticed a large cloud of smoke from the bomb. It was a bright day and the ruins of Hiroshima were burning. Their plane soon reached the city around which they circled in disbelief. From the city there was only a zone of continuous destruction, still burning and covered with a thick cloud of smoke. They landed south of the city, and the officer reported the incident to Tokyo and immediately began organizing rescue efforts.

The first real understanding by the Japanese of what really caused the disaster came from a public announcement from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima after the atomic explosion

Loss and destruction

The number of deaths from the direct impact of the explosion ranged from 70 to 80 thousand people. By the end of 1945, due to the action of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths was from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200 thousand people.

According to official Japanese data as of March 31, 2013, there were 201,779 "hibakusha" alive - people affected by the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This number includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions (predominantly living in Japan at the time of count). Of these, 1%, according to the Japanese government, had serious cancers caused by radiation exposure after the bombings. The number of deaths as of August 31, 2013 is about 450 thousand: 286,818 in Hiroshima and 162,083 in Nagasaki.

Nuclear pollution

The concept of "radioactive contamination" did not yet exist in those years, and therefore this issue was not even raised then. People continued to live and rebuild the destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality of the population in subsequent years, as well as diseases and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. The evacuation of the population from the contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.

It is rather difficult to give an accurate assessment of the degree of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since technically the first atomic bombs were relatively low-yield and imperfect (the "Kid" bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only approximately 700 g reacted division), the level of pollution of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, several tons of fission products and transuranium elements, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor, were in the reactor core.

Comparative preservation of some buildings

Some of the reinforced concrete buildings in Hiroshima were very stable (due to the risk of earthquakes) and their framework did not collapse despite being quite close to the center of destruction in the city (the epicenter of the explosion). Thus stood the brick building of the Hiroshima Chamber of Industry (now commonly known as the "Genbaku Dome", or "Atomic Dome"), designed and built by Czech architect Jan Letzel, which was only 160 meters from the epicenter of the explosion (at the height of the bomb detonation 600 m above the surface). The ruins became the most famous exhibit of the Hiroshima atomic explosion and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, over objections raised by the US and Chinese governments.

On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that

We are now ready to destroy, even faster and more completely than before, all Japanese land-based production facilities in any city. We will destroy their docks, their factories and their communications. Let there be no misunderstanding - we will completely destroy Japan's ability to wage war.

It was to prevent the destruction of Japan that an ultimatum was issued on July 26 in Potsdam. Their leadership immediately rejected his terms. If they do not accept our terms now, let them expect a rain of destruction from the air, the likes of which have not yet been seen on this planet.

Upon receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government met to discuss their response. Beginning in June, the emperor advocated peace negotiations, but the Minister of Defense, as well as the leadership of the army and navy, believed that Japan should wait to see if attempts at peace negotiations through the Soviet Union would yield better results than unconditional surrender. The military leadership also believed that if they could hold out until the invasion of the Japanese islands began, it would be possible to inflict such losses on the Allied forces that Japan could win peace terms other than unconditional surrender.

On August 9, the USSR declared war on Japan and Soviet troops launched an invasion of Manchuria. Hopes for the mediation of the USSR in the negotiations collapsed. The top leadership of the Japanese army began preparations for declaring martial law in order to prevent any attempts at peace negotiations.

The second atomic bombing (Kokura) was scheduled for 11 August but was pushed back 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather that was forecast to begin on 10 August.

Nagasaki during World War II

Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range divided the districts of the city.

The development was chaotic: out of the total city area of ​​90 km², 12 were built up with residential quarters.

During the Second World War, the city, which was a major seaport, also acquired special significance as an industrial center, in which steel production and the Mitsubishi shipyard, Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo production were concentrated. Guns, ships and other military equipment were made in the city.

Nagasaki was not subjected to large-scale bombing until the explosion of the atomic bomb, but as early as August 1, 1945, several high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city, damaging shipyards and docks in the southwestern part of the city. Bombs also hit the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories. The August 1 raid resulted in a partial evacuation of the population, especially schoolchildren. However, at the time of the bombing, the city's population was still around 200,000.

Nagasaki before and after the atomic explosion

Bombardment

The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the spare was Nagasaki.

At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.

Unlike the first bombardment, the second was fraught with numerous technical problems. Even before takeoff, a fuel pump malfunction was discovered in one of the spare fuel tanks. Despite this, the crew decided to conduct the flight as planned.

At about 7:50 am, an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 am.

At 08:10, after reaching a rendezvous point with other B-29s participating in the sortie, one of them was found missing. For 40 minutes, Sweeney's B-29 circled around the rendezvous point, but did not wait for the missing aircraft to appear. At the same time, reconnaissance aircraft reported that the cloudiness over Kokura and Nagasaki, although present, still allows for bombing under visual control.

At 08:50, B-29, carrying the atomic bomb, headed for Kokura, where it arrived at 09:20. By this time, however, 70% cloud cover was already observed over the city, which did not allow visual bombing. After three unsuccessful visits to the target, at 10:32 B-29 headed for Nagasaki. By this point, due to a fuel pump failure, there was only enough fuel for one pass over Nagasaki.

At 10:53, two B-29s came into the air defense field of view, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance and did not announce a new alarm.

At 10:56 B-29 arrived at Nagasaki, which, as it turned out, was also obscured by clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach. At the last moment, however, bombardier-gunner Captain Kermit Behan (eng.) in the gap between the clouds noticed the silhouette of the city stadium, focusing on which, he dropped the atomic bomb.

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.

explosion effect

Japanese boy whose upper body was not covered during the explosion

A hastily aimed bomb exploded almost midway between the two main targets in Nagasaki, the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories to the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo factory to the north. If the bomb had been dropped further south, between the business and residential areas, the damage would have been much greater.

In general, although the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect of the explosion was less. This was facilitated by a combination of factors - the presence of hills in Nagasaki, as well as the fact that the epicenter of the explosion was located above the industrial zone - all this helped to protect some areas of the city from the consequences of the explosion.

From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:

I was knocked to the ground (from my bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. Large rocks were flying in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again...

When everything seemed to calm down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin, from the shoulder to the fingertips, was hanging like tattered tatters.

Loss and destruction

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of ​​​​approximately 110 km², of which 22 were on the water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited.

According to a Nagasaki Prefecture report, "humans and animals died almost instantly" up to 1 km from the epicenter. Nearly all houses within a 2 km radius were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper ignited up to 3 km away from the epicenter. Of the 52,000 buildings in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and another 5,400 were severely damaged. Only 12% of the buildings remained intact. Although there was no fire tornado in the city, numerous localized fires were observed.

The death toll by the end of 1945 ranged from 60 to 80 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account those who died from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 140 thousand people.

Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan

The US government expected another atomic bomb to be ready for use in mid-August, and three more each in September and October. On August 10, Leslie Groves, military director of the Manhattan Project, sent a memorandum to George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army, in which he wrote that "the next bomb ... should be ready for use after August 17-18." On the same day, Marshall signed a memorandum with the comment that "it should not be used against Japan until the express approval of the President is obtained." At the same time, discussions have already begun in the US Department of Defense on the advisability of postponing the use of bombs until the start of Operation Downfall, the expected invasion of the Japanese islands.

The problem we are now facing is whether, assuming the Japanese do not capitulate, we should continue to drop bombs as they are produced, or accumulate them in order to then drop everything in a short period of time. Not all in one day, but within a fairly short time. This is also related to the question of what goals we are pursuing. In other words, shouldn't we focus on the targets that will help the invasion the most, and not on industry, troop morale, psychology, etc.? Mostly tactical goals, and not some others.

Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation

Up until August 9, the war cabinet continued to insist on 4 terms of surrender. On August 9, news came of the declaration of war by the Soviet Union late in the evening of August 8, and of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at 11 o'clock in the afternoon. At the meeting of the "big six", held on the night of August 10, the votes on the issue of surrender were divided equally (3 "for", 3 "against"), after which the emperor intervened in the discussion, speaking in favor of surrender. On August 10, 1945, Japan handed over to the Allies an offer of surrender, the only condition of which was that the Emperor be retained as a nominal head of state.

