StMU Research Scholars

Featuring Scholarly Research, Writing, and Media at St. Mary’s University

February 7, 2017

The Weapon that Changed War: U.S. Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Winner of the Spring 2017 StMU History Media Awards for

Best Article in the Category of “World History”


“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multiarmed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that one way or another.”1
   
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Decision to Drop the Bomb

 
Ruins of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial | Courtesy of Shigeo Hayashi (Public Domain)

Throughout the history of human warfare, conflict has pushed humans to innovate–to build ever larger and deadlier weapons, each more lethal than the last. However, it was not until World War II and the invention of the atomic bomb that humanity has been able to kill on such a massive and efficient scale. Case in point, in the final days of World War II, the United States carried out one of the most chilling instances of mass murder in the history of humanity: the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These attacks ultimately killed an estimated 294,000 people, the majority of whom were noncombatants.2 In comparison, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor killed just 2,408 American citizens, although this is largely due to the focused Japanese attack on military targets, namely the Pacific fleet and U.S. airfields.3 To give a more modern frame of comparison, the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon, considered to be by far the worst terrorist attacks against the United States, claimed the lives of 2,974 American citizens.4

In the spring of 1945, World War II was entering its final stages. The Allies had already achieved victory in Europe with Germany’s surrender on May 7th, but the conflict on the Pacific front was still going strong. In the years leading up to the two World Wars, Japan’s victories against two larger countries–China in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)–combined with other factors, forged a strong sense of Japanese nationalism, militarism, and cultural superiority. This fervent nationalism, integrated with the Japanese warrior ethic known as bushido, made the prospect of a Japanese surrender unlikely, even as the Allies began to position for an invasion of the Japanese mainland.5

Mockup of the “Fat Man” Nuclear Warhead | Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense (Public Domain)

Concurrently, since as early as 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been secretly sponsoring and funding The Manhattan Project, the code name used for the $2 billion U.S. effort to develop a nuclear weapon before the Germans. A team of top physicists led by Dr. Julius Robert Oppenheimer were assigned to this project, a task so secret that not even individuals as important as then Vice President Harry S. Truman was aware of it. Shortly after Roosevelt’s untimely death and Truman’s subsequent inauguration to the presidency in April 1945, he was informed that the Manhattan Project was approaching success–that a nuclear weapon would be feasible in just four short months.6

Faced with the prospect of a costly and deadly invasion of Japan, Truman and his advisors were faced with a difficult choice: utilize this new atomic weapon or try to defeat Japan through conventional means. In late July, the United States issued the Postdam Declaration, a statement which gave Japan the choice between unconditional surrender or total annihilation. When this declaration went ignored, President Truman authorized the use of the atomic bomb.7

The Sannō Shrine in Nagasaki | Author Unknown (Public Domain)

On the morning of August 6, 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets piloted the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, where his crew dropped an atomic bomb code-named “Little Boy.” Upwards of 70,000 people died instantly in the blast. Additionally, 48,000 buildings were destroyed and another 22,000 were damaged, leaving only 6,000 buildings untouched. Three days later, on August 9th, a second bomb was dropped onto Nagasaki,  killing another 36,000 people. In total, an estimated 295,000 were killed in the blasts or from complications from the resulting nuclear fallout.8

Emperor Hirohito ordered the surrender of Japan on August 10, 1945. On August 15th, radios across Japan broadcasted Hirohito’s words as he read the declaration of surrender to the Japanese people, thus ending World War II. The bombs’ effectiveness in forcing the Japanese to surrender is still subject of popular debate among historians to this day, given that the Russian invasion of Japan-controlled Manchuria occurred at the same time of Nagasaki, both of which likely impacted Japan’s will to continue fighting.9 Even so, while the political and military effects of these blasts may be debated, none can contest their tragedy and devastation.

Monument at Ground Zero in Nagasaki | Courtesy of Dean S. Pemberton, Edited by Lindsay Adelman
  1. Jason Pontin, “Oppenheimer’s Ghost,” MIT Technology Review, October 15, 2007. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/408835/oppenheimers-ghost/.
  2. Dennis W. Cheek, “Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, edited by Carl Mitcham, Vol. 2, Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 6, 2017), 923.
  3. Sonia Benson, Daniel E. Brannen, Jr., and Rebecca Valentine, “Pearl Harbor Attack,” in UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History, Vol. 6, Detroit: UXL, 2009. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 6, 2017), 1208.
  4. Stefan M. Brooks, “September 11 Attacks,” in The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars: The United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Conflicts, edited by Spencer C. Tucker, Vol. 3, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 6, 2017), 1096.
  5. “The United States Drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, edited by Jennifer Stock, Vol. 2, Asia and Oceania, Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 5, 2017), 361.
  6. “An Overview of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, edited by Sylvia Engdahl,  Perspectives on Modern World History, Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 6, 2017), 13-14.
  7. “An Overview of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, edited by Sylvia Engdahl,  Perspectives on Modern World History, Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 6, 2017), 14-15.
  8. Dennis W. Cheek, “Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, edited by Carl Mitcham, Vol. 2, Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 6, 2017), 923.
  9. “The United States Drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, edited by Jennifer Stock, Vol. 2, Asia and Oceania, Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed February 5, 2017), 361.

