The prerequisites for a major war in the Pacific region began to emerge as early as the middle of the 19th century, when the American Commodore Matthew Perry, on the instructions of the US government at gunpoint, forced the Japanese authorities to stop the policy of isolationism, open their ports to American ships and sign an unequal treaty with the United States, giving serious economic and political advantages to Washington.
In conditions when most of the Asian countries found themselves in full or partial dependence on Western powers, Japan had to carry out lightning-fast technical modernization in order to maintain its sovereignty. At the same time, a feeling of resentment against those who forced them to one-sided "openness" took root among the Japanese.
By its own example, America demonstrated to Japan that with the help of brute force it is supposedly possible to solve any international problems. As a result, the Japanese, who for centuries practically did not go anywhere outside their islands, began an active expansionist policy directed against other Far Eastern countries. Korea, China and Russia became its victims.
Pacific Theater of Operations
In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria from the territory of Korea, occupied it and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. In the summer of 1937, Tokyo launched a full-scale war against China. In the same year, Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing fell. On the territory of the latter, the Japanese army staged one of the most heinous massacres in world history. From December 1937 to January 1938, the Japanese military killed, using mostly edged weapons, up to 500 thousand civilians and disarmed soldiers. The murders were accompanied by monstrous torture and rape. Rape victims, from young children to older women, were then brutally murdered as well. The total number of deaths as a result of Japanese aggression in China amounted to 30 million people.
- Pearl Harbor
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In 1940, Japan began to expand into Indochina, in 1941 it attacked British and American military bases (Hong Kong, Pearl Harbor, Guam and Wake), Malaysia, Burma and the Philippines. In 1942, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, the American Aleutian Islands, India and the islands of Micronesia became victims of Tokyo aggression.
However, already in 1942, the Japanese offensive began to stall, and in 1943 Japan lost the initiative, although its armed forces were still quite strong. The counteroffensive of British and American troops in the Pacific theater of operations progressed relatively slowly. Only in June 1945, after bloody battles, the Americans were able to occupy the island of Okinawa, annexed to Japan in 1879.
As for the position of the USSR, in 1938-1939, Japanese troops tried to attack Soviet units in the area of Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, but were defeated.
Official Tokyo was convinced that it was facing too strong an opponent, and in 1941 a neutrality pact was concluded between Japan and the USSR.
Adolf Hitler tried to force his Japanese allies to break the pact and attack the USSR from the east, but Soviet intelligence officers and diplomats managed to convince Tokyo that this could cost Japan too much, and the treaty remained in de facto force until August 1945. The United States and Great Britain received the fundamental consent to Moscow's entry into the war with Japan from Joseph Stalin in February 1945 at the Yalta Conference.
Manhattan Project
In 1939, a group of physicists, enlisting the support of Albert Einstein, handed over a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt, which stated that Nazi Germany in the foreseeable future could create a weapon of terrible destructive power - the atomic bomb. The American authorities became interested in the nuclear issue. In the same 1939, the Uranium Committee was created as part of the US National Defense Research Committee, which first assessed the potential threat, and then began preparations for the United States to create its own nuclear weapons.
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The Americans attracted emigrants from Germany, as well as representatives of Great Britain and Canada. In 1941, a special Bureau of Scientific Research and Development was created in the United States, and in 1943, work began under the so-called Manhattan Project, the purpose of which was to create ready-to-use nuclear weapons.
In the USSR, nuclear research has been going on since the 1930s. Thanks to the activities of Soviet intelligence and Western scientists who had left-wing views, information about the preparations for the creation of nuclear weapons in the West, starting in 1941, began to massively flock to Moscow.
Despite all the difficulties of wartime, in 1942-1943, nuclear research in the Soviet Union was intensified, and representatives of the NKVD and the GRU actively engaged in the search for agents in American scientific centers.
By the summer of 1945, the United States had three nuclear bombs - the plutonium "Thing" and "Fat Man", as well as the uranium "Kid". On July 16, 1945, a test explosion of the Stuchka was carried out at the test site in New Mexico. The American leadership was satisfied with his results. True, according to the memoirs of Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov, just 12 days after the first atomic bomb was assembled in the United States, its scheme was already in Moscow.
