At atomic bombs were launched by the United States in Japan, on the 6th and 9th of August 1945, in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during the Second World War. The dropping of the bombs is attributed to the Japanese refusal to surrender and the American attempt to prevent a territorial invasion of Japan. This act was considered a war crime.
Read too: The Japanese Attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base
Justifications and criticisms
According to the official speech defended by the United States, the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan was a consequence of the Japanese refusal to surrender in accordance with the terms stipulated in the Potsdam Declaration. The Americans wanted to prevent a possible overland invasion of Japan because it would result in thousands of deaths due to harsh Japanese resistance in the fighting. From the American point of view, the use of bombs, despite being cruel, saved countless victims – mainly American – and brought forward the end of the war, putting an end to the Japanese agony.
Many claim that the use of bombs only occurred as a show of American force for the Soviets in the context of Cold War, which was already outlined in the world with the end of World War II in Europe. Criticism was also carried out by those who considered the use of bombs unnecessary, as Japan was a failed nation and would no longer support the continuation of the war.
Bomb Effects
Hiroshima a few weeks after the bombing. September or October 1945 photo
THE Hiroshima bomb, released on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, caused immense destruction. Charles Pellegrino claims that the person closest to the bomb explosion was the lady Aoyama, which was instantly vaporized by the effect of the explosion. See the details of her death in the following report:
From the moment the rays began to pass through your bones, your marrow would begin to vibrate at more than five times the boiling point of water. The bones would instantly glow, and all her skin would try, at the same time, explode and detach itself from the skeleton, while being forced towards the ground as if it were a gas tablet. During the first three-tenths of a second after the bomb's detonation, most of the iron would be separated from Mrs. Aoyama's blood, as if by atomic refinery. […] When the sound of the explosion reached her son Nenkai, two kilometers away, all the substance of his mother's body, including the iron in her blood and calcium […] would be rising into the stratosphere to become part of the strange radioactive storms that would chase Nenkai and others survivors|1|.
Other victims close to bombs had their printed shadow on walls that remained standing. From there, a cloud of heat swept through Hiroshima, bringing great material destruction over the city. Survivors report about a fort. glare when the bomb exploded, and some remember a loud sound. Despite the great destruction, the Hiroshima bomb was considered a failure, as it did not reach even half of its expected potential.
After the explosion, the impacts and effects of the bomb spread faster than the human body could react. Professor Arai, who was examining her students' handwriting papers, said that the radiation printed the characters in black definitively over his face |2|. She survived, but all of her students died.
You survivors reported the horror that spread through the city. People were hurt in every way possible. Places with windows became deadly, as the impact of the explosion caused the shards of glass to be thrown at people at very high speeds. There are reports of survivors with numerous pieces of glass scattered over the body.
Another effect of the bomb on people was the burns caused by the heat cloud that spread through the city. The strongest accounts speak of people with melted skin attached to their bodies. Others claim that people have had their eye sockets melted by the heat. Some, with less serious injuries, had to deal for months with body burns that would not heal (radiation effect).
Over the next few days, clouds of flies spread through the city, and larvae proliferated from people's wounds. Despite everything, the few surviving doctors soon identified that the larvae in the wounds aided in the saving lives, as they fed on the rotten meat, which prevented the development of an infectious condition in the victims.
Read too: Japanese Defeat in World War II
Radiation
Many, luckily, survived without any kind of injury or with minor injuries. However, not only the heat from the bomb made them dead. THE radiation he was an enemy who fiercely pursued the survivors.
The amount of radiation scattered across both cities was too great for the human body to resist. Thus, many died a few hours after the explosion, as was the case with Mrs. Matsuyanagi's youngest son, according to the report:
As they walked through the pile of rubble that had been their school, Mrs. Matsuyanagi's children were already feeling bad. The youngest had gone to school hungry, but after the effects of lightning and particle beams, he lost the desire to eat. When his mother finally found him, he had been gripped by dry nausea and convulsions. In a matter of minutes, the child's arms turned black and blue, and he began to bleed, despite the apparent