Because the terms of the surrender allowed for the continuation of imperial power in Japan, on August 14, Hirohito recorded his surrender statement, which was circulated by the Japanese media the next day, despite an attempted military coup by opponents of the surrender.

In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:

... in addition, the enemy has a terrible new weapon that can take many innocent lives and cause immeasurable material damage. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the collapse and annihilation of the Japanese nation, but also to the complete disappearance of human civilization.

In such a situation, how can we save millions of our subjects or justify ourselves before the sacred spirit of our ancestors? For this reason, we have ordered the acceptance of the terms of the joint declaration of our adversaries.

Within a year of the end of the bombing, 40,000 American troops were stationed in Hiroshima and 27,000 in Nagasaki.

Commission for the Study of the Consequences of Atomic Explosions

In the spring of 1948, the National Academy of Sciences Commission on the Effects of Atomic Explosions was formed at Truman's direction to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among the victims of the bombing, many uninvolved people were found, including prisoners of war, forced mobilization of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya, and about 3,200 Japanese Americans.

In 1975, the Commission was dissolved, its functions were transferred to the newly created Institute for the Study of the Effects of Radiation Exposure (English Radiation Effects Research Foundation).

Debate on the expediency of atomic bombings

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical validity are still the subject of scientific and public discussion. In a 2005 review of historiography on the subject, the American historian Samuel Walker wrote that "the debate about the appropriateness of the bombing will definitely continue." Walker also noted that "the fundamental question, which has been debated for more than 40 years, is whether these atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the Pacific War on terms acceptable to the United States."

Supporters of the bombings usually claim that they were the cause of Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant losses on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the quick end of the war saved many lives elsewhere in Asia (primarily in China); that Japan was waging an all-out war in which the distinctions between the military and the civilian population are blurred; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped to shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombings argue that they were simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus had no military necessity, that they were fundamentally immoral, a war crime, or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 there was no there were international agreements or treaties directly or indirectly prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).

A number of researchers express the opinion that the main purpose of the atomic bombings was to influence the USSR before it entered the war with Japan in the Far East and to demonstrate the atomic power of the United States.

Impact on culture

In the 1950s, the story of a Japanese girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from the effects of radiation (leukemia), became widely known. Already in the hospital, Sadako learned about the legend, according to which a person who folded a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will surely come true. Wishing to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands. According to the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Canadian children's writer Eleanor Coer, Sadako only managed to fold 644 cranes before she died in October 1955. Her friends finished the rest of the figurines. According to Sadako's 4,675 Days of Life, Sadako folded a thousand cranes and continued to fold, but later died. Several books have been written based on her story.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons in human history. Carried out by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II in order to hasten the surrender of Japan in the Pacific theater of World War II.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American bomber B-29 "Enola Gay", named after the mother (Enola Gay Haggard) of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" ("Baby") on the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb "Fat Man" ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.

The shock of the US atomic bombings had a profound effect on Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and Japanese Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori, who were inclined to believe that the Japanese government should end the war.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender, formally ending World War II, was signed on September 2, 1945.

The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.

Prerequisites

In September 1944, at a meeting between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Hyde Park, an agreement was concluded, according to which the possibility of using atomic weapons against Japan was envisaged.

By the summer of 1945, the United States of America, with the support of Great Britain and Canada, within the framework of the Manhattan Project, completed preparatory work to create the first working models of nuclear weapons.

After three and a half years of direct US involvement in World War II, about 200,000 Americans were killed, about half of them in the war against Japan. In April-June 1945, during the operation to capture the Japanese island of Okinawa, more than 12 thousand American soldiers were killed, 39 thousand were injured (Japanese losses ranged from 93 to 110 thousand soldiers and over 100 thousand civilians). It was expected that the invasion of Japan itself would lead to losses many times greater than those of Okinawan.

Model of the bomb "Kid" (eng. Little boy), dropped on Hiroshima

May 1945: Target selection

During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Targeting Committee recommended as targets for the use of atomic weapons Kyoto (the largest industrial center), Hiroshima (the center of army warehouses and a military port), Yokohama (the center of military industry), Kokuru (the largest military arsenal) and Niigata (military port and engineering center). The committee rejected the idea of ​​using these weapons against a purely military target, as there was a chance of overshooting a small area not surrounded by a vast urban area.

When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:

achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,

the first use of the weapon must be significant enough for international recognition of its importance. The committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was supported by the fact that its population had a higher level of education and thus were better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima, on the other hand, was of such a size and location that, given the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.

US Secretary of War Henry Stimson struck Kyoto off the list due to the city's cultural significance. According to Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, Stimson "knew and appreciated Kyoto from his honeymoon there decades ago."

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the map of Japan

On July 16, the world's first successful test of an atomic weapon was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons of TNT.

On July 24, during the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed Stalin that the United States had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Truman did not specify that he was referring specifically to atomic weapons. According to Truman's memoirs, Stalin showed little interest, remarking only that he was glad and hoped that the US could use him effectively against the Japanese. Churchill, who carefully observed Stalin's reaction, remained of the opinion that Stalin did not understand the true meaning of Truman's words and did not pay attention to him. At the same time, according to Zhukov's memoirs, Stalin perfectly understood everything, but did not show it and, in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting, noted that "It will be necessary to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work." After the declassification of the operation of the American intelligence services "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodor Hall, a few days before the Potsdam conference, even announced the planned date for the first nuclear test. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1944.

On July 25, Truman approved the order, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as the weather allowed, and in the future, the following cities, as bombs arrived.

On July 26, the governments of the United States, Britain, and China signed the Potsdam Declaration, which set out the demand for Japan's unconditional surrender. The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the declaration.

The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration, which had been broadcast over the radio and scattered in leaflets from airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government has not expressed a desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was nothing more than the old arguments of the Cairo Declaration in a new wrapper, and demanded that the government ignore it.

Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet response to the evasive diplomatic moves of the Japanese, did not change the decision of the government. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that the imperial power must be protected at all costs.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Combined Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was a few miles from the rest of the units and was carefully guarded.

On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the order for the combat use of nuclear weapons. This order, drafted by the head of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, ordered a nuclear strike "on any day after the third of August, as soon as weather conditions permit." On July 29, US Strategic Air Command General Karl Spaats arrived on Tinian, delivering Marshall's order to the island.

On July 28 and August 2, components of the Fat Man atomic bomb were brought to Tinian by aircraft.

Hiroshima during World War II

Hiroshima was located on a flat area, slightly above sea level at the mouth of the Ota River, on 6 islands connected by 81 bridges. The population of the city before the war was over 340 thousand people, which made Hiroshima the seventh largest city in Japan. The city was the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Main Army of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, who commanded the defense of all of Southern Japan. Hiroshima was an important supply base for the Japanese army.

In Hiroshima (as well as in Nagasaki), most buildings were one- and two-story wooden buildings with tiled roofs. Factories were located on the outskirts of the city. Outdated fire equipment and insufficient training of personnel created a high fire hazard even in peacetime.

The population of Hiroshima peaked at 380,000 during the course of the war, but before the bombing, the population gradually decreased due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack, the population was about 245 thousand people.

Bombardment

The main target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (Kokura and Nagasaki were spares). Although Truman's order called for the atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.

On August 6, at 1:45 am, an American B-29 bomber under the command of the commander of the 509th mixed aviation regiment, Colonel Paul Tibbets, carrying the atomic bomb "Baby" on board, took off from Tinian Island, which was about 6 hours from Hiroshima. Tibbets' aircraft ("Enola Gay") flew as part of a formation that included six other aircraft: a spare aircraft ("Top Secret"), two controllers and three reconnaissance aircraft ("Jebit III", "Full House" and "Street Flash"). Reconnaissance aircraft commanders sent to Nagasaki and Kokura reported significant cloud cover over these cities. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft, Major Iserli, found out that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and sent a signal "Bomb the first target."

