Nuclear weapons Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The other day the world celebrated a sad anniversary - the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, a US Air Force B-29 Enola Gay, under the command of Colonel Tibbetts, dropped the Baby bomb on Hiroshima. And three days later, on August 9, 1945, a B-29 Boxcar aircraft under the command of Colonel Charles Sweeney dropped a bomb on Nagasaki. The total number of deaths in the explosion alone ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. And that’s not all - about 200 thousand people died from radiation sickness.
After the bombing, real hell reigned in Hiroshima. Witness Akiko Takahura, who miraculously survived, recalls:
“Three colors for me characterize 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 skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.”
Some Japanese people instantly evaporated from the heat radiation, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt
The heat radiation caused some Japanese to instantly evaporate, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt. The shock wave swept away buildings and killed thousands of people. A real fire tornado raged in Hiroshima, in which thousands of civilians burned alive.
In the name of what was all this horror and why were the peaceful cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed?
It's official: to hasten the fall of Japan. But she lived out her life anyway last days, especially when, on August 8, Soviet troops began to defeat the Kwantung Army. But unofficially these were tests of super-powerful weapons, ultimately directed against the USSR. As US President Truman cynically said: “If this bomb goes off, I’ll have a good club against those Russian boys.” So forcing the Japanese to peace was far from the most important thing in this action. And the effectiveness of atomic bombings in this regard was small. It was not they, but the successes of the Soviet troops in Manchuria that were the final impetus for surrender.
It is significant that Japanese Emperor Hirohito's Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, issued on August 17, 1945, notes the significance of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, but does not say a word about the atomic bombings.
According to Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, it was the declaration of war by the USSR in the interval between the two bombings that caused the surrender. After the war, Admiral Soemu Toyoda said: “I think the participation of the USSR in the war against Japan, rather than the atomic bombings, did more to hasten the surrender.” Prime Minister Suzuki also stated that the USSR's entry into the war made "the continuation of the war impossible."
Moreover, the Americans themselves ultimately admitted that there was no need for atomic bombings.
According to the US Government's 1946 Study on the Effectiveness of Strategic Bombing, atomic bombs were not necessary to win the war. After examining numerous documents and conducting interviews with hundreds of Japanese military and civilian officials, the following conclusion was reached:
“Definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered, even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the USSR had not entered the war, even if the invasion of the Japanese islands had not been planned and prepared "
Here is the opinion of the general, then US President Dwight Eisenhower:
“In 1945, Secretary of War Stimson, while visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who believed that there were a number of compelling reasons to question the wisdom of such a decision. During his description... I became depressed and expressed to him my deep doubts, firstly, based on my belief that Japan had already been defeated and that the atomic bombing was completely unnecessary, and secondly, because I believed that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of weapons, the use of which, in my opinion, was no longer necessary as a means of saving the lives of American soldiers."
And here is the opinion of Admiral Ch. Nimitz:
“The Japanese have already actually asked for peace. From a purely military point of view, the atomic bomb did not play a decisive role in the defeat of Japan."
To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman
The atomic bombings were a great experiment on people who were not even considered human. To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman. Thus, American soldiers (in particular, the Marines) were engaged in a very unique collection of souvenirs: they dismembered the bodies of Japanese soldiers and civilians of the Pacific Islands, and their skulls, teeth, hands, skin, etc. sent home to their loved ones as gifts. There is no complete certainty that all the dismembered bodies were dead - the Americans did not disdain to pull out gold teeth from still living prisoners of war.
According to American historian James Weingartner, there is a direct connection between the atomic bombings and the collection of enemy body parts: both were the result of the dehumanization of the enemy:
“The widespread image of the Japanese as subhuman created an emotional context that provided further justification for decisions that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.”
But you will be indignant and say: they are rude foot soldiers. And the decision was ultimately made by the intelligent Christian Truman. Well, let's give the floor to him. On the second day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Truman declared that “the only language they understand is the language of bombing. When you have to deal with an animal, you have to treat it like an animal. It’s very sad, but nevertheless it’s true.”
Since September 1945 (after the surrender of Japan), American specialists, including doctors, worked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, they did not treat the unfortunate “hibakusha” - patients with radiation sickness, but with genuine research interest they watched how their hair fell out, their skin peeled, then spots appeared on it, bleeding began, how they weakened and died. Not a drop of compassion. Vae victis (woe to the vanquished). And science is above all!
But I can already hear indignant voices: “Father Deacon, who do you feel sorry for? Is it the same Japanese who treacherously attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor? Isn’t it the same Japanese military that committed terrible crimes in China and Korea, killed millions of Chinese, Koreans, Malays, and at times in brutal ways?” I answer: the majority of those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had nothing to do with the military. These were civilians - women, children, old people. With all the crimes of Japan, one cannot but recognize the certain correctness of the official protest of the Japanese government on August 11, 1945:
“Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion... The said bombs used by the Americans far surpass in their cruelty and horrifying effects poison gases or any other weapons used which are prohibited. Japan protests against the US trampling on internationally recognized principles of warfare, violated both in the use atomic bomb, and with previously used incendiary bombings that killed old people.”
The most sober assessment of the atomic bombings was voiced by Indian judge Radhabinuth Pal. Recalling Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II's justification for his duty to end World War I as quickly as possible ("Everything must be given over to fire and sword. Men, women and children must be killed, and not a single tree or house must remain undestroyed"), Pahl remarked :
"This policy massacres carried out with the aim of ending the war as quickly as possible, was considered a crime. During the Pacific War, which we are considering here, if there was anything approaching the letter from the German Emperor discussed above, it was the Allied decision to use the atomic bomb.”
Indeed, we see here a clear continuity between the German racism of the First and Second World Wars and Anglo-Saxon racism.
The creation of atomic weapons and especially their use revealed a terrible disease of the European spirit - its hyper-intellectualism, cruelty, will to violence, contempt for man. And contempt for God and His commandments. It is significant that the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki exploded near a Christian church. Since the 16th century, Nagasaki has been the gateway for Christianity to Japan. And so the Protestant Truman gave the order for its barbaric destruction.