On July 24, 1945, when US President Harry Truman, most likely for the purpose of blackmail, told Stalin in Potsdam that America had weapons of "extraordinary destructive power," the Soviet leader only smiled in response. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was present at the conversation, then concluded that Stalin did not understand at all what was at stake. However, the Supreme Commander was well aware of the Manhattan project and, after parting with the American president, told Vyacheslav Molotov (USSR Foreign Minister in 1939-1949): “It will be necessary today to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work.”
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Already in September 1944, an agreement in principle was reached between the United States and Great Britain on the possibility of using the nuclear weapons being created against Japan. In May 1945, the Los Alamos committee on target selection rejected the idea of launching nuclear strikes on military targets because of the "miss possibility" and the "psychological effect" that was not strong enough. They decided to hit the cities.
Initially, the city of Kyoto was also on this list, but US Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted on choosing other targets, since he had fond memories of Kyoto - he spent his honeymoon in this city.
- Atomic bomb "Baby"
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On July 25, Truman approved a list of cities for potential nuclear strikes, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The next day, the Indianapolis cruiser delivered the Baby bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, to the location of the 509th mixed aviation group. On July 28, the then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the combat order on the use of atomic weapons. Four days later, on August 2, 1945, all the components needed to assemble the Fat Man were delivered to Tinian.
The target of the first strike was the seventh most populous city in Japan - Hiroshima, where at that time about 245 thousand people lived. On the territory of the city was the headquarters of the fifth division and the second main army. On August 6, a US Air Force B-29 bomber under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets took off from Tinian and headed for Japan. Around 08:00, the plane was over Hiroshima and dropped the "Baby" bomb, which exploded 576 meters above the ground. At 08:15, all clocks in Hiroshima stopped.
The temperature under the plasma ball formed as a result of the explosion reached 4000 °C. About 80 thousand inhabitants of the city died instantly. Many of them turned to ashes in a split second.
Light emission left dark silhouettes from human bodies on the walls of buildings. In the houses located within a radius of 19 kilometers, glass was broken. The fires that arose in the city united into a fiery tornado that destroyed people who tried to escape immediately after the explosion.
On August 9, an American bomber headed for Kokura, but there was heavy cloud cover in the city area, and the pilots decided to strike at the alternate target - Nagasaki. The bomb was dropped by taking advantage of a gap in the clouds through which the city stadium was visible. The Fat Man exploded at an altitude of 500 meters, and although the explosion was more powerful than in Hiroshima, the damage from it was less due to the hilly terrain and the large industrial area, in which there was no residential development. Between 60 and 80 thousand people died during the bombing and immediately after it.
- Consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the American army on August 6, 1945
Some time after the attack, doctors began to notice that people who seemed to be recovering from wounds and psychological shock began to suffer from a new, previously unknown disease. The peak of the number of deaths from it came three to four weeks after the explosion. So the world learned about the consequences of exposure to radiation on the human body.
By 1950, the total number of victims of the bombing of Hiroshima as a result of the explosion and its consequences was estimated at about 200 thousand, and Nagasaki - at 140 thousand people.
Causes and consequences
In the mainland of Asia at that time there was a powerful Kwantung Army, on which official Tokyo had high hopes. Due to the rapid mobilization measures, its number was not reliably known even to the command itself. According to some estimates, the number of soldiers of the Kwantung Army exceeded 1 million people. In addition, Japan was supported by collaborationist forces, in the military formations of which there were several hundred thousand more soldiers and officers.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. And the very next day, with the support of the Mongolian allies, the USSR advanced its troops against the forces of the Kwantung Army.
“At present, the West is trying to rewrite history and reconsider the contribution of the USSR to the victory over both fascist Germany and militaristic Japan. However, only the entry into the war on the night of August 8-9, the Soviet Union fulfilling its allied obligations, forced the leadership of Japan to announce surrender on August 15. The offensive of the Red Army on the forces of the Kwantung group developed rapidly, and this, by and large, led to the end of World War II, ”said Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist historian of the Victory Museum, in an interview with RT.