Around 7 a.m., a network of Japanese early warning radars detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid alert was issued and radio broadcasts stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At about 08:00 a radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of incoming aircraft was very small—perhaps no more than three—and the air raid alert was called off. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard message was broadcast over the radio that it would be wise to go to the bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually seen, and that it was not a raid that was expected, but just some kind of reconnaissance.

At 08:15 local time, the B-29, being at an altitude of over 9 km, dropped an atomic bomb on the center of Hiroshima.

The first public announcement of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.

The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank entrance at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter

explosion effect

Those closest to the epicenter of the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to coal. Birds flying past burned up in the air, and dry, flammable materials such as paper ignited up to 2 km from the epicenter. Light radiation burned the dark pattern of clothes into the skin and left the silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside the houses described a blinding flash of light, which simultaneously came with a wave of suffocating heat. The blast wave, for all who were near the epicenter, followed almost immediately, often knocking down. Those in the buildings tended to avoid exposure to the light from the explosion, but not the blast—glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was blasted out of his house across the street as the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were at a distance of 800 meters or less from the epicenter died.

The blast wave shattered glass at a distance of up to 19 km. For those in the buildings, the typical first reaction was the thought of a direct hit from an aerial bomb.

Numerous small fires that simultaneously broke out in the city soon merged into one large fire tornado, which created a strong wind (speed of 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The fiery tornado captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not have time to get out within the first few minutes after the explosion.

According to the memoirs of Akiko Takakura, one of the few survivors who were at the time of the explosion at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter,

Three colors characterize for me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black because the explosion cut off the sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood flowing from wounded and broken people. It was also the color of the fires that burned everything in the city. Brown was the color of burnt, peeling skin exposed to light from the explosion.

A few days after the explosion, among the survivors, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of exposure. Soon, the number of deaths among survivors began to rise again as patients who seemed to be recovering began to suffer from this strange new disease. Deaths from radiation sickness peaked 3-4 weeks after the explosion and began to decline only after 7-8 weeks. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. The long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the explosion.

The first person in the world whose cause of death was officially indicated as a disease caused by the consequences of a nuclear explosion (radiation poisoning) was the actress Midori Naka, who survived the Hiroshima explosion, but died on August 24, 1945. Journalist Robert Jung believes that it was Midori's disease and its popularity among ordinary people allowed people to know the truth about the emerging "new disease". Until the death of Midori, no one attached importance to the mysterious deaths of people who survived the moment of the explosion and died under circumstances unknown to science at the time. Jung believes that Midori's death was the impetus for accelerated research in nuclear physics and medicine, which soon managed to save the lives of many people from radiation exposure.

Japanese awareness of the consequences of the attack

The Tokyo operator of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation noticed that the Hiroshima station stopped broadcasting the signal. He tried to re-establish the broadcast using a different phone line, but that also failed. About twenty minutes later, the Tokyo Rail Telegraph Control Center realized that the main telegraph line had stopped working just north of Hiroshima. From a halt 16 km from Hiroshima, unofficial and confusing reports of a terrible explosion came. All these messages were forwarded to the headquarters of the Japanese General Staff.

Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Hiroshima Command and Control Center. The complete silence from there baffled the General Staff, since they knew that there was no major enemy raid in Hiroshima and there was no significant explosives depot. The young staff officer was instructed to immediately fly to Hiroshima, land, assess the damage, and return to Tokyo with reliable information. The headquarters basically believed that nothing serious happened there, and the reports were explained by rumors.

The officer from the headquarters went to the airport, from where he flew to the southwest. After a three-hour flight, while still 160 km from Hiroshima, he and his pilot noticed a large cloud of smoke from the bomb. It was a bright day and the ruins of Hiroshima were burning. Their plane soon reached the city around which they circled in disbelief. From the city there was only a zone of continuous destruction, still burning and covered with a thick cloud of smoke. They landed south of the city, and the officer reported the incident to Tokyo and immediately began organizing rescue efforts.

The first real understanding by the Japanese of what really caused the disaster came from a public announcement from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima after the atomic explosion

Loss and destruction

The number of deaths from the direct impact of the explosion ranged from 70 to 80 thousand people. By the end of 1945, due to the action of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths was from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200 thousand people.

According to official Japanese data as of March 31, 2013, there were 201,779 "hibakusha" alive - people affected by the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This number includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions (predominantly living in Japan at the time of count). Of these, 1%, according to the Japanese government, had serious cancers caused by radiation exposure after the bombings. The number of deaths as of August 31, 2013 is about 450 thousand: 286,818 in Hiroshima and 162,083 in Nagasaki.

Nuclear pollution

The concept of "radioactive contamination" did not yet exist in those years, and therefore this issue was not even raised then. People continued to live and rebuild the destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality of the population in subsequent years, as well as diseases and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. The evacuation of the population from the contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.

It is rather difficult to give an accurate assessment of the degree of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since technically the first atomic bombs were relatively low-yield and imperfect (the "Kid" bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only approximately 700 g reacted division), the level of pollution of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, several tons of fission products and transuranium elements, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor, were in the reactor core.

Comparative preservation of some buildings

Some of the reinforced concrete buildings in Hiroshima were very stable (due to the risk of earthquakes) and their framework did not collapse despite being quite close to the center of destruction in the city (the epicenter of the explosion). Thus stood the brick building of the Hiroshima Chamber of Industry (now commonly known as the "Genbaku Dome", or "Atomic Dome"), designed and built by Czech architect Jan Letzel, which was only 160 meters from the epicenter of the explosion (at the height of the bomb detonation 600 m above the surface). The ruins became the most famous exhibit of the Hiroshima atomic explosion and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, over objections raised by the US and Chinese governments.

On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that

We are now ready to destroy, even faster and more completely than before, all Japanese land-based production facilities in any city. We will destroy their docks, their factories and their communications. Let there be no misunderstanding - we will completely destroy Japan's ability to wage war.

It was to prevent the destruction of Japan that an ultimatum was issued on July 26 in Potsdam. Their leadership immediately rejected his terms. If they do not accept our terms now, let them expect a rain of destruction from the air, the likes of which have not yet been seen on this planet.

Upon receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government met to discuss their response. Beginning in June, the emperor advocated peace negotiations, but the Minister of Defense, as well as the leadership of the army and navy, believed that Japan should wait to see if attempts at peace negotiations through the Soviet Union would yield better results than unconditional surrender. The military leadership also believed that if they could hold out until the invasion of the Japanese islands began, it would be possible to inflict such losses on the Allied forces that Japan could win peace terms other than unconditional surrender.

On August 9, the USSR declared war on Japan and Soviet troops launched an invasion of Manchuria. Hopes for the mediation of the USSR in the negotiations collapsed. The top leadership of the Japanese army began preparations for declaring martial law in order to prevent any attempts at peace negotiations.

The second atomic bombing (Kokura) was scheduled for 11 August but was pushed back 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather that was forecast to begin on 10 August.

Nagasaki during World War II

Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range divided the districts of the city.

The development was chaotic: out of the total city area of ​​90 km², 12 were built up with residential quarters.

During the Second World War, the city, which was a major seaport, also acquired special significance as an industrial center, in which steel production and the Mitsubishi shipyard, Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo production were concentrated. Guns, ships and other military equipment were made in the city.

Nagasaki was not subjected to large-scale bombing until the explosion of the atomic bomb, but as early as August 1, 1945, several high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city, damaging shipyards and docks in the southwestern part of the city. Bombs also hit the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories. The August 1 raid resulted in a partial evacuation of the population, especially schoolchildren. However, at the time of the bombing, the city's population was still around 200,000.