The ancient Greek word ατομον means both an indivisible particle and a person. This is no coincidence. The decomposition of the personality of European man and the decomposition of the atom went hand in hand. And even such godless intellectuals as A. Camus understood this:
“Mechanized civilization has just reached the final stage of barbarism. In the near future we will have to choose between mass suicide and the judicious use of scientific advances [...] This should not be just a request; it must be a command that comes from the bottom up, from ordinary citizens to governments, a command to make a firm choice between hell and reason.”
But, alas, the governments, just as they did not listen to reason, still do not listen.
Saint Nicholas (Velimirovich) rightly said:
“Europe is smart at taking away, but it doesn’t know how to give. She knows how to kill, but she doesn’t know how to value other people’s lives. She knows how to create weapons of destruction, but she does not know how to be humble before God and merciful towards weaker peoples. She is smart to be selfish and carry her “creed” of selfishness everywhere, but she does not know how to be God-loving and humane.”
These words capture the enormous and scary experience Serbs, the experience of the last two centuries. But this is also the experience of the whole world, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The definition of Europe as a “white demon” was deeply correct. In many ways, the prophecy of St. Nicholas (Velimirović) about the nature of the future war came true: “It will be a war that is completely devoid of mercy, honor and nobility [...] For the coming war will have as its goal not only victory over the enemy, but also the destruction of the enemy. Complete destruction of not only the combatants, but everything that makes up their rear: parents, children, sick, wounded and prisoners, their villages and cities, livestock and pastures, railways and all the ways!” With the exception of the Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War, where the Russian Soviet soldier still tried to show mercy, honor and nobility, the prophecy of St. Nicholas came true.
Where does such cruelty come from? Saint Nicholas sees its cause in militant materialism and the plane of consciousness:
“And Europe once began in spirit, but now ends in flesh, i.e. carnal vision, judgment, desires and conquests. As if enchanted! Her whole life flows along two paths: in length and in width, i.e. along the plane. She knows neither depth nor height, that is why she fights for the earth, for space, for the expansion of the plane and only for this! Hence war after war, horror after horror. For God created man not only so that he would be simply a living being, an animal, but also so that he would penetrate into the depths of mysteries with his mind, and ascend with his heart to the heights of God. The war for the land is a war against the truth, against God’s and human nature.”
But it was not only the flatness of consciousness that led Europe to military disaster, but also carnal lust and a godless mind:
“What is Europe? It's lust and intelligence. And these properties are embodied in the Pope and Luther. The European Pope is the human lust for power. The European Luther is the human audacity to explain everything with his own mind. Dad as the ruler of the world and the smart guy as the ruler of the world.”
The most important thing is that these properties do not know any external limitations, they tend to infinity - “fulfillment of human lust to the limit and the mind to the limit.” Such properties, elevated to an absolute, must inevitably give rise to constant conflicts and bloody wars of destruction: “Because of human lust, every nation and every person seeks power, sweetness and glory, imitating the Pope. Because of the human mind, every nation and every person finds that he is smarter than others and more powerful than others. In this case, how can there not be madness, revolutions and wars between people?
Many Christians (and not only Orthodox Christians) were horrified by what happened in Hiroshima. In 1946, a report by the US National Council of Churches was released entitled “Atomic Weapons and Christianity,” which stated, in part:
“As American Christians, we deeply repent of the irresponsible use of atomic weapons. We all agree on the idea that, whatever our opinion of the war as a whole, the surprise bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is morally vulnerable."
Of course, many inventors of atomic weapons and executors of inhuman orders recoiled in horror from their brainchild. The inventor of the American atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, after testing at Alamogorodo, when a terrible flash lit up the sky, remembered the words of an ancient Indian poem:
If the shine of a thousand suns
It will flash in the sky at once,
Man will become death
A threat to the earth.
After the war, Oppenheimer began to fight for the limitation and prohibition of nuclear weapons, for which he was removed from the Uranium Project. His successor Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, was much less scrupulous.
Iserly, the spy plane pilot who reported good weather over Hiroshima, then sent aid to the victims of the bombing and demanded that he be imprisoned as a criminal. His request was fulfilled, although he was put in... a psychiatric hospital.
But alas, many were much less scrupulous.
After the war, a very revealing brochure was published with documentary memories of the crew of the Enola Gay bomber, which delivered the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” to Hiroshima. How did these twelve people feel when they saw the city below them that they had turned to ashes?
“STIBORIK: Before, our 509th Composite Aviation Regiment was constantly teased. When the neighbors left for flights before dawn, they threw stones at our barracks. But when we dropped the bomb, everyone saw that we were dashing guys.
LEWIS: The entire crew was briefed before the flight. Tibbetts later claimed that he alone was aware of the matter. This is nonsense: everyone knew.
JEPPSON: About an hour and a half after takeoff, I went down to the bomb bay. It was pleasantly cool there. Parsons and I had to arm everything and remove the fuses. I still keep them as souvenirs. Then again we could admire the ocean. Everyone was busy with their own business. Someone was humming “Sentimental Journey,” the most popular song of August 1945.
LEWIS: The commander was dozing. Sometimes I left my chair. The autopilot kept the car on course. Our main target was Hiroshima, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternate targets.
VAN KIRK: The weather would have decided which of these cities we would choose to bomb.
CARON: The radio operator was waiting for a signal from three “superfortresses” flying ahead for weather reconnaissance. And from the tail compartment I could see two B-29s accompanying us from behind. One of them was supposed to take photographs, and the other was supposed to deliver measuring equipment to the explosion site.
FERIBEE: We very successfully reached the target on the first pass. I saw her from afar, so my task was simple.
NELSON: As soon as the bomb separated, the plane turned 160 degrees and sharply descended to gain speed. Everyone put on dark glasses.
JEPPSON: This wait was the most anxious moment of the flight. I knew the bomb would take 47 seconds to fall, and I started counting in my head, but when I got to 47, nothing happened. Then I remembered that the shock wave would still need time to catch up with us, and that’s when it came.
TIBBETS: The plane suddenly threw down, it rattled like iron roof. The tail gunner saw the shock wave approaching us like a light. He didn't know what it was. He warned us about the approaching wave with a signal. The plane sank even further, and it seemed to me that an anti-aircraft shell had exploded above us.
CARON: I took pictures. It was a breathtaking sight. Ash-gray smoke mushroom with a red core. It was clear that everything inside was on fire. I was ordered to count the fires. Damn it, I immediately realized that this was unthinkable! A swirling, boiling haze, like lava, covered the city and spread out to the sides towards the foot of the hills.