- Surrender of the Kwantung Army
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According to the expert, over 600,000 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered to the Red Army, including 148 generals. The influence of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the end of the war Alexander Mikhailov urged not to overestimate. “The Japanese were initially determined to fight to the end against the United States and Great Britain,” he stressed.
As noted by Viktor Kuzminkov, senior researcher at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, associate professor at the Institute of Foreign Languages of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, the “military expediency” of launching a nuclear strike on Japan is only a version officially formulated by the leadership of the United States.
“The Americans said that in the summer of 1945 it was necessary to start a war with Japan on the territory of the metropolis itself. Here the Japanese, according to the US leadership, had to offer desperate resistance and could allegedly inflict unacceptable losses on the American army. And the nuclear bombing, they say, should have nevertheless persuaded Japan to surrender, ”the expert explained.
According to the head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Kistanov, the American version does not stand up to scrutiny. “There was no military necessity for this barbaric bombardment. Today, even some Western researchers recognize this. In fact, Truman wanted, firstly, to intimidate the USSR with the destructive power of a new weapon, and secondly, to justify the huge costs of developing it. But it was clear to everyone that the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan would put an end to it, ”he said.
Viktor Kuzminkov agrees with these conclusions: "Official Tokyo hoped that Moscow could become a mediator in the negotiations, and the entry of the USSR into the war left Japan no chance."
Kistanov stressed that ordinary people and members of the elite in Japan speak differently about the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Ordinary Japanese remember this disaster as it really was. But the authorities and the press are trying not to pedal some of its aspects. For example, in newspapers and on television, atomic bombings are very often spoken about without mentioning which particular country carried them out. The current American presidents for a long time did not visit the memorials dedicated to the victims of these bombings at all. The first was Barack Obama, but he never apologized to the descendants of the victims. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also did not apologize for Pearl Harbor, ”he said.
According to Kuzminkov, the atomic bombings changed Japan very much. “A huge group of “untouchables” appeared in the country - hibakusha, born to mothers exposed to radiation. They were shunned by many, the parents of young people and girls did not want hibakusha to marry their children. The consequences of the bombings penetrated people's lives. Therefore, today many Japanese are consistent supporters of a complete rejection of the use of atomic energy in principle,” the expert concluded.
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 - she 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, after the war, Tsutomu Yamaguchi 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 General of the Army 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.
An American B-29 Superfortress bomber called "Enola Gay" took off from Tinian Island early on August 6 with a single 4,000 kg uranium bomb called "Little Boy". At 8:15 a.m., the "baby" bomb was dropped from a height of 9,400 m above the city and spent 57 seconds in free fall. At the moment of detonation, a small explosion provoked the explosion of 64 kg of uranium. Of these 64 kg, only 7 kg passed the splitting stage, and of this mass, only 600 mg turned into energy - explosive energy that burned everything in its path for several kilometers, leveling the city with a blast wave, starting a series of fires and plunging all living things into radiation flow. It is believed that about 70,000 people died immediately, another 70,000 died from injuries and radiation by 1950. Today in Hiroshima, near the epicenter of the explosion, there is a memorial museum, the purpose of which is to promote the idea that nuclear weapons cease to exist forever.
May 1945: selection of targets.
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 hills surrounding it, 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."
Pictured is Secretary of War Henry Stimson.
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 he 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 [what?] 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.
An aerial view of Hiroshima shortly before the bomb was dropped on the city in August 1945. Shown here is a densely populated area of the city on the Motoyasu River.
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 26, the Indianapolis cruiser delivered the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian.
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 planes.
Commander A.F. Birch (left) numbers the bomb, codenamed "The Kid", physicist Dr. Ramsey (right) will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989.
"Kid" was 3 m long and weighed 4,000 kg, but contained only 64 kg of uranium, which was used to provoke a chain of atomic reactions and the subsequent explosion.
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.
Pictured is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber of the US Army "Enola Gay"
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 "Kid" 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 "Straight 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 fuse was set to a height of 600 meters above the surface; an explosion equivalent to 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT occurred 45 seconds after the release.
The first public announcement of the event came from Washington, DC, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.
A photo taken from one of two American bombers of the 509th Composite Group, shortly after 08:15, on August 5, 1945, shows smoke rising from the explosion over the city of Hiroshima.