Nagasaki before and after the atomic explosion

Bombardment

The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the spare was Nagasaki.

At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.

Unlike the first bombardment, the second was fraught with numerous technical problems. Even before takeoff, a fuel pump malfunction was discovered in one of the spare fuel tanks. Despite this, the crew decided to conduct the flight as planned.

At about 7:50 am, an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 am.

At 08:10, after reaching a rendezvous point with other B-29s participating in the sortie, one of them was found missing. For 40 minutes, Sweeney's B-29 circled around the rendezvous point, but did not wait for the missing aircraft to appear. At the same time, reconnaissance aircraft reported that the cloudiness over Kokura and Nagasaki, although present, still allows for bombing under visual control.

At 08:50, B-29, carrying the atomic bomb, headed for Kokura, where it arrived at 09:20. By this time, however, 70% cloud cover was already observed over the city, which did not allow visual bombing. After three unsuccessful visits to the target, at 10:32 B-29 headed for Nagasaki. By this point, due to a fuel pump failure, there was only enough fuel for one pass over Nagasaki.

At 10:53, two B-29s came into the air defense field of view, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance and did not announce a new alarm.

At 10:56 B-29 arrived at Nagasaki, which, as it turned out, was also obscured by clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach. At the last moment, however, bombardier-gunner Captain Kermit Behan (eng.) in the gap between the clouds noticed the silhouette of the city stadium, focusing on which, he dropped the atomic bomb.

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.

explosion effect

Japanese boy whose upper body was not covered during the explosion

A hastily aimed bomb exploded almost midway between the two main targets in Nagasaki, the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories to the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo factory to the north. If the bomb had been dropped further south, between the business and residential areas, the damage would have been much greater.

In general, although the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect of the explosion was less. This was facilitated by a combination of factors - the presence of hills in Nagasaki, as well as the fact that the epicenter of the explosion was located above the industrial zone - all this helped to protect some areas of the city from the consequences of the explosion.

From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:

I was knocked to the ground (from my bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. Large rocks were flying in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again...

When everything seemed to calm down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin, from the shoulder to the fingertips, was hanging like tattered tatters.

Loss and destruction

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of ​​​​approximately 110 km², of which 22 were on the water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited.

According to a Nagasaki Prefecture report, "humans and animals died almost instantly" up to 1 km from the epicenter. Nearly all houses within a 2 km radius were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper ignited up to 3 km away from the epicenter. Of the 52,000 buildings in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and another 5,400 were severely damaged. Only 12% of the buildings remained intact. Although there was no fire tornado in the city, numerous localized fires were observed.

The death toll by the end of 1945 ranged from 60 to 80 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account those who died from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 140 thousand people.

Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan

The US government expected another atomic bomb to be ready for use in mid-August, and three more each in September and October. On August 10, Leslie Groves, military director of the Manhattan Project, sent a memorandum to George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army, in which he wrote that "the next bomb ... should be ready for use after August 17-18." On the same day, Marshall signed a memorandum with the comment that "it should not be used against Japan until the express approval of the President is obtained." At the same time, discussions have already begun in the US Department of Defense on the advisability of postponing the use of bombs until the start of Operation Downfall, the expected invasion of the Japanese islands.

The problem we are now facing is whether, assuming the Japanese do not capitulate, we should continue to drop bombs as they are produced, or accumulate them in order to then drop everything in a short period of time. Not all in one day, but within a fairly short time. This is also related to the question of what goals we are pursuing. In other words, shouldn't we focus on the targets that will help the invasion the most, and not on industry, troop morale, psychology, etc.? Mostly tactical goals, and not some others.

Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation

Up until August 9, the war cabinet continued to insist on 4 terms of surrender. On August 9, news came of the declaration of war by the Soviet Union late in the evening of August 8, and of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at 11 o'clock in the afternoon. At the meeting of the "big six", held on the night of August 10, the votes on the issue of surrender were divided equally (3 "for", 3 "against"), after which the emperor intervened in the discussion, speaking in favor of surrender. On August 10, 1945, Japan handed over to the Allies an offer of surrender, the only condition of which was that the Emperor be retained as a nominal head of state.

Because the terms of the surrender allowed for the continuation of imperial power in Japan, on August 14, Hirohito recorded his surrender statement, which was circulated by the Japanese media the next day, despite an attempted military coup by opponents of the surrender.

In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:

... in addition, the enemy has a terrible new weapon that can take many innocent lives and cause immeasurable material damage. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the collapse and annihilation of the Japanese nation, but also to the complete disappearance of human civilization.

In such a situation, how can we save millions of our subjects or justify ourselves before the sacred spirit of our ancestors? For this reason, we have ordered the acceptance of the terms of the joint declaration of our adversaries.

Within a year of the end of the bombing, 40,000 American troops were stationed in Hiroshima and 27,000 in Nagasaki.

Commission for the Study of the Consequences of Atomic Explosions

In the spring of 1948, the National Academy of Sciences Commission on the Effects of Atomic Explosions was formed at Truman's direction to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among the victims of the bombing, many uninvolved people were found, including prisoners of war, forced mobilization of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya, and about 3,200 Japanese Americans.

In 1975, the Commission was dissolved, its functions were transferred to the newly created Institute for the Study of the Effects of Radiation Exposure (English Radiation Effects Research Foundation).

Debate on the expediency of atomic bombings

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical validity are still the subject of scientific and public discussion. In a 2005 review of historiography on the subject, the American historian Samuel Walker wrote that "the debate about the appropriateness of the bombing will definitely continue." Walker also noted that "the fundamental question, which has been debated for more than 40 years, is whether these atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the Pacific War on terms acceptable to the United States."

Supporters of the bombings usually claim that they were the cause of Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant losses on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the quick end of the war saved many lives elsewhere in Asia (primarily in China); that Japan was waging an all-out war in which the distinctions between the military and the civilian population are blurred; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped to shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombings argue that they were simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus had no military necessity, that they were fundamentally immoral, a war crime, or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 there was no there were international agreements or treaties directly or indirectly prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).

A number of researchers express the opinion that the main purpose of the atomic bombings was to influence the USSR before it entered the war with Japan in the Far East and to demonstrate the atomic power of the United States.

Impact on culture

In the 1950s, the story of a Japanese girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from the effects of radiation (leukemia), became widely known. Already in the hospital, Sadako learned about the legend, according to which a person who folded a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will surely come true. Wishing to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands. According to the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Canadian children's writer Eleanor Coer, Sadako only managed to fold 644 cranes before she died in October 1955. Her friends finished the rest of the figurines. According to Sadako's 4,675 Days of Life, Sadako folded a thousand cranes and continued to fold, but later died. Several books have been written based on her story.

Image copyright AP Image caption Hiroshima a month after the bombing

70 years ago, on August 6, 1945, the United States used nuclear weapons for the first time against the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9, this happened for the second and, hopefully, the last time in history: the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their moral assessment is still a matter of controversy.

Manhattan Project

The possibility of using uranium fission for military purposes became obvious to specialists as early as the beginning of the 20th century. In 1913, H.G. Wells wrote the fantasy novel The World Set Free, in which he described the nuclear bombing of Paris by the Germans with many reliable details and for the first time used the term "atomic bomb".

In June 1939, University of Birmingham scientists Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls calculated that the critical mass of the charge should be at least 10 kg of enriched uranium-235.

Around the same time, European physicists who fled from the Nazis in the United States noticed that their German colleagues, who dealt with relevant issues, had disappeared from the public field, and concluded that they were engaged in a secret military project. The Hungarian Leo Szilard asked Albert Einstein to use his authority to influence Roosevelt.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Albert Einstein opened the eyes of the White House

On October 11, 1939, an appeal signed by Einstein, Szilard and the future "father of the hydrogen bomb" Edward Teller was read by the president. History has preserved his words: "This requires action." According to others, Roosevelt called the Secretary of War and said, "Make sure the Nazis don't blow us up."