SHUMARD: Everything in that cloud was death. Some black debris flew upward along with the smoke. One of us said: “It is the souls of the Japanese who ascend to heaven.”
BESSER: Yes, everything in the city that could burn was on fire. “You guys just dropped the first atomic bomb in history!” - Colonel Tibbetts' voice was heard in the headsets. I recorded everything on tape, but then someone put all these recordings under lock and key.
CARON: On the way back, the commander asked me what I thought about the flight. “That’s worse than driving your own ass down the mountain in Coney Island Park for a quarter of a dollar,” I joked. “Then I’ll collect a quarter from you when we sit down!” - the colonel laughed. “We’ll have to wait until payday!” - we answered in unison.
VAN KIRK: The main thought was, of course, about myself: to get out of all this as quickly as possible and return intact.
FERIBEE: Captain Parsons and I had to write a report to send to the President via Guam.
TIBBETS: None of the conventions that had been agreed upon would do, and we decided to transmit the telegram in clear text. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it said that the results of the bombing exceeded all expectations.”
On August 6, 2015, on the anniversary of the bombings, President Truman's grandson Clifton Truman Daniel said that "to the end of his life, my grandfather believed that the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right one, and the United States would never apologize for it."
It seems that everything is clear here: ordinary fascism, even more terrible in its vulgarity.
Let's now look at what the first eyewitnesses saw from the ground. Here is a report from Birt Bratchett, who visited Hiroshima in September 1945. On the morning of September 3, Burtchett stepped off the train in Hiroshima, becoming the first foreign correspondent to see the city since the atomic explosion. Together with the Japanese journalist Nakamura from the Kyodo Tsushin telegraph agency, Burchett walked around the endless reddish ashes and visited street first aid stations. And there, among the ruins and groans, he typed out his report, entitled: “I am writing about this to warn the world...”:
“Almost a month after the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, people continue to die in the city - mysteriously and horribly. The townspeople who were not affected on the day of the disaster die from an unknown disease, which I cannot call anything other than the atomic plague. Without any apparent reason their health begins to deteriorate. Their hair falls out, spots appear on their bodies, and they begin to bleed from their ears, nose, and mouth. Hiroshima, Burchett wrote, does not look like a city that has suffered from a conventional bombing. The impression is as if a giant ice skating rink passed along the street, crushing all living things. At this first living test site where the power of the atomic bomb was tested, I saw a nightmarish devastation indescribable in words, such as I had not seen anywhere else in four years of war.”
And that is not all. Let us remember the tragedy of those exposed and their children. The whole world has heard the poignant story of a girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from leukemia, one of the consequences of radiation exposure. While already in the hospital, Sadako learned about a legend according to which a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will certainly come true. Wanting to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands, but she only managed to fold 644 cranes. There was a song about her:
Returning from Japan, having walked many miles,
A friend brought me a paper crane.
There is a story connected with it, there is only one story -
About a girl who was irradiated.
Chorus:
I'll spread paper wings for you,
Fly, don't disturb this world, this world,
Crane, crane, Japanese crane,
You are an ever-living souvenir.
“When will I see the sun?” - asked the doctor
(And life burned thinly, like a candle in the wind).
And the doctor answered the girl: “When the winter passes
And you will make a thousand cranes yourself.”
But the girl did not survive and soon died,
And she didn’t make a thousand cranes.
The last little crane fell from dead hands -
And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her.
Let us note that all this would have awaited you and me if it had not been for the Soviet uranium project, which began in 1943, accelerated after 1945 and completed in 1949. Of course, the crimes committed under Stalin were terrible. And above all - persecution of the Church, exile and execution of clergy and laity, destruction and desecration of churches, collectivization, the all-Russian (and not just Ukrainian) famine of 1933, which broke people's life, and finally the repressions of 1937. However, let's not forget that we are now living the fruits of that same industrialization. And if the Russian state is now independent and so far invulnerable to external aggression, if the tragedies of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria are not repeated in our open spaces, then this is largely thanks to the military-industrial complex and the nuclear missile shield laid down under Stalin.
Meanwhile, there were enough people who wanted to burn us. Here is at least one - the emigrant poet Georgy Ivanov:
Russia has been living in prison for thirty years.
On Solovki or Kolyma.
And only in Kolyma and Solovki
Russia is the one that will live for centuries.
Everything else is planetary hell:
Damn Kremlin, crazy Stalingrad.
They deserve only one thing -
Fire that burns him.
These are poems written in 1949 by Georgy Ivanov, “a wonderful Russian patriot,” according to a certain publicist who self-identified as a “church Vlasovite.” Professor Alexey Svetozarsky aptly spoke about these verses: “What to expect from this glorious son Silver Age? The swords are cardboard and the blood for them, especially foreign blood, is “cranberry juice,” including the one that flowed at Stalingrad. Well, the fact that both the Kremlin and Stalingrad are worthy of “incinerating” fire, then the “patriot”, who himself successfully sat out both the war and the occupation in a quiet French outback, was, alas, not alone in his desire. About “cleansing” fire nuclear war stated in the 1948 Easter Message of the Russian Synod of Bishops Orthodox Church Abroad".
By the way, it’s worth reading it more carefully. Here is what Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) wrote in 1948:
“Our time has invented its own special means of exterminating people and all life on earth: they have such destructive power that in an instant they can turn large spaces into a complete desert. Everything is ready to be incinerated by this hellish fire, caused by man himself from the abyss, and we again hear the prophet’s complaint addressed to God: “How long will the earth weep and all the grass of the village dry up from the malice of those who live on it” (Jeremiah 12:4). But this terrible, devastating fire has not only a destructive, but also a cleansing effect: for in it those who ignite it are burned, and with it all the vices, crimes and passions with which they defile the earth. [...] Atomic bombs and all other destructive means invented by modern technology are truly less dangerous for our Fatherland than the moral decay that the highest representatives of civil and church authorities bring into the Russian soul through their example. The decomposition of the atom brings with it only physical devastation and destruction, and the corruption of the mind, heart and will entails the spiritual death of an entire people, after which there is no resurrection” (“Holy Rus'”. Stuttgart, 1948).
