On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War.
Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having been warned that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. By the time the United States conducted the first successful test (an atomic bomb was exploded in the desert in New Mexico in July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan in the Pacific, however, continued to rage. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end.
On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.
In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have suggested that the weapons had a two-pronged objective. First, of course, was to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end and spare American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union.
By August 1945, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had deteriorated badly. The Potsdam Conference between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill (before being replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima. The meeting was marked by recriminations and suspicion between the Americans and Soviets. Russian armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe. Truman and many of his advisers hoped that the U.S. atomic monopoly might offer diplomatic leverage with the Soviets. In this fashion, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan can be seen as the first shot of the Cold War.
If U.S. officials truly believed that they could use their atomic monopoly for diplomatic advantage, they had little time to put their plan into action. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race began.
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“Rook up.”
It’s almost like Hiroshima was bombed with Napalm and grew back into a model city with lush green gardens in just a few years.
It’s almost like 75 years of nuclear sabre rattling and hundreds of billions of Cold War dollars went down the drain.
Really big conventional bombs look like nukes, and napalm does not turn cities into atomic WASTELANDS for 1,000 years.
Just FYI, since we’re all discussing bombing innocent people, take a look at this. Sent with love from Israhell to their “friends” in Beirut.
is that yesterday’s bombing in beirut?
how many bombs are these guys saying were dropped?it is already blowing up b4 the bomb we see hits —
Eustace Mullins has a short and interesting paper called “The Secret History of the Atomic Bomb” which you can find on archive.org. The dropping of the bombs was unnecessary as Japan had been ready to surrender for months after American carpet firebombing of all major cities. This was a war crime, plain and simple, and should have been prosecuted as such. The real purpose of dropping these bombs was to put terror into civilians (particularly children), especially in America.
Mac Namara and Lemay admitted it was a war crime while they were planning the strikes. King, Leahy, Mac Arthur, Bull Halsey and Ike all said the abombs were an evil abomination. The work of Truman and his Jewish handlers.