Large-scale work began on December 6, 1941, coincidentally the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The project was given the code name Manhattan. Brigadier General Leslie Groves, who knew nothing about physics and did not like "egg-headed" scientists, was appointed leader, but he had experience in organizing large-scale construction. In addition to "Manhattan", he is known for the construction of the Pentagon, to this day the largest building in the world.

As of June 1944, 129 thousand people were employed in the project. Its approximate cost was two billion then (about 24 billion current) dollars.

Russian historian that Germany did not acquire a bomb, not because of anti-fascist scientists or Soviet intelligence, but because the United States was the only country in the world economically capable of doing so in a war. Both in the Reich and in the USSR, all resources went to the current needs of the front.

"Frank Report"

The progress of work at Los Alamos was closely monitored by Soviet intelligence. Her task was made easier by the leftist beliefs of many physicists.

A few years ago, the Russian television channel NTV made a film, according to which the scientific director of the "Manhattan Project" Robert Oppenheimer allegedly suggested that Stalin come to the USSR and create a bomb back in the late 1930s, but the Soviet leader preferred to do it for American money, and get the results in finished form.

This is a legend, Oppenheimer and other leading scientists were not agents in the generally accepted sense of the word, but they were frank in conversations on scientific topics, although they guessed that the information was going to Moscow, because they found it fair.

In June 1945, some of them, including Szilard, sent a report known by the name of one of the authors, Nobel laureate James Frank, to Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Instead of bombarding Japanese cities, scientists suggested holding a demonstrative explosion in an uninhabited place, wrote about the impossibility of maintaining a monopoly, and predicted a nuclear arms race.

Target selection

During Roosevelt's visit to London in September 1944, he and Churchill agreed to use nuclear weapons against Japan as soon as they were ready.

On April 12, 1945, the President died suddenly. After the first meeting of the administration, which was presided over by Harry Truman, who had not previously been privy to many secret matters, Stimson remained and informed the new leader that weapons of unprecedented power would soon be in his hands.

The most important US contribution to the Soviet nuclear project was the successful test in the Alamogordo desert. When it became clear that it was possible in principle to do this, we could not have received any more information - we would have done it anyway Andrey Gagarinsky, adviser to the director of the Kurchatov Institute

On July 16, the Americans conducted a test of a nuclear charge with a capacity of 21 kilotons in the Alamogordo desert. The result exceeded expectations.

On July 24, during Truman, as if casually, he told Stalin about the miracle weapon. He showed no interest in the topic.

Truman and Churchill decided that the old dictator did not understand the importance of what he heard. In fact, Stalin knew all the details about the test from the agent Theodore Hall, who was recruited in 1944.

On May 10-11, the newly formed Target Selection Committee met at Los Alamos and recommended four Japanese cities: Kyoto (the historical imperial capital and large industrial center), Hiroshima (large military depots and the headquarters of the 2nd Army of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata), Kokuru (engineering enterprises and the largest arsenal) and Nagasaki (military shipyards, an important port).

Henry Stimson crossed out Kyoto because of its historical and cultural monuments and sacred role for the Japanese people. According to American historian Edwin Reischauer, the minister "knew and loved Kyoto since his honeymoon spent decades ago."

Final stage

On July 26, the United States, Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration demanding Japan's unconditional surrender.

According to researchers, after the defeat of Germany, Emperor Hirohito realized the futility of further struggle and desired negotiations, but hoped that the USSR would act as a neutral mediator on them, and the Americans would be afraid of heavy casualties during the assault on the Japanese islands, and thus succeed by giving up positions in China and Korea, avoid surrender and occupation.

Let there be no misunderstanding - we will completely destroy Japan's ability to wage war. It was to prevent the destruction of Japan that an ultimatum was issued on July 26 in Potsdam. If they don't accept our terms now, let them expect a rain of aerial destruction like never before on this planet President Truman's statement after the bombing of Hiroshima

On July 28, the Japanese government rejected the Potsdam Declaration. The military command began to prepare for the implementation of the "Yasper to smithereens" plan, which provided for the total mobilization of the civilian population and its arming with bamboo spears.

At the end of May, a secret 509th air group was formed on the island of Tinian.

On July 25, Truman signed a directive to launch a nuclear strike "on any day after August 3, weather permitting." On July 28, it was duplicated in the combat order by the Chief of Staff of the American Army, George Marshall. The next day, Commander-in-Chief of Strategic Aviation Karl Spaats flew to Tinian.

On July 26, the Indianapolis cruiser delivered the Little Boy atomic bomb with a yield of 18 kilotons to the base. The components of the second bomb, codenamed "Fat Man", with a yield of 21 kilotons, were airlifted on July 28 and August 2 and assembled on site.

Judgment Day

On August 6, at 01:45 local time, a B-29 "air fortress" piloted by the commander of the 509th air group, Colonel Paul Tibbets and named Enola Gay after his mother, took off from Tinian and reached the target six hours later.

On board was a bomb "Kid", on which someone wrote: "For those killed at Indianapolis." The cruiser that delivered the charge to Tinian was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30. 883 sailors died, about half of whom were eaten by sharks.

The Enola Gay was escorted by five reconnaissance aircraft. Crews sent to Kokura and Nagasaki reported heavy cloud cover, and over Hiroshima the sky was clear.

The Japanese air defense issued an air alert, but canceled it when they saw that there was only one bomber.

At 08:15 local time, a B-29 dropped the "Baby" on the center of Hiroshima from a height of 9 km. The charge worked at an altitude of 600 meters.

After about 20 minutes in Tokyo, they noticed that all forms of communication with the city had been cut off. Then, from a railway station 16 km from Hiroshima, a confused message came in about some kind of monstrous explosion. The officer of the General Staff, sent by plane to find out what was the matter, saw the glow for 160 kilometers and found it hard to find a place to land in the vicinity.

The Japanese learned about what happened to them only 16 hours later from an official statement made in Washington.

Goal #2

The bombing of Kokura was scheduled for August 11, but was delayed by two days due to a long period of bad weather predicted by forecasters.

At 02:47, a B-29, under the command of Major Charles Sweeney with a bomb, "Fat Man" took off from Tinian.

I was knocked to the ground from my bike, and for a while the ground shook. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed. I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. Large rocks flew through the air, one hit me and then flew back up into the sky. When everything calmed down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin was hanging from the shoulder to the fingertips, like tattered rags Sumiteru Taniguchi, 16-year-old resident of Nagasaki

Kokura was saved for the second time by heavy cloud cover. Arriving at the reserve target, Nagasaki, which had previously hardly been subjected to even ordinary raids, the crew saw that the sky was overcast there too.

Since there was little fuel left for the return trip, Sweeney was about to drop the bomb at random, but then the gunner, Captain Kermit Behan, saw the city stadium in the gap between the clouds.

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters.

If the first raid went smoothly from a technical point of view, then Sweeney's crew had to repair the fuel pump all the time.

Returning to Tinian, the aviators saw that there was no one around the runway.

Exhausted by the difficult hours-long mission and annoyed by the fact that three days ago everyone was running around with the Tibbets crew, as if with a written bag, they turned on all the alarm signals at once: “We are going to an emergency landing”; "Aircraft damaged"; "Killed and wounded on board." Ground personnel poured out of the buildings, fire engines rushed to the landing site.

The bomber froze, Sweeney descended from the cockpit to the ground.

"Where are the dead and wounded?" they asked him. The major waved his hand in the direction from which he had just arrived: "They all stayed there."

Effects

One resident of Hiroshima, after the explosion, went to relatives in Nagasaki, fell under the second blow, and survived again. But not everyone is so lucky.

The population of Hiroshima was 245 thousand, Nagasaki 200 thousand people.

Both cities were built up mainly with wooden houses that flared up like paper. In Hiroshima, the blast wave was further amplified by the surrounding hills.