In other words, not only Stalin, Zhukov, Voroshilov, but also His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov), Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) - the then “highest representatives of church authority” - were doomed to be burned. And millions of our compatriots, including millions of believing Orthodox Christians, who suffered persecution and the Great Patriotic War. Only Metropolitan Anastasy chastely keeps silent about the moral decay and example that was shown by the highest representatives of Western civil and church authorities. And I forgot the great words of the Gospel: “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
A. Solzhenitsyn’s novel “In the First Circle” goes back to a similar ideology. It glorifies the traitor Innocent Volodin, who tried to hand over to the Americans the Russian intelligence officer Yuri Koval, who was hunting for atomic secrets. It also contains a call to drop an atomic bomb on the USSR, “so that people don’t suffer.” No matter how much they “suffer,” we can see in the example of Sadako Sasaki and tens of thousands like her.
And therefore, deep gratitude not only to our great scientists, workers and soldiers who created the Soviet atomic bomb, which was never put into use, but stopped the cannibalistic plans of American generals and politicians, but also to those of our soldiers who, after the Great Patriotic War guarded the Russian sky and did not allow B-29s with nuclear bombs on board to break into it. Among them is the now living Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Sergei Kramarenko, known to readers of the site. Sergei Makarovich fought in Korea and personally shot down 15 American aircraft. This is how he describes the meaning of activity Soviet pilots In Korea:
“I consider our most important achievement to be that the division’s pilots caused significant damage to US strategic aviation armed with B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers. Our division managed to shoot down over 20 of them. As a result, the B-29s performing in large groups carpet (area) bombings, stopped flying during the day north of the Pyongyang-Genzan line, that is, over most of the territory North Korea. Thus, millions of Korean residents were saved - mostly women, children and the elderly. But even at night the B-29s suffered heavy losses. In total, during the three years of the Korean War, about a hundred B-29 bombers were shot down. Even more important was the fact that it became clear that in the event of a war with the Soviet Union, the “Superfortresses” carrying atomic bombs would not reach the large industrial centers and cities of the USSR, because they would be shot down. This played a huge role in the fact that the Third World War never started."
According to the official point of view, the bombing of Japanese cities was the only compelling argument to convince the Japanese government to capitulate. According to historians, the proud Japanese were ready to fight to the last soldier, and seriously prepared for American intervention.Proud Japanese were ready to fight to the last soldier, and seriously prepared for American intervention // Photo: whotrades.com
Japanese intelligence knew that the United States had no other choice but to land on the island of Kyushu. Fortifications were already waiting for them here. Tokyo planned to impose a battle on Washington, which would have cost them dearly, both materially and human lives. The Japanese were not very interested in their losses. American intelligence learned about these plans. Washington was not happy with this balance of power. The American government wanted the enemy's complete and unconditional surrender on their terms. And this meant occupation and the creation of institutions in the state that Washington would consider necessary. The Japanese, according to some sources, were ready to capitulate. But they categorically did not accept America's conditions. Tokyo was determined to maintain the current government and avoid occupation.
It is noteworthy that at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, Roosevelt insisted that the USSR undertake to enter the war with Japan. At the end of the summer of 1945, the Soviet leadership informed the allies that its troops were ready to cross the border of Manchuria and enter the war with Japan. The White House made it clear to Stalin that he was not against this scenario. But if this does not happen, then there will be no complaints either. Thus, America already had a trump card in the war with Japan. But the spread of the USSR’s influence to the East was extremely undesirable for it.
Hit list
Initially, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the main contenders for a meeting with the American nuclear bomb. Moreover, Nagasaki was not even on the list of cities that the American generals considered as targets. The United States assumed the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on Kyoto, as the cultural and industrial center of Japan. Next on the list was Yokohama because of its military factories, and also Hiroshima because it was concentrated there. great amount ammunition depots. Niigata had a major military port, so the city was put on the hit list, and the city of Kokura was considered a target because it was considered the country's largest military arsenal.
The death of Kyoto could really break the Japanese // Photo: sculpture.artyx.ru
From the very beginning, Kyoto was seen as the main target. The death of this city could really break the Japanese. Kyoto was the capital of the state for a long time, and is now considered the largest cultural center. He was saved by pure chance. The fact is that one of the American generals spent his honeymoon in the cultural capital of Japan. He felt very sorry a beautiful city, and he used all his eloquence to convince his superiors to spare him.
After Kyoto disappeared from the list, Nagasaki appeared on it. Later, the choice of the American command was settled on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Judgment Day
On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. The city was surrounded by hills, and the United States hoped that the terrain would further intensify the consequences of the attack. The city was destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people died. The people who survived the explosion tried to escape the heat in the river, but the water literally boiled, and some were boiled alive. Three days later, on August 9, hell repeated itself in Nagasaki. It is noteworthy that the pilot with a nuclear bomb on board had two targets - Kokura and Nagasaki. Kokur was saved by the fact that there was thick fog over him that day. Ironically, Nagasaki hospitals treated victims of the Hiroshima explosion.
According to expert estimates, the explosions cost almost half a million human lives. And almost all of them belonged to civilians. Many of the survivors then died due to radiation sickness.
Hidden motives
The nuclear bomb finally convinced the Japanese government of the need to surrender. Emperor Hirohito accepted all the conditions of the Americans. And the whole world saw how devastating the consequences of using new weapons of mass destruction could be. Already at that moment, world leaders began to understand that the next global conflict would be the last for humanity.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on the Americans’ terms // Photo: istpravda.ru
Even though at that time the USA and the USSR were considered allies in the war against the Nazis, the first signs of coldness between the superpowers were already visible. According to many experts, the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely demonstrative. They were supposed to demonstrate American power. But as a result, this led to Moscow urgently creating its own nuclear bomb, and then other states. Thus began an arms race that kept the whole world in suspense throughout the second half of the twentieth century.
Everyone knows that on August 6 and 9, 1945, nuclear weapons were dropped on two Japanese cities. About 150 thousand civilians died in Hiroshima, and up to 80 thousand in Nagasaki.
These dates became mourning dates for the rest of their lives in the minds of millions of Japanese. Every year more and more secrets are revealed about these terrible events, which will be discussed in our article.
1. If anyone survived the nuclear explosion, tens of thousands of people began to suffer from radiation sickness.
Over the course of decades, the Radiation Research Foundation studied 94,000 people to create a cure for the disease that afflicted them.
2. Oleander is the official symbol of Hiroshima. Do you know why? This is the first plant to bloom in the city after the nuclear explosion.