When the portion of uranium in the bomb went through the fission stage, it was instantly converted into the energy of 15 kilotons of TNT, heating the massive fireball to a temperature of 3,980 degrees Celsius.
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 appeared 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 shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the entrance to the bank at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter.
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, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200,000 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 figure includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions (mostly living in Japan at the time of counting). 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.
View of the destroyed Hiroshima in the autumn of 1945 on one branch of the river passing through the delta on which the city stands
Complete destruction after the release of the atomic bomb.
Color photograph of the destroyed Hiroshima in March 1946.
The explosion destroyed the Okita plant in Hiroshima, Japan.
Look at how the sidewalk has been raised and how a drainpipe sticks out of the bridge. Scientists say this was due to the vacuum created by the pressure from the atomic explosion.
Twisted iron beams are all that remains of the theater building, located about 800 meters from the epicenter.
The Hiroshima Fire Department lost its only vehicle when the western station was destroyed by an atomic bomb. The station was located 1,200 meters from the epicenter.
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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, the reactor core contained several tons of fission products and transuranium elements - various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor.
Terrible consequences...
Keloid scars on the back and shoulders of a victim of the Hiroshima bombing. The scars formed where the victim's skin was exposed to direct radiation.
Comparative preservation of some buildings
Some of the reinforced concrete buildings in the city 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.
A man looks at the ruins left after the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
People lived here
Visitors to the Hiroshima Memorial Park look at a panoramic view of the aftermath of the July 27, 2005 atomic explosion in Hiroshima.
A memorial flame in honor of the victims of the atomic explosion on a monument in the Hiroshima Memorial Park. The fire has been burning continuously since it was ignited on August 1, 1964. The fire will burn until "until all the atomic weapons of the earth are gone forever."
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 Kyoto's choice 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 "Kid" 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 scouts ("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 appeared 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, the reactor core contained several tons of fission products and transuranium elements - various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor.
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 conditions 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 approximately 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 over 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, and so on? 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.
Since the terms of the surrender allowed for the preservation 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 conscription 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 Effects (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 that 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."
Proponents of the bombings usually claim that they were the reason for the surrender of Japan, 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 contend 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.
10 Sep 2012
The strategic bombing of Japan was carried out by the US Air Force from 1942 to 1945. During the last 7 months of the campaign, emphasis was placed on firebombing, which resulted in extensive destruction of 67 Japanese cities, resulted in the death of about 500,000 Japanese and made about 5 million people homeless. For Emperor Hirohito, seeing Tokyo's destroyed squares in March 1945 was the impetus for personal involvement in the peace process that culminated in Japan's surrender five months later.
Japan, separated from its main opponents by thousands of kilometers of seas and oceans, until 1945 did not know what a war on its own territory was. Having inflicted a defeat on the American and British fleets in 1941 and seized vast territories, the Japanese made it impossible to deliver serious air strikes on their territory. Although their aircraft bombed the cities of China, the Philippines and northern Australia.
Japanese strategic bombing mainly carried out against such Chinese cities as Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing. In total, about 5,000 raids were carried out from February 1938 to August 1943. The bombing of Nanjing and Guangzhou, which began on September 22 and 23, 1937, caused large-scale protests, which led to the adoption of a special resolution by the Far East Committee of the League of Nations. According to one of the British diplomats,
“These raids were directed against places far from the war zone. Their military purpose, where it was at all, seemed to be absolutely secondary. The main purpose of the bombings seems to have been to instill terror in the massacre of the civilian population…”.
Victims of the mass panic during the Japanese air raid on Chongqing.
Bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942 was the largest air raid ever undertaken by a foreign power against Australia. She dealt a strong psychological blow to the population of this state. The raid was the first of approximately 100 air raids launched by Japan against Australia in 1942-43.
At that time, the civilian population of the city was about 2,000 people (in peacetime, the population was about 5,000, but part of the population was evacuated deep into the mainland). In addition, in the vicinity of the city there were allied units of up to 15,000 people. Darwin itself was an important naval port and air base supplying ABDA troops in the Dutch East Indies.