Tags from the story

Atomic Bomb

Harry S. Truman

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

Project Manhatten

Recent Comments

Alyssa Vela

This article was very informative! I enjoyed reading it partly because of my semi-prior knowledge to Hiroshima/The Manhattan project etc. It was as though I was getting a refresher, all the while learning something new. Your sentence structure was… peculiar. I felt as though while I was reading the article, I could almost hear an old-time news teller on the radio in the early/mid 1900’s. Did you have that style in mind? Regardless, great article! I look forward to reading more of your work.

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07/02/2017

11:49 am

Cameron Adelman

That’s interesting. I wasn’t really trying to come across that way, but it’s always cool when someone reads something you wrote in a radically different way then what you were expecting. Thanks for the input!

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08/02/2017

11:49 am

Mario Sosa

There is a ton of controversy whether the U.S. was justified in using the atomic bombs on Japan. Regardless of one might have thought, it did prevent more casualties on the Allies side. To see an entire city reduced to practically nothing in a blink of an eye is such a very frightening thought. Superb article, keep up the good work!

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07/02/2017

11:49 am

Gabriela Serrato

Before reading this article I had no extensive knowledge of all of these bombings that took place, I only knew of the immense lives lost from the impact. It is true that while as Americans we focus on the tragedy of attacks against us, but it is crazy to see the difference in numbers of lives lost in comparison to these bombings. This article also made me wonder about our current politics and it scares me even further to think that if we chose to use bombs today, the devastation would be so great that it is hard to even imagine.

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07/02/2017

11:49 am

Cameron Adelman

You’re absolutely right. The nuclear weapons that we maintain today are easily thirty to forty times stronger than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s been estimated that if one were used today on an urban-based population, that the death toll would be in the millions, not the hundred thousands.

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08/02/2017

11:49 am

Hayden Hollinger

This was a topic that attracted my attention instantly and the article did not disappoint! This was an interesting piece on nuclear weapons and the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is incredible to realise the true extent of the bombs and to find out the huge number of deaths that came from the attacks. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and learning more about the infamous bombings.

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08/02/2017

11:49 am

Sam Vandenbrink

Great article! The Manhattan project has always interested me, and it continues to throughout this article. The author does a good job leading up to the manhattan project and how it effected. It still is incredible to me how many people died due to the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, Sad but powerful statement made by the United States and will forever have its stain on history.

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09/02/2017

11:49 am

Erick Paul Martinez

Great article, you had a great flow to your writing and it was easy to follow. You also provided great facts throughout, I’m always in awe when I hear the statistics of just how many lives we took on those two days alone. It is also devastating to think of all the radiation sickness that still affected the Japanese people years after the bombings.

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09/02/2017

11:49 am

Daniel Bailey

This article was really informative as well as really engaging in teaching me facts that lead to the atomic bomb and after worth. Interesting to know that the atomic bomb killed more people than Pearl harbor and 911. I guess we do take for granted that more people died in the opposite front, but I agree that the atomic bomb was necessary to finish the war ones and for all. With that saying many more lives were actually saved from actually having full on hand to hand battles. Surely, is impressive to think how much work it took to create it and also to think how much power is stored in the atomic bomb. I liked your article I will look around to read some other of your works.

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10/02/2017

11:49 am

Nicolas McKay

This was a fantastic article, you told an amazing story and I was very impressed with all of the comparisons and statistics you used. I remember hearing on a documentary years ago, when Truman was debating whether or not to use the bomb, he said something along the lines of “How could I look a mother whose son died in the war in the eye, if I can’t say I did everything in my power to save him”. Its interesting to think that this event can be viewed in so many ways depending on which stance you take. For the american soldiers and families, Truman had an obligation, but this was the greatest tragedy that Japan had ever faced, one that has left scars still visible to this very day.

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10/02/2017

11:49 am

Irene Astran

Thank you for putting the fatalities of 911 versus the fatalities of the bombings into perspective. Many people are unaware of the power we have over other countries. I understand on some level that the bombs may have saved many lives of U.S. armed forces. However, we have to bear in mind that there were countless amounts of innocent men, women, and children that were killed during these events. They did not sign up to be soldiers, they did not partake in the attack on Pearl Harbor, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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10/02/2017

11:49 am

Cameron Mays

I enjoyed this article quite a bit, and mainly for a few specific reasons, which I’ll enumerate. For one, the quote the involvement of some of the specific names of that time- period kept me very focused on the article and led me to keep reading. Secondly, some of the words you used were quite flamboyant, as in they involved a lot of emotions and “coolness,” which kept the article from being dry.

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10/02/2017

11:49 am

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