3. According to recent scientific research, those who survived the atomic bombing received an average radiation dose of 210 milliseconds. For comparison: a computed tomography scan of the head irradiates 2 milliseconds, but here it is 210 (!).
4. On that terrible day, before the explosion, according to the census, the number of residents of Nagasaki was 260 thousand people. Today it is home to almost half a million Japanese. By the way, by Japanese standards this is still a wilderness.
5. 6 ginkgo trees, located just 2 km from the epicenter of events, managed to survive.
A year after tragic events they bloomed. Today, each of them is officially registered as "Hibako Yumoku", which means "tree that remains alive." Ginkgo is considered a symbol of hope in Japan.
6. After the bomb fell in Hiroshima, many unaware survivors were evacuated to Nagasaki...
It is known that of those who survived the bombings in both cities, only 165 people survived.
7. In 1955, a park was opened at the site of the bombing in Nagasaki.
The main feature here was the 30-ton sculpture of a man. They say that an upraised hand symbolizes the threat of a nuclear explosion, while an outstretched left hand symbolizes peace.
8. The survivors of these terrible events became known as “hibakusha,” which translates to “people affected by the explosion.” The surviving children and adults were subsequently subjected to severe discrimination.
Many believed that they could cause radiation sickness. It was difficult for Hibakusha to get settled in life, meet someone, or find a job. In the decades following the bombings, it was not uncommon for the parents of a boy or girl to hire detectives to find out whether their child's significant other was a hibakusha.
9. Every year, on August 6, a memorial ceremony is held in the Hiroshima Memorial Park and a minute of silence begins at exactly 8:15 (the time of the attack).
10. To the surprise of many scientists, scientific research has shown that the average life expectancy of modern residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compared with those who were not exposed to radiation in 1945, was reduced by only a couple of months.
11. Hiroshima is on the list of cities that advocate the abolition of nuclear weapons.
12. Only in 1958, the population of Hiroshima grew to 410 thousand people, which exceeded the pre-war figure. Today the city is home to 1.2 million people.
13. Of those who died from the bombing, about 10% were Koreans conscripted by the military.
14. Contrary to popular belief, among children born to women who survived a nuclear attack, various developmental abnormalities and mutations were not identified.
15. In Hiroshima, in the Memorial Park there is a miraculously surviving UNESCO World Heritage Site - the Genbaku Dome, located 160 m from the center of events.
At the time of the explosion, the walls of the building collapsed, everything inside burned, and the people inside died. Now there is a memorial stone installed near the “Atomic Cathedral,” as it is commonly called. Near it you can always see a symbolic bottle of water, which reminds of those who survived the explosion, but died of thirst in the nuclear hell.
16. The explosions were so strong that people died in a split second, leaving behind only shadows.
These prints were made due to the heat released during the explosion, which changed the color of the surfaces - hence the outlines of bodies and objects that absorbed part of the blast wave. Some of these shadows can still be seen at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
17. The famous Japanese giant monster Godzilla was originally invented as a metaphor for the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
18. Despite the fact that the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect was less. This was facilitated by the hilly terrain, as well as the fact that the center of the explosion was located above an industrial area.
During World War II, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., a U.S. B-29 Enola Gay bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. About 140,000 people were killed in the explosion and died in the following months. Three days later, when the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, an estimated 80,000 people were killed. On August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. To this day, this bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case use of nuclear weapons in human history. The US government decided to drop the bombs, believing that this would hasten the end of the war and would not require prolonged bloody fighting on the main island of Japan. Japan was strenuously trying to control two islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as the Allies approached.
1. These wrist watch, found among the ruins, stopped at 8.15 am on August 6, 1945 - during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
2. The flying fortress Enola Gay lands on August 6, 1945 at a base on Tinian Island after bombing Hiroshima.
3. This photo, which was released in 1960 by the US government, shows the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb size is 73 cm in diameter, 3.2 m in length. It weighed 4 tons, and the explosion power reached 20,000 tons of TNT.
4. This photo provided by the US Air Force shows the main crew of the B-29 Enola Gay bomber that dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts stands in the center. The photo was taken in the Mariana Islands. This was the first time nuclear weapons were used during military operations in human history.
5. Smoke rises 20,000 feet high over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, after an atomic bomb was dropped during the war.
6. This photograph taken on August 6, 1945, from the city of Yoshiura, across the mountains north of Hiroshima, shows smoke rising from the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The photo was taken by an Australian engineer from Kure, Japan. The stains left on the negative by radiation almost destroyed the photograph.
7. Survivors of the atomic bomb, first used in warfare on August 6, 1945, await medical attention in Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion killed 60,000 people at the same moment, and tens of thousands died later due to radiation exposure.
8. August 6, 1945. In the photo: military medics provide first aid to the surviving residents of Hiroshima shortly after an atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, used in military action for the first time in history.
9. After the explosion of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, only ruins remained in Hiroshima. Nuclear weapons were used to hasten Japan's surrender and end World War II, for which US President Harry Truman ordered the use of nuclear weapons with a capacity of 20,000 tons of TNT. The surrender of Japan took place on August 14, 1945.
10. August 7, 1945, the day after the explosion of the atomic bomb, smoke billows over the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.
11. President Harry Truman (pictured left) sits at his desk in the White House next to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson after returning from the Potsdam Conference. They discuss the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
13. Survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki among the ruins, with raging fire in the background, August 9, 1945.
14. Crew members of the B-29 bomber "The Great Artiste" that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki surrounded Major Charles W. Swinney in North Quincy, Massachusetts. All crew members participated in the historic bombing. From left to right: Sergeant R. Gallagher, Chicago; Staff Sergeant A. M. Spitzer, Bronx, New York; Capt. S. D. Albury, Miami, Florida; Captain J.F. Van Pelt Jr., Oak Hill, West Virginia; Lieutenant F. J. Olivi, Chicago; Staff Sergeant E.K. Buckley, Lisbon, Ohio; Sergeant A. T. Degart, Plainview, Texas, and Staff Sergeant J. D. Kucharek, Columbus, Nebraska.
15. This photograph of an atomic bomb exploding over Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II was released by the Commission on nuclear energy and the US Department of Defense in Washington on December 6, 1960. The Fat Man bomb was 3.25 m long, 1.54 m in diameter, and weighed 4.6 tons. The power of the explosion reached about 20 kilotons of TNT.