This bombing is often referred to as the "Australian Pearl Harbor". Although it was a less significant target, more bombs were used in the attack on Darwin. As with Pearl Harbor, the Australian city met the attack unprepared, resulting in massive destruction and a large number of casualties. And although the city was subjected to air raids another 58 times, the bombing on February 19 was the most massive and destructive.
Darwin was very poorly protected by anti-aircraft artillery. Of the air defense systems in the city, only anti-aircraft machine guns were installed. Not a single anti-aircraft gun with a caliber of 20 mm or higher was in service. The Australian Air Force fighters were mainly in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East fighting against the Germans. The only modern fighters in the city were 11 P-40s from the 33rd Air Force Squadron. In addition, the city had 5 Wirraway training aircraft and 6 Lockheed Hudson patrol aircraft from the Australian Air Force. The experimental radar has not yet been put into service.
First U.S. air raid on Japan (Doolittle Raid) took place on April 18, 1942, when sixteen B-25 Mitchells launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8) to attack a number of Japanese cities, including Yokohama and Tokyo, and land at airfields located in China. In a military sense, the results of the raid were insignificant, but had a noticeable propaganda effect. Due to a premature start, none of the bombers made it to the designated airfields, crashing on landing (except for one aircraft that landed in the USSR, where the crew was interned). Two crews were taken prisoner by the Japanese. It is estimated that up to 250,000 Chinese men, women and children died in retaliation against the Japanese army for assisting the US Air Force in the bombing.
Air raids from China.
A key factor in the bombing of Japan was the development of the B-29 heavy bomber, which had a range of 2,400 kilometers; almost 90% of the tonnage of bombs dropped on Japan fell on this type of bomber (147,000 tons).
Bomber B-29.
The first B-29 raid on Japan from China took place on 15 June 1944. This raid also did little damage to the Japanese. Only 47 of 68 B-29s hit their intended targets; four returned due to technical problems, four crashed, six dropped bombs out of place due to technical problems, and the rest hit secondary targets. Only one B-29 was shot down by enemy aircraft. The first raid on Japan from the east took place on November 24, 1944, when 88 aircraft bombed Tokyo. The bombs were dropped from a height of about 10 kilometers and it is estimated that only about 10% of them hit their intended targets.
The first raids were carried out by the US 12th Air Force from air bases in mainland China as part of Operation Matterhorn. This was never seen as a satisfactory solution, not only because of the difficulties of supplying Chinese airfields (supplies went through the "Hump" - an air bridge from India to China over the Himalayas), but also because the B-29s could only reach Japan by replacing parts bomb load on additional fuel tanks.
Raids from the Marianas.
When Admiral Nimitz's "island-hopping" strategy led to the capture of the Marianas, which were within B-29 flight range of Japan, the 12th Air Force moved its bases there (especially on Guam and Tinian). Now B-29s could fly to bomb Japan with a full bomb load.
Mariana Islands (in red box).
Just as in Europe, the US Air Force tried to stick to the practice of daylight precision bombing. This, however, turned out to be impossible due to the presence of strong winds in the stratosphere near the coast of Japan, which made it impossible for targeted bombing. Li Mei, who at that time commanded the 12th Air Force, ordered a switch to the tactics of massive night bombing using incendiary bombs from heights of about 2 kilometers across the main metropolitan area, including Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. Despite limited initial bombing success, especially against Nagoya, Li Mei continued to use this tactic against Japanese cities. Attacks against strategic targets were also carried out by daytime bombing from lower altitudes.
The first successful firebombing raid was carried out on Kobe on February 3, 1945: almost half of the city's main factories were damaged, and production at one of the city's two shipyards more than halved.
Most of the armor and armament of the bombers was removed to increase the bomb load; the Japanese air defense system in terms of the number of night fighters and anti-aircraft guns was so weak that this was quite possible.
