On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 am, the US army dropped the first ever Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. There are no commonly accepted figures, but approximately 140,000 people died, including later deaths from burns and radiation (Mifflin, 2). But these numbers do not begin to portray the kind of suffering these people went through. "The number of people killed in Hiroshima, convey no sense of the brutalized human being, because 'statistics don't bleed'"(Lifton, 13). But if they did, this is what they would look like:
"The appearance of people was...well, they all had skin blackened by burns... They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance, you couldn't tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back... and their skin-not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too- hung down... Many of them died along the road- I can still picture them in my mind-like walking ghosts... They didn't look like people of this world... They had a special way of walking- very slowly... I myself was one of them" (Lifton, 27).
It was decided that Hiroshima would be bombed because it was one of the only targets that didn't have any Prisoner of War camps there. Obviously the US was more concerned with saving a few American lives than saving thousands of Japanese lives. But in an ironic twist of fate, they were wrong: "There had been twenty-three US Prisoners of War om Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped" (Wyden, 269). The ideal target for the site of the bomb was somewhere that would not "concentrate on a civilian area," but that would have a "profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible". This ideal place should be something like "a vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by worker's houses". No one mentioned how contradictory it was to want to destroy the maximum number of worker's homes without concentrating on a civilian area (Wyden, 162).
The US did not seem interested in the fact that they had relatively no idea of what the bomb would do, and insisted on dropping it anyway. There was no research into the radioactivity and it's affects, except the orders that the army gave to the pilots to stay out of the cloud that would arise: "He [Parsons] did warn the pilots that under no circumstances were they to fly through the mushroom cloud. It would contain radioactivity" (Wyden, 240). This announcement was made two days before the bomb was dropped, and was virtually the first mention of radioactivity. No one was concerned with its affects on the Japanese.
"I was alright for three days... but then I became sick with fever and bloody diarrhea... After a few days I vomited blood also... There was a very bad burn on my hand, and when I put my hand in water something strange and bluish came out of it, like smoke. After that my body swelled up and worms crawled on the outside of my body..." (Lifton, 62)
No project of the magnitude would fly with the officials without having some sense of the affects. But since so little was known about the affects, scientists virtually made them up. Oppenheimer claimed that the effects would be harmful to life within a radius of two-thirds of a mile (Wyden, 162) This careless remark couldn't have been further from the truth, which was that life was terminated mostly within a radius of 3 miles. Oppenheimer also underestimated the power of the bomb. He predicted that the first bomb would have a force of only 2000 tons of TNT. The actual bomb's force was more than 20,000 tons of TNT. He also thought that only 20,000 people would be killed in an explosion like this. He was painfully mistaken, since more than 140,000 people died at Hiroshima alone (Wyden, 158). Nor did he take into consideration the effects of radiation on the people of Hiroshima.
One survivor, who wishes to remain anonymous, was 11 months old at the time of the bombing. She doesn't remember much of the actual event, but recalls stories told to her by her mother: "Since it was so early in the morning, everyone was inside the house, and luckily nobody was injured. But my mother tells me that the whole house shook, and the windows were blown in by the blast. She didn't know what happened, so she went outside. Later that day she was burnt people, or 'Keroido' as we called them, walking on the street below our house and begging my mother for water because their bodies were so hot from the bomb. Even though I was young, I can still see the 'keroido'. I remember their bodies and faces looked very shiny from the burns."
On July 15, 1945 in Los Alamos, New Mexico scientists had taken over an old Boy's School and turned it into a series of laboratories and test grounds for the A-bomb. Today would be the first ever detonation of such a bomb. When it was determined that the bomb had been a success, some scientists were concerned with what it would do to the world. "'At first I was thrilled,' he [Rabi] remembered later. 'It was a vision. Then, a few minutes afterward, I had gooseflesh all over me when I realized what this meant for the future of humanity'" (Wyden, 213).
And as it turns out, what it meant for humanity was mass murder, instilling in people all over the world that whoever has the most money can destroy the world, and that if you become powerful enough, you can put a price on human life. This incident was a turning point in history where it became noble to murder. I hope that we can continue to learn from this monumental mistake through such organizations as the Hiroshima Peace Park, which keeps the memories of those alive who were taken from this earth in the most violent and destructive way that our planet has ever seen.
This chart uses statistics from past to present in order to discuss nuclear weapons, nuclear energy and waste. Pros and Cons of Nuclear Disarmement This site speaks both for and against nuclear disarmement. It uses related websites and organizations to prove either side. Expenditures for Nuclear Weapons Materials Production, 1948-1996 This sitecharts the amount of money that the US has spent on Nuclear Weapons since 1948. The highest amount (in billions of dollars) was in 1953. |
This site was started in order for people to gain knowledge about the atomic bomb in honor of the 50th anniversary of the bombing. The US Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project This study compares how much money the US spends on nuclear weapons from the 1940's with our budget today. It is supported by several articles in which the government is scrutinized for the excessive allowances for weapons. The Health and Morale of the Japanese Civilian Population Under Assault This site describes the state of the Japanese throughout their attack by the US. It gives the number of casualties and explains why the Japanese were so unlikely to recover from their injuries (mostly burns) because their daily intake of calories had declined so much during this period. |
"The fate of the human race is in your hands. I close with the hope that God's wisdom, discernment, and love of humankind will be in you as you formulate a correct decision with respect to the problem of nuclear weapons." -Mayor of Hiroshima "Our vision is a world at peace, free of the threat of war and free of weapons of mass destruction. It is a world where conflicts are settled nonviolently; a world where human and natural resources are constructively and sustainably; a world where all individuals live with human dignity, compassion, and respect for one another; and a world where local, national and international institutions support the aims. " -Nuclear Age Peace Foundation NukeNet was started in order to make people aware about nuclear issues and get people involved in anti-nuclear activity. The organization was founded 15 years ago after a power plant melt-down in Pennsylvania. World Peace Project for Children The World Peace Project for Children retells the story of Sadako, a young girl who gets Leukemia as a result of the US dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. This courageous girl sets out to make 1,000 paper cranes in order to save her own life. This site encourages other children to keep peace in mind. |