16. A huge column of smoke rises into the air after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The explosion of a bomb dropped by a US Army Air Force B-29 Bockscar bomber immediately killed more than 70 thousand people, with tens of thousands more subsequently dying as a result of radiation exposure.
17. A huge nuclear mushroom above Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, after a US bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city. The nuclear explosion over Nagasaki occurred three days after the United States dropped the first-ever atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
18. A boy carries his burned brother on his back on August 10, 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Such photos were not published by the Japanese side, but after the end of the war they were shown to the world media by UN employees.
19. The arrow was installed at the site of the fall of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki on August 10, 1945. Most of the affected area remains empty to this day, the trees remained charred and mutilated, and almost no reconstruction was carried out.
20. Japanese workers remove rubble from damaged areas in Nagasaki, an industrial city in the southwest of Kyushu island, after an atomic bomb was dropped on it on August 9. A chimney and a lonely building are visible in the background, while ruins are visible in the foreground. The photo was taken from the archives of the Japanese news agency Domei.
22. As can be seen in this photo, which was taken on September 5, 1945, several concrete and steel buildings and bridges remained intact after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.
23. A month after the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945, a journalist inspects the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.
24. Victim of the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the department of the first military hospital in Udzina in September 1945. The thermal radiation generated by the explosion burned a design from the kimono fabric onto the woman's back.
25. Most of the territory of Hiroshima was wiped off the face of the earth by the explosion of an atomic bomb. This is the first aerial photograph after the explosion, taken on September 1, 1945.
26. The area around the Sanyo Shoray Kan (Trade Promotion Center) in Hiroshima was reduced to rubble after an atomic bomb exploded 100 meters away in 1945.
27. A reporter stands among the rubble in front of the shell of what was once the city theater in Hiroshima on September 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States to hasten Japan's surrender.
28. Ruins and a lonely frame of a building after the explosion of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Photo taken on September 8, 1945.
29. Very few buildings remain in the devastated Hiroshima, a Japanese city that was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb, as seen in this photograph taken on September 8, 1945. (AP Photo)
30. September 8, 1945. People walk along a cleared road among the ruins created after the explosion of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6 of the same year.
31. A Japanese man discovered the remains of a child's tricycle among the ruins in Nagasaki, September 17, 1945. The nuclear bomb dropped on the city on August 9 wiped out almost everything within a 6-kilometer radius and took the lives of thousands of civilians.
32. This photo, which was provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, shows a victim of the atomic explosion. The man is in quarantine on Ninoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan, 9 kilometers from the blast's epicenter, a day after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
33. A tram (top center) and its dead passengers after a bomb exploded over Nagasaki on August 9. The photo was taken on September 1, 1945.
34. People pass a tram lying on the tracks at the Kamiyasho intersection in Hiroshima some time after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city.
35. This photo provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima shows victims of the atomic explosion at the tented care center of the 2nd Hiroshima Military Hospital, located on the bank of the Ota River, 1150 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, August 7, 1945. The photo was taken the day after the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in history on the city.
36. View of Hachobori Street in Hiroshima shortly after a bomb was dropped on the Japanese city.
37. Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, photographed on September 13, 1945, was destroyed by an atomic bomb.
38. A Japanese soldier wanders among the ruins in search of recyclable materials in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, just over a month after the atomic bomb exploded over the city.
39. A man with a loaded bicycle on a road cleared of ruins in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, a month after the explosion of the atomic bomb.
40. September 14, 1945, the Japanese are trying to drive through a street littered with ruins on the outskirts of the city of Nagasaki, over which a nuclear bomb exploded.
41. This area of Nagasaki was once built up industrial buildings and small residential buildings. In the background are the ruins of the Mitsubishi factory and the concrete school building located at the foot of the hill.
42. The top photo shows the bustling city of Nagasaki before the explosion, and the bottom photo shows the wasteland after the explosion of the atomic bomb. The circles measure the distance from the explosion point.
43. Japanese family eats rice in a hut built from rubble left over from what was once their home in Nagasaki, September 14, 1945.
44. These huts, photographed on September 14, 1945, were built from the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
45. In the Ginza district of Nagasaki, which was an analogue of New York's Fifth Avenue, store owners destroyed by a nuclear bomb sell their goods on the sidewalks, September 30, 1945.
46. The sacred Torii gate at the entrance to a completely destroyed Shinto shrine in Nagasaki in October 1945.
47. Service at the Nagarekawa Protestant Church after the atomic bomb destroyed the church in Hiroshima, 1945.
48. A young man injured after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki.
49. Major Thomas Ferebee, left, from Moscow, and Captain Kermit Behan, right, from Houston, talk at a hotel in Washington, February 6, 1946. Ferebee is the man who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and his interlocutor dropped the bomb on Nagasaki.
52. Ikimi Kikkawa shows his keloid scars left after treatment for burns received during the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Photo taken at the Red Cross hospital on June 5, 1947.
53. Akira Yamaguchi shows his scars left after treatment for burns received during the nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima.
54. Jinpe Terawama, a survivor of the first atomic bomb in history, had numerous burn scars on his body, Hiroshima, June 1947.
55. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts waves from the cockpit of his bomber at the Tinian Island base on August 6, 1945, before his mission to drop the first atomic bomb in history on Hiroshima, Japan. The day before, Tibbetts named the B-29 flying fortress "Enola Gay" in honor of his mother.
Work on the creation of a nuclear bomb started in the USA in September 1943, based on the research of scientists different countries, started back in 1939.
In parallel with this, a search was carried out for the pilots who were supposed to reset it. From the thousands of dossiers reviewed, several hundred were selected. Following an extremely tough selection process, Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbetts, who had served as a test pilot of Bi-29 aircraft since 1943, was appointed commander of the future formation. He was given the task: to create a combat unit of pilots to deliver the bomb to its destination.
Preliminary calculations showed that the bomber dropping the bomb would have only 43 seconds to leave the danger zone before the explosion occurred. Flight training continued daily for many months in the strictest secrecy.
Target Selection
On June 21, 1945, US Secretary of War Stimson held a meeting to discuss the choice of future targets:
- Hiroshima is a large industrial center, population about 400 thousand people;
- Kokura is an important strategic point, steel and chemical plants, population 173 thousand people;
- Nagasaki is the largest shipyard, population 300 thousand people.