Three colors characterize for me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black because the explosion cut off the sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood and fires. Brown was the color of the burnt, peeling skin of Akiko Takahura, who survived 300 meters from the epicenter of the explosion

90% of people who were within a kilometer radius of the epicenters died instantly. Their bodies turned to charcoal, the light emitted silhouettes of bodies on the walls.

Everything that could burn flared up within a radius of two kilometers, windows were broken in houses within a radius of 20 kilometers.

The victims of the raid on Hiroshima were about 90 thousand, Nagasaki - 60 thousand people. Another 156,000 died in the next five years from diseases associated by doctors with the consequences of nuclear explosions.

A number of sources give total figures of 200,000 victims of Hiroshima and 140,000 of Nagasaki.

The Japanese had no idea about radiation and did not take any precautions, and doctors at first considered vomiting a symptom of disinteria. For the first time, the mysterious “radiation sickness” was discussed after the death of the popular actress Midori Naka, who lived in Hiroshima, on August 24 from leukemia.

According to official Japanese data as of March 31, 2013, 201,779 hibakusha lived in the country - people who survived the atomic bombings and their descendants. According to the same data, 286,818 "Hiroshima" and 162,083 "Nagasaki" hibakusha died in 68 years, although decades later death could also have been caused by natural causes.

Memory

Image copyright AP Image caption Every year on August 6, white doves are released in front of the Atomic Dome.

The world went around the touching story of a girl from Hiroshima Sadako Sasaki, who survived Hiroshima at the age of two, and at the age of 12 she fell ill with blood cancer. According to Japanese belief, any desire of a person will be fulfilled if he makes a thousand paper cranes. Lying in the hospital, she folded 644 cranes and died in October 1955.

In Hiroshima, the reinforced concrete building of the Chamber of Industry, located just 160 meters from the epicenter, was built before the war by the Czech architect Jan Letzel, counting on an earthquake, and now known as the "Atomic Dome".

In 1996, UNESCO included it in the list of protected world heritage sites, despite the objections of Beijing, which believed that honoring the victims of Hiroshima offended the memory of the Chinese who suffered from Japanese aggression.

The American participants in the nuclear bombings subsequently commented on this episode of their biography in the spirit: "War is war." The only exception was Major Claude Iserly, commander of the reconnaissance aircraft, who reported that the skies over Hiroshima were clear. He subsequently suffered from depression and participated in the pacifist movement.

Was there a need?

Soviet history textbooks unequivocally asserted that "the use of atomic bombs was not caused by military necessity" and was dictated solely by the desire to intimidate the USSR.

Truman has been quoted as saying after Stimson's report: "If this thing blows up, I'll have a good stick against the Russians."

The debate about the advisability of the bombing will definitely continue Samuel Walker, American historian

At the same time, the former American ambassador to Moscow, Averell Harriman, argued that, at least in the summer of 1945, Truman and his entourage had no such considerations.

“In Potsdam, no one had such an idea. The prevailing opinion was that Stalin should be treated as an ally, albeit a difficult one, in the hope that he would behave in the same way,” a high-ranking diplomat wrote in his memoirs.

The operation to capture one small island, Okinawa, lasted two months and claimed the lives of 12,000 Americans. According to military analysts, in the event of a landing on the main islands (Operation Downfall), the battles would last another year, and the number of US casualties could rise to a million.

The entry into the war of the Soviet Union, of course, was an important factor. But the defeat of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria practically did not weaken the defense capability of the Japanese metropolis, since it would still be impossible to transfer troops there from the mainland due to the overwhelming superiority of the United States at sea and in the air.

Meanwhile, already on August 12, at a meeting of the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki resolutely declared the impossibility of further struggle. One of the arguments voiced then was that in the event of a nuclear strike on Tokyo, not only subjects born to selflessly die for the fatherland and mikado, but also the sacred person of the emperor, could suffer.

The threat was real. On August 10, Leslie Groves informed General Marshall that the next bomb would be ready for use on August 17-18.

At the disposal of the enemy is a new terrible weapon that can take many innocent lives and cause immeasurable material damage. In such a situation, how can we save millions of our subjects or justify ourselves before the sacred spirit of our ancestors? For this reason, we ordered to accept the terms of the joint declaration of our opponents From the declaration of Emperor Hirohito of August 15, 1945

On August 15, Emperor Hirohito issued a decree of surrender, and the Japanese began to surrender en masse. The corresponding act was signed on September 2 on board the American battleship Missouri, which entered Tokyo Bay.

According to historians, Stalin was dissatisfied with the fact that this happened so soon, and the Soviet troops did not have time to land on Hokkaido. Two divisions of the first echelon had already concentrated on Sakhalin, waiting for the signal to move.

It would be logical if the surrender of Japan on behalf of the USSR was accepted by the commander-in-chief in the Far East, Marshal Vasilevsky, as in Germany Zhukov. But the leader, showing disappointment, sent a minor person to the Missouri - Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko.

Subsequently, Moscow demanded that the Americans allocate Hokkaido to it as a zone of occupation. Claims were withdrawn and relations with Japan were normalized only in 1956, after the resignation of Stalin's Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov.

Ultimate Weapon

At first, both American and Soviet strategists considered atomic bombs as conventional weapons, only with increased power.

In the USSR in 1956, a large-scale exercise was held at the Totsk training ground to break through the enemy’s fortified defenses with the actual use of nuclear weapons. US Strategic Air Commander Thomas Powell around the same time ridiculed scientists who warned about the effects of radiation: "Who said two heads are worse than one?"

But over time, especially after the appearance in 1954, capable of killing not by tens of thousands, but by tens of millions, Albert Einstein's point of view prevailed: "If in world war number three they will fight with atomic bombs, then in world war number four they will fight with clubs" .

Stalin's successor Georgy Malenkov at the end of 1954 published in Pravda in the event of a nuclear war and the need for peaceful coexistence.

Nuclear war is insane. There will be no winners Albert Schweitzer, physician, philanthropist, Nobel Peace Prize winner

John F. Kennedy, after a mandatory briefing for the new president with the secretary of defense, bitterly exclaimed: "Do we still call ourselves the human race?"

Both in the West and in the East, the nuclear threat has receded into the background in the mass consciousness according to the principle: "If this has not happened so far, then it will not happen further." The problem has moved into the mainstream of many years of sluggish negotiations on reduction and control.

In fact, the atomic bomb turned out to be the “ultimate weapon” that philosophers have been talking about for centuries, one that will make impossible, if not wars at all, then their most dangerous and bloody variety: total conflicts between great powers.

The build-up of military power according to the Hegelian law of negation of negation turned into its opposite.

Their only enemy in World War II was Japan, which also had to surrender soon. It was at this point that the United States decided to show its military power. On August 6 and 9, they dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after which Japan finally capitulated. AiF.ru recalls the stories of people who managed to survive this nightmare.

According to various sources, from the explosion itself and in the first weeks after it, from 90 to 166 thousand people died in Hiroshima, and from 60 to 80 thousand in Nagasaki. However, there were those who managed to stay alive.

In Japan, such people are called hibakusha or hibakusha. This category includes not only the survivors themselves, but also the second generation - children born to women who suffered from the explosions.

In March 2012, there were 210 thousand people officially recognized by the government as hibakusha, and more than 400 thousand did not live to this moment.

Most of the remaining hibakusha live in Japan. They receive some state support, but in Japanese society there is a prejudiced attitude towards them, bordering on discrimination. For example, they and their children may not be hired, so sometimes they deliberately hide their status.

miraculous rescue

An extraordinary story happened to the Japanese Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both bombings. Summer 1945 young engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who worked for Mitsubishi, went on a business trip to Hiroshima. When the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city, it was only 3 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi's eardrums were blown out by the blast, and an incredibly bright white light blinded him for a while. He received severe burns, but still survived. Yamaguchi reached the station, found his wounded colleagues, and with them went home to Nagasaki, where he became the victim of a second bombardment.

