Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Bombardment)

In early August 1945 the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were attacked with two nuclear bombings that caused some 250,000 civilian victims as a result of the explosion and the radiation. Who gave the final order to bomb both cities was the President of the United States Harry S. Truman.

Consequences of the bombings

The first direct consequence was the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. Keep in mind that the Nazis had surrendered months ago after the suicide of Adolf Hitler.

Many of the survivors were seriously injured and without home and with all kinds of sequels for his Health by exposition to radiation. In this sense, since then the rates of cancer and genetic malformations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been very high.

Fundamental data of interest

- The bomb that fell on Hiroshima is known as Little Boy and the one in Nagasaki is called Fat Man.

- A part of the survivors were marginalized by the Japanese themselves, as it was believed that their diseases were highly contagious.

- The city of Nagasaki was not the real target of the attack, but the city of Kokura. This city 150 km from Nagasaki was not bombed because on August 9 it was a very cloudy day that did not allow air visibility.

- Two weeks before the bombings, the United States gave Japan an ultimatum: either surrender or a nuclear attack was going to take place. The Japanese leaders did not even respond and only surrendered a week after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

- Although President Truman considered that nuclear bombs were necessary to force the surrender of Japan, months before the previous US president (Dwight D. Eisenhower) had opposed his launch, because he understood that they were not necessary and that the Japanese would end up giving up.

- The design the atomic bombs was part of a top-secret operation, the Project Manhattan. Scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada have been investigating nuclear energyas it was known that the Germans were also developing a nuclear program parallel, the Uranium Project. One month before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were dropped, the first test atomic successfully in the town of Los Alamos, a desert area in New Mexico.

Photos: Fotolia - Keith Tarrier / Bogdanserban