Kyoto and Niigata were also on the list of potential targets, but serious controversy erupted over them. It was proposed to exclude Niigata due to the fact that the city was located much further north than the others and was relatively small, and the destruction of Kyoto, which was a holy city, could embitter the Japanese and lead to increased resistance.
On the other hand, Kyoto, with its large area, was of interest as an object for assessing the power of the bomb. Proponents of choosing this city as a target, among other things, were interested in accumulating statistical data, since until that moment atomic weapons had never been used in combat conditions, but only at test sites. The bombing was required not only to physically destroy the chosen target, but to demonstrate the strength and power of the new weapon, as well as to have the greatest possible psychological effect on the population and government of Japan.
On July 26, the United States, Britain and China adopted the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded unconditional surrender from the Empire. Otherwise, the Allies threatened the rapid and complete destruction of the country. However, this document made no mention of the use of weapons of mass destruction. The Japanese government rejected the declaration's demands, and the Americans continued preparations for the operation.
For the most effective bombing, suitable weather and good visibility were required. Based on data from the meteorological service, the first week of August, approximately after the 3rd, was considered the most suitable for the foreseeable future.
Bombing of Hiroshima
On August 2, 1945, Colonel Tibbetts's unit received a secret order for the first atomic bombing in human history, the date of which was set for August 6. Hiroshima was chosen as the main target of the attack, with Kokura and Nagasaki as backup targets (in case visibility conditions worsened). All other American aircraft were prohibited from being within the 80-kilometer radius of these cities during the bombing.
On August 6, before the start of the operation, the pilots received glasses with dark lenses designed to protect their eyes from light radiation. The planes took off from the island of Tinian, where the American military aviation base was located. The island is located 2.5 thousand km from Japan, so the flight took about 6 hours.
Together with the Bi-29 bomber, called the “Enola Gay,” which carried the “Little Boy” barrel-type atomic bomb, 6 more aircraft took to the skies: three reconnaissance aircraft, one spare, and two carrying special measuring equipment.
Visibility over all three cities allowed for bombing, so it was decided not to deviate from the original plan. At 8:15 am there was an explosion - the Enola Gay bomber dropped a 5-ton bomb on Hiroshima, after which it made a 60-degree turn and began to move away at the highest possible speed.
Consequences of the explosion
The bomb exploded 600m from the surface. Most of the houses in the city were equipped with stoves that were heated with charcoal. Many townspeople were just preparing breakfast at the time of the attack. Overturned by a blast wave of incredible force, the stoves caused massive fires in those parts of the city that were not destroyed immediately after the explosion.
The heat wave melted house tiles and granite slabs. Within a radius of 4 km, all wooden telegraph poles were burned. The people who were at the epicenter of the explosion instantly evaporated, enveloped in hot plasma, the temperature of which was about 4000 degrees Celsius. Powerful light radiation left human bodies only shadows on the walls of houses. 9 out of 10 people within an 800-meter zone from the epicenter of the explosion died instantly. The shock wave swept at a speed of 800 km/h, turning into rubble all buildings within a 4 km radius, except for a few built taking into account increased seismic hazard.
The plasma ball evaporated moisture from the atmosphere. The cloud of steam reached the colder layers and, mixing with dust and ash, immediately poured black rain onto the ground.
Then the wind hit the city, blowing towards the epicenter of the explosion. Due to the heating of the air caused by the flaring fires, the wind gusts became so strong that large trees were torn out by their roots. Climbed on the river huge waves, in which people drowned trying to escape in the water from the fire tornado that engulfed the city, destroying 11 km2 of the area. According to various estimates, the number of deaths in Hiroshima was 200-240 thousand people, of which 70-80 thousand died immediately after the explosion.
All communication with the city was severed. In Tokyo, they noticed that the local Hiroshima radio station had disappeared from the air and the telegraph line had stopped working. After some time from regional railway stations Information began to arrive about an explosion of incredible force.
An officer of the General Staff urgently flew to the scene of the tragedy, who later wrote in his memoirs that what struck him most was the lack of streets - the city was evenly covered with rubble, it was not possible to determine where and what was just a few hours ago.
Officials in Tokyo could not believe that damage of such magnitude was caused by just one bomb. Representatives of the Japanese General Staff turned to scientists for clarification on what weapons could cause such destruction. One of the physicists, Dr. I. Nishina, suggested the use of a nuclear bomb, since rumors had been circulating among scientists for some time about attempts by the Americans to create one. The physicist finally confirmed his assumptions after a personal visit to the destroyed Hiroshima, accompanied by military personnel.
On August 8, the US Air Force command was finally able to assess the effect of its operation. Aerial photography showed that 60% of the buildings located on the territory with total area 12km2 turned to dust, the rest remained piles of rubble.
Bombing of Nagasaki
An order was issued to compile leaflets on Japanese with photographs of the destroyed Hiroshima and full description the effect of a nuclear explosion, for their subsequent spread over the territory of Japan. In case of refusal to surrender, the leaflets contained threats to continue the atomic bombing of Japanese cities.
However, the American government was not going to wait for the Japanese reaction, since it did not initially plan to get by with just one bomb. The next attack, planned for August 12, was postponed to the 9th due to the expected worsening of the weather.
Kokura was assigned as the target, with Nagasaki as a backup option. Kokura was very lucky - cloud cover, together with a smoke screen from a burning steel plant, which had been subjected to an air raid the day before, made visual bombing impossible. The plane headed towards Nagasaki, and at 11:02 am dropped its deadly cargo on the city.
Within a radius of 1.2 km from the epicenter of the explosion, all living things died almost instantly, turning to ashes under the influence of thermal radiation. The shock wave reduced residential buildings to rubble and destroyed a steel mill. The thermal radiation was so powerful that the skin of people who were not covered by clothing, located 5 km from the explosion, was burned and wrinkled. 73 thousand people died instantly, 35 thousand died in terrible suffering a little later.
On the same day, the US President addressed his compatriots on the radio, thanking them in his speech higher power for the fact that the Americans were the first to receive nuclear weapons. Truman asked God for guidance and guidance on how to most effectively use atomic bombs for higher purposes.