By an evil twist of fate, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was again 3 kilometers from the epicenter. When he was telling his boss at the company office about what happened to him in Hiroshima, the same white light suddenly flooded the room. Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived this explosion as well.

Two days later, he received another large dose of radiation when he almost came close to the epicenter of the explosion, unaware of the danger.

Long years of rehabilitation, suffering and health problems followed. Tsutomu Yamaguchi's wife also suffered from the bombing - fell under the black radioactive rain. Not escaped the consequences of radiation sickness and their children, some of them died of cancer. Despite all this, Tsutomu Yamaguchi after the war got a job again, lived like everyone else and supported his family. Until he was old, he tried not to attract much attention to himself.

In 2010, Tsutomu Yamaguchi passed away from cancer at the age of 93. He became the only person who was officially recognized by the Japanese government as a victim of the bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Life is like a struggle

When the bomb fell on Nagasaki, the 16-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi delivering mail on a bike. In his own words, he saw what looked like a rainbow, then the blast wave threw him off his bike to the ground and destroyed nearby houses.

After the explosion, the teenager survived, but was seriously injured. The tattered skin hung in tatters from his arms, and there was none on his back at all. At the same time, according to Sumiteru Taniguchi, he did not feel pain, but his strength left him.

With difficulty, he found other victims, but most of them died the night after the explosion. Three days later, Sumiteru Taniguchi was rescued and sent to the hospital.

In 1946, an American photographer took the famous photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi with horrific burns on his back. The young man's body was mutilated for life

For several years after the war, Sumiteru Taniguchi could only lie on his stomach. He was released from the hospital in 1949, but his wounds were not properly treated until 1960. In total, Sumiteru Taniguchi underwent 10 operations.

Recovery was aggravated by the fact that then people first encountered radiation sickness and did not yet know how to treat it.

The tragedy experienced had a huge impact on Sumiteru Taniguchi. He devoted his whole life to the fight against the spread of nuclear weapons, became a well-known activist and chairman of the Council of victims during the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.

Today, 84-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi lectures around the world about the terrible consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and why they should be abandoned.

Round orphan

For 16 year old Mikoso Iwasa August 6 was a typical hot summer day. He was in the yard of his house when the neighboring children suddenly saw a plane in the sky. Then an explosion followed. Despite the fact that the teenager was less than one and a half kilometers from the epicenter, the wall of the house protected him from the heat and the blast wave.

However, Mikoso Iwasa's family was not so lucky. The boy's mother was at that time in the house, she was filled with rubble, and she could not get out. He lost his father before the explosion, and his sister was never found. So Mikoso Iwasa became an orphan.

And although Mikoso Iwasa miraculously escaped severe burns, he still received a huge dose of radiation. Due to radiation sickness, he lost his hair, his body became covered with a rash, his nose and gums began to bleed. He has been diagnosed with cancer three times.

His life, like the lives of many other hibakusha, turned into misery. He was forced to live with this pain, with this invisible disease for which there is no cure and which is slowly killing a person.

Among hibakusha, it is customary to remain silent about this, but Mikoso Iwasa did not remain silent. Instead, he became involved in the fight against the spread of nuclear weapons and helping other hibakusha.

To date, Mikiso Iwasa is one of the three chairmen of the Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Victims Organizations.

Was it necessary to bomb Japan at all?

Disputes about the advisability and ethical side of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have not subsided to this day.

Initially, the American authorities insisted that they were necessary to force Japan to capitulate as soon as possible and thereby prevent the losses among its own soldiers that would be possible in the event of a US invasion of the Japanese islands.

However, according to many historians, the surrender of Japan even before the bombing was a matter of course. It was only a matter of time.

The decision to drop bombs on Japanese cities turned out to be rather political - the United States wanted to scare the Japanese and demonstrate their military power to the whole world.

It is also important to mention that not all American officials and high-ranking military officials supported this decision. Among those who considered the bombings unnecessary was Army General Dwight Eisenhower who later became President of the United States.

Hibakusha's attitude towards explosions is unequivocal. They believe that the tragedy that they experienced should never be repeated in the history of mankind. And that is why some of them dedicated their lives to the fight for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Photochronology after the explosion: the horror that the United States tried to hide.

August 6 is not an empty phrase for Japan, it is the moment of one of the greatest horrors ever committed in the war.

On this day, the bombing of Hiroshima took place. In 3 days, the same barbaric act will be repeated, knowing the consequences for Nagasaki.

This nuclear barbarism, worthy of the worst nightmare, partially eclipsed the Jewish Holocaust carried out by the Nazis, but this act placed then-President Harry Truman on the same list of genocide.

Because he ordered 2 atomic bombs to be fired on the civilian population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the direct death of 300,000 people, thousands more died a few weeks later, and thousands of survivors were physically and psychologically marked by the side effects of the bomb.

As soon as President Truman became aware of the damage, he said, "This is the greatest event in history."

In 1946, the US government forbade the circulation of any testimony about this massacre, and millions of photographs were destroyed, and pressure in the US forced the defeated Japanese government to create an edict in which speaking of "this fact" was an attempt to disturb the public peace, and therefore was forbidden.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Of course, on the part of the American government, the use of nuclear weapons was an act to hasten the surrender of Japan, how justified such an act was, posterity will discuss for many centuries.

On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay bomber took off from a base in the Marianas. The crew consisted of twelve people. The training of the crew was lengthy, it consisted of eight training flights and two sorties. In addition, a rehearsal of a bomb drop on an urban settlement was organized. The rehearsal took place on July 31, 1945, a training ground was used as a settlement, a bomber dropped a model of a supposed bomb.

On August 6, 1945, a sortie was made, a bomb was on board the bomber. The power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 14 kilotons of TNT. Having completed the task, the crew of the aircraft left the affected area and arrived at the base. The results of the medical examination of all crew members are still kept secret.

After completing this task, a second flight of another bomber was made. The Bockscar bomber crew consisted of thirteen people. Their task was to drop a bomb on the city of Kokura. Departure from the base took place at 02:47 and at 09:20 the crew reached their destination. Arriving at the place, the crew of the aircraft found heavy cloud cover and after several visits, the command instructed to change the destination to the city of Nagasaki. The crew reached their destination at 10:56, but there was also cloud cover that prevented the operation. Unfortunately, the goal had to be met, and this time the cloudiness did not save the city. The power of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21 kilotons of TNT.

In what year Hiroshima and Nagasaki were subjected to a nuclear attack, it is precisely indicated in all sources that August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima and August 9, 1945 - Nagasaki.

The explosion of Hiroshima claimed the lives of 166 thousand people, the explosion of Nagasaki claimed the lives of 80 thousand people.

Nagasaki after the nuclear explosion

Over time, some document and photo came to light, but what happened, compared with the images of German concentration camps that were strategically distributed by the American government, was nothing more than the fact of what happened in the war and was partially justified.

Thousands of victims had photos without a face. Here are some of those photos:

All clocks stopped at 8:15, the time of the attack.

The heat and explosion cast the so-called "nuclear shadow", here you can see the pillars of the bridge.

Here you can see the silhouette of two people who were sprayed instantly.

200 meters from the explosion, on the stairs of the bench, there is a shadow of a man who opened the doors. 2,000 degrees burned him on the step.

human suffering

The bomb exploded almost 600 meters above the center of Hiroshima, 70,000 people died instantly from 6,000 degrees Celsius, the rest were killed by a shock wave that left the building standing and destroyed trees within a radius of 120 km.

A few minutes and the atomic mushroom reaches a height of 13 kilometers, causing acid rain that kills thousands of people who escaped the initial explosion. 80% of the city has disappeared.

There were thousands of cases of sudden burning and very severe burns more than 10 km from the explosion area.

The results were devastating, but after a few days, doctors continued to treat the survivors as if the wounds were simple burns, and many of them indicated that people continued to die mysteriously. They had never seen anything like it.

