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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Did it?
Looks like a conventional firebombing scene.
I remember VJ day. I was just six years old at the time, but I remember the joy at the end of the long conflict, the happiness in my family and community of a period of peace. I am sure that there was little fear or even mild concern over some future soviet empire rising to take over the world. All that would come later. VJ day celebrated the end of an all consuming conflict.
“VJ day celebrated the end of an all consuming conflict.” ha ha ha ..now you fake and gay.
War crime…just like the nights of bombing civilians in Tokyo with napalm/fire bombs.
It was for the children ,bruh.
Remember when Uncle Schlomo dropped a nuclare bomb on Dresden… taught them Huns a lesson, right there.
You need to be brought up to speed. I can do so in two quick comments;
—1) If even one Ukie civilian dies from a Russian artillery attack, THAT is a war crime! Key word ===> “Russian”
—1) If 200,ooo civilians die as the result of American bombing, that is NOT a war crime! Key word ===> “American”
You owe me a beer as payment.
HOW ABOUT THE RAPE OF NANKING CHINA THERE SPARKY, A WHOLE MONTH OF RAPE LOOTING AND SLAUGHTER, THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH OF AMERICAN PHILIPINO AND BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR MANY BAYONETED TO DEATH ON THE MARCH, NO FOOD OR WATER. OF COURSE YOU PATHETIC FOOLS ALWAYS BACK THE ENEMIES OF THE UNITED STATES JUST TO MAKE YOURSELVES FEEOL GOOD. THEY STARTED IT WE FINISH IT !!!!
Atoms are fake and gay.
We should all be mindful of the fact that firebombing was all the rage at the time.
“Smile and wait for the flash”
Frame of large concrete structure still standing. Looks like fire bombing to me.