At that time, there was no urgent need for the bombing of Nagasaki, but, apparently, research interest played a role, no matter how scary and cynical it may sound. The fact is that the bombs differed in design and active substance. The Little Boy that destroyed Hiroshima was a uranium bomb, while the Fat Man that destroyed Nagasaki was a plutonium-239 bomb.
There are archival documents proving the US intention to drop another atomic bomb on Japan. A telegram dated August 10, addressed to the Chief of Staff, General Marshall, reported that, given appropriate meteorological conditions, the next bombing could be carried out on August 17-18.
Surrender of Japan
On August 8, 1945, fulfilling the obligations undertaken within the framework of the Potsdam and Yalta conferences, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, whose government still harbored hopes of reaching agreements to avoid unconditional surrender. This event, coupled with the overwhelming effect of the American use of nuclear weapons, forced the least militant members of the cabinet to appeal to the emperor with recommendations to accept any conditions of the United States and allies.
Some of the most militant officers tried to stage a coup to prevent such a development of events, but the plot failed.
On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito publicly announced Japan's surrender. Nevertheless, clashes between Japanese and Soviet troops in Manchuria continued for several more weeks.
On August 28, the American-British allied forces began the occupation of Japan, and on September 2, on board the battleship Missouri, the act of surrender was signed, ending World War II.
Long-term consequences of atomic bombings
A few weeks after the explosions, which claimed hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives, people who at first seemed unaffected suddenly began to die en masse. At that time, the effects of radiation exposure were little understood. People continued to live in contaminated areas, not realizing what danger ordinary water began to carry, as well as the ashes that covered thin layer destroyed cities.
Japan learned that the cause of death of people who survived the atomic bombing was some previously unknown disease thanks to the actress Midori Naka. The theater troupe in which Naka played arrived in Hiroshima a month before the events, where they rented a house for living, located 650m from the epicenter of the future explosion, after which 13 of the 17 people died on the spot. Midori not only remained alive, but was practically unharmed, apart from minor scratches, although all her clothes were simply burned. Fleeing from the fire, the actress rushed to the river and jumped into the water, from where soldiers pulled her out and provided first aid.
Finding herself in Tokyo a few days later, Midori went to the hospital, where she was examined by the best Japanese doctors. Despite all efforts, the woman died, but doctors had the opportunity to observe the development and course of the disease for almost 9 days. Before her death, it was believed that the vomiting and bloody diarrhea that many victims experienced were symptoms of dysentery. Officially, Midori Naka is considered the first person to die from radiation sickness, and it was her death that sparked widespread discussion about the consequences of radiation poisoning. 18 days passed from the moment of the explosion until the death of the actress.
However, soon after the Allied occupation of Japanese territory began, newspaper references to casualties American bombings gradually began to fade away. During almost 7 years of occupation, American censorship prohibited any publications on this topic.
For those who were victims of the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a special term “hibakusha” appeared. Several hundred people found themselves in a situation where talking about their health became taboo. Any attempts to remind of the tragedy were suppressed - it was forbidden to make films, write books, poems, songs. It was impossible to express compassion, ask for help, or collect donations for the victims.
For example, a hospital established by a group of washa enthusiasts in Ujin to help the hibakusha was closed at the request of the occupation authorities, and all documentation, including medical records, was confiscated.
In November 1945, at the suggestion of the US President, the ABCS Center was created to study the effects of radiation on survivors of explosions. The organization's clinic, which opened in Hiroshima, conducted only examinations and did not provide medical care to the victims. The center's staff were especially interested in those who were hopelessly ill and died as a result of radiation sickness. Essentially, the purpose of the ABCS was to collect statistical data.
Only after the end of the American occupation did they begin to speak out loud about the problems of the hibakusha in Japan. In 1957, each victim was given a document indicating how far he was from the epicenter at the time of the explosion. To this day, victims of the bombings and their descendants receive material and medical assistance from the state. However, within the rigid framework of Japanese society there was no place for the “hibakusha” - several hundred thousand people became a separate caste. The rest of the residents, if possible, avoided communication, much less creating a family with the victims, especially after they began to have children with developmental defects en masse. Most of the pregnancies in women living in cities at the time of the bombing ended in miscarriages or the death of babies immediately after birth. Only a third of pregnant women in the explosion zone gave birth to children who did not have serious abnormalities.
The feasibility of destroying Japanese cities
Japan continued the war even after the surrender of its main ally Germany. In a report presented at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the estimated date for the end of the war with Japan was assumed to be no earlier than 18 months after Germany surrendered. According to the USA and Great Britain, the USSR's entry into the war against the Japanese could help reduce the duration of combat operations, casualties and material costs. As a result of the agreements, I. Stalin promised to act on the side of the Allies within 3 months after the end of the war with the Germans, which was done on August 8, 1945.
Was the use of nuclear weapons really necessary? Disputes about this have not stopped to this day. The destruction of two Japanese cities, amazing in its cruelty, was such a senseless action at that time that it gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories.
One of them claims that there were no bombings urgent need, but only a demonstration of force to the Soviet Union. The USA and Great Britain united with the USSR only unwillingly, in the fight against a common enemy. However, as soon as the danger passed, yesterday’s allies immediately became ideological opponents again. The Second World War redrew the map of the world, changing it beyond recognition. The winners established their order, simultaneously testing out future rivals, with whom only yesterday they were sitting in the same trenches.
Another theory claims that Hiroshima and Nagasaki became testing sites. Although the United States tested the first atomic bomb on a deserted island, the true power of the new weapon could only be assessed in real conditions. The still unfinished war with Japan provided the Americans great opportunity, while giving an ironclad justification, with which politicians have more than once covered themselves later. They were “simply saving the lives of ordinary American guys.”
Most likely, the decision to use nuclear bombs was decided as a result of the combination of all these factors.
- After defeat Hitler's Germany, the situation developed in such a way that the Allies were not able to force Japan to surrender only on their own.
- The entry of the Soviet Union into the war obligated subsequently to listen to the opinion of the Russians.
- The military was naturally interested in testing new weapons in real conditions.
- Demonstrate to a potential enemy who is boss - why not?
The only justification for the United States is the fact that the consequences of the use of such weapons had not been studied at the time of their use. The effect exceeded all expectations and sobered even the most militant.
In March 1950, the Soviet Union announced the creation of its own atomic bomb. Nuclear parity was achieved in the 70s of the twentieth century.
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