The first raid of this type on Tokyo took place on the night of February 23-24, when 174 B-29s destroyed about 3 sq. km. cities. On the night of March 9/10, 334 B-29s carried out a second raid on Tokyo, dropping about 1,700 tons of bombs. About 40 sq. km. the square of the city was destroyed; over 100,000 people died in the resulting firestorm. Damage was greatest in the part of the city to the west of the Imperial Palace. It was the most destructive conventional air raid in history.. The city was predominantly made of wood and paper, and Japanese firefighting methods proved ineffective. The fires went out of control, heating the water in the canals to a boil and causing entire neighborhoods to spontaneously combust. The results of the incendiary bombing of Tokyo confirmed the fears expressed by Admiral Yamamoto back in 1939: “Japanese cities, being made of wood and paper, will catch fire very easily. The army can self-praise all they want, but if the war starts and there are large-scale air raids, it’s scary to imagine what will happen then.” 
In the next two weeks, 1,600 sorties were made against four cities, during which 80 sq. km. the urban area was destroyed at the cost of the loss of 22 bombers. By June, over 40% of the urban area of Japan's six largest cities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama and Kawasaki) had been destroyed. Under the command of Li Mei there were almost 600 bombers, which managed to destroy dozens of smaller cities and industrial centers before the end of the war.
Before the bombing, leaflets were dropped over the cities, warning Japanese residents and urging them to leave the city. Although many, even within the US Air Force, viewed this as a form of psychological warfare, a significant motive was nonetheless a desire to alleviate concerns in the US about the extent of the devastation caused by the bombing.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki(August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) - the only two examples in the history of mankind of the combat use of nuclear weapons. Carried out by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II (the officially declared goal is to hasten the surrender of Japan).
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay bomber, under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb 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.
Nuclear "mushroom" over Nagasaki, August 9, 1945.
Japanese "answer" to American atomic bombs.
Toward the end of World War II, Japan was going to give America a "second Pearl Harbor." Only not on the Hawaiian Islands, but on the continent, and not against the navy, but against the civilian population. A key role in this operation with the use of biological weapons was assigned to the secret "detachment 731" from the Kwantung Army.
The larger map shows the location of the bacteriological strike in California (USA). On the smaller square is the location of Detachment 731 in Manchuria.
During World War II, the Japanese military developed samples of biological weapons designed to mass-dump a specially prepared plague carrier - infected fleas. When developing samples of biological weapons, Special Detachment 731, headed by General Ishii Shiro, deliberately infected civilians and prisoners of China, Korea and Manchuria for further medical research and experiments, studying the prospects for the use of biological agents as weapons of mass destruction. The group developed a plague strain 60 times more virulent than the original plague strain, a kind of absolutely effective weapon of mass destruction with natural distribution. Various aerial bombs and projectiles have been developed to drop and disperse infected carriers, such as bombs to infect the ground, aerosol bombs, and fragmentation projectiles that affect human tissue. Ceramic ("porcelain") bombs were popular, taking into account the peculiarities of the use of living organisms - fleas and the need to maintain their activity and viability under discharge conditions, for which special life support conditions were created (in particular, oxygen was pumped).
The flea Xenopsylla cheopis is the main plague vector, SEM image.
From 1939 until the summer of 1945, that is, almost until the very end of the war, numerous experiments were carried out at the test site near the Anta station on the use of ceramic bombs stuffed with Pulex irritans fleas. Masses of fleas infected with plague and dropped on the Chinese front in the area south of Shanghai caused small outbreaks of plague, but not epidemics, as expected. The Japanese repeated experiments on flea dissemination, changing their conditions almost until the very end of the war, but there was no clarity about what happened to them after the bombing.
By the beginning of the war with the USSR, the detachment was not ready. When on August 9, 1945, i.e., after the start of the war with the USSR, Ishii demanded that Onoue Masano (the head of the Mudanjiang branch of “detachment No. 731”) deliver all available fleas to the headquarters of the detachment, he was able to collect only 25 g of these insects.
For Soviet intelligence, the location of the detachment and its activities were not a secret from the moment of its organization. On the night of August 9-10, Soviet aircraft dropped lighting bombs in the area where the detachment was deployed. The next night, a Soviet parachute landing was dropped in the vicinity between Harbin and "detachment No. 731", but the Japanese destroyed it using tanks. On August 9, the Japanese killed the experimental people. On the morning of August 10, the Ro block was blown up, but all of them failed to leave. More than a thousand members of the detachment, including 4 generals, were captured by Soviet troops.
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