Doctors even injected vitamins, but the flesh rotted on contact with the needle. The white blood cells were destroyed.

Most of the survivors within a 2 km radius were blind, and thousands of people suffered from cataracts due to the radiation.

burden of survivors

"Hibakusha" (Hibakusha), as the Japanese called the survivors. There were about 360,000 of them, but most of them are disfigured, with cancer and genetic deterioration.

These people were also victims of their own compatriots, who believed that radiation was contagious and avoided them at all costs.

Many secretly hid these consequences even years later. Whereas if the company where they worked found out they were "Hibakushi", they were fired.

There were clothing marks on the skin, even the colors and fabrics that people were wearing at the time of the explosion.

The story of a photographer

On August 10, a Japanese army photographer named Yosuke Yamahata (Yosuke Yamahata) arrived in Nagasaki with the task of documenting the consequences of the "new weapons" and spent hours walking through the wreckage, photographing all this horror. These are his photographs and he wrote in his diary:

“A hot wind began to blow,” he explained many years later. “There were small fires everywhere, Nagasaki was completely destroyed… we encountered human bodies and animals that lay in our path…”

“It was truly hell on earth. Those who could barely stand the intense radiation, their eyes burned, their skin “burned” and ulcerated, they wandered around, leaning on sticks, waiting for help. Not a single cloud eclipsed the sun on this August day, shining mercilessly.

Coincidence, but exactly 20 years later, also on August 6, Yamahata suddenly fell ill and was diagnosed with duodenal cancer from the effects of this walk where he took photographs. The photographer is buried in Tokyo.

As a curiosity: a letter that Albert Einstein sent to former President Roosevelt, where he counted on the possibility of using uranium as a weapon of significant power and explained the steps to achieve it.

The bombs that were used to attack

Baby Bomb is the code name for the uranium bomb. It was developed as part of the Manhattan Project. Among all the developments, the Baby Bomb was the first successfully implemented weapon, the result of which had enormous consequences.

The Manhattan Project is an American nuclear weapons program. The project activity began in 1943, based on research in 1939. Several countries took part in the project: the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany and Canada. Countries took part not officially, but through scientists who participated in the development. As a result of development, three bombs were created:

• Plutonium, codenamed "Thing". This bomb was blown up in nuclear tests, the explosion was carried out at a special test site.
• Uranium bomb, codename "Kid". The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
• Plutonium bomb, codename "Fat Man". The bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

The project operated under the leadership of two people, nuclear physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer spoke from the scientific council, and General Leslie Richard Groves from the military leadership.

How it all began

The history of the project began with a letter, as is commonly believed, the author of the letter was Albert Einstein. In fact, four people participated in writing this appeal. Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller and Albert Einstein.

In 1939, Leo Szilard learned that scientists in Nazi Germany had achieved stunning results on a chain reaction in uranium. Szilard realized what power their army would gain if these studies were put into practice. Szilard was also aware of the minimality of his authority in political circles, so he decided to involve Albert Einstein in the problem. Einstein shared Szilard's concerns and drafted an appeal to the American president. The address was written in German, Szilard, along with the rest of the physicists, translated the letter and added his comments. Now they are faced with the issue of sending this letter to the President of America. At first they wanted to convey the letter through the aviator Charles Lindenberg, but he officially issued a statement of sympathy for the German government. Szilard faced the problem of finding like-minded people who had contacts with the President of America, so Alexander Sachs was found. It was this man who handed over the letter, albeit with a delay of two months. However, the reaction of the president was lightning fast, a council was convened as soon as possible and the Uranium Committee was organized. It was this body that began the first studies of the problem.

Here is an excerpt from that letter:

The recent work of Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, whose handwritten version caught my attention, leads me to speculate that elemental uranium may become a new and important source of energy in the near future […] opened up the possibility of realizing a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, which will generate a lot of energy […] thanks to which you can create bombs ..

Hiroshima now

The restoration of the city began in 1949, most of the funds from the state budget were allocated for the development of the city. The recovery period lasted until 1960. Little Hiroshima has become a huge city, today Hiroshima consists of eight districts, with a population of over a million people.

Hiroshima before and after

The epicenter of the explosion was one hundred and sixty meters from the exhibition center, after its restoration of the city, it is included in the UNESCO list. Today, the exhibition center is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Hiroshima Exhibition Center

The building partially collapsed, but survived. Everyone in the building was killed. For the preservation of the memorial, work was carried out to strengthen the dome. This is the most famous monument to the consequences of a nuclear explosion. The inclusion of this building in the list of values ​​of the world community caused heated debate, two countries opposed it - America and China. Opposite the Peace Memorial is the Memorial Park. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park has an area of ​​more than twelve hectares and is considered the epicenter of the nuclear bomb explosion. The park has a monument to Sadako Sasaki and a monument to the Flame of Peace. The flame of peace has been burning since 1964 and, according to the Japanese government, will continue to burn until all nuclear weapons are destroyed in the world.

The tragedy of Hiroshima has not only consequences, but also legends.

The Legend of the Cranes

Every tragedy needs a face, even two. One face will be a symbol of the survivors, the other a symbol of hatred. As for the first person, it was the little girl Sadako Sasaki. When America dropped the nuclear bomb, she was two years old. Sadako survived the bombing, but ten years later she was diagnosed with leukemia. The reason was radiation exposure. While in the hospital room, Sadako heard a legend that cranes give life and healing. In order to get the life she needed so much, Sadako had to make a thousand paper cranes. Every minute the girl made paper cranes, every piece of paper that fell into her hands took on a beautiful shape. The girl died before reaching the required thousand. According to various sources, she made six hundred cranes, and the rest were made by other patients. In memory of the girl, on the anniversary of the tragedy, Japanese children make paper cranes and release them into the sky. In addition to Hiroshima, a monument to Sadako Sasaki was erected in the American city of Seattle.

Nagasaki now

The bomb dropped on Nagasaki claimed many lives and almost wiped the city off the face of the earth. However, in view of the fact that the explosion occurred in the industrial zone, this is the western part of the city, the buildings of another area were less affected. Money from the state budget was directed to the restoration. The recovery period lasted until 1960. The current population is about half a million people.

Nagasaki Photos

The bombardment of the city began on August 1, 1945. For this reason, part of the population of Nagasaki was evacuated and not subjected to nuclear impact. On the day of the nuclear bombing, an air raid alert was sounded at 7:50 a.m. and stopped at 8:30 a.m. After the end of the air raid, part of the population remained in shelters. An American B-29 bomber that entered Nagasaki airspace was mistaken for a reconnaissance aircraft and the air raid alert was not issued. No one guessed the purpose of the American bomber. The explosion in Nagasaki occurred at 11:02 in the air, the bomb did not reach the ground. Despite this, the result of the explosion claimed thousands of lives. The city of Nagasaki has several places of memory for the victims of the nuclear explosion:

Sanno Jinja Shrine Gate. They represent a column and part of the upper ceiling, all that survived the bombardment.

nagasaki peace park

Nagasaki Peace Park. Memorial complex built in memory of the victims of the disaster. On the territory of the complex there is a Statue of Peace and a fountain symbolizing contaminated water. Until the time of the bombing, no one in the world had studied the consequences of a nuclear wave of this magnitude, nor did anyone know how long harmful substances remained in the water. Only years later, people who drank water discovered that they had radiation sickness.

Atomic Bomb Museum

Museum of the atomic bomb. The museum was opened in 1996. On the territory of the museum there are things and photographs of the victims of the nuclear bombing.

Urakami column. This place is the epicenter of the explosion; there is a park area around the preserved column.

The victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are commemorated every year with a moment of silence. Those who dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki never apologized. On the contrary, the pilots adhere to the state position, explaining their actions by military necessity. Remarkably, the United States of America has not issued a formal apology to date. Also, a tribunal to investigate the mass destruction of civilians was not created. Since the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only one president has paid an official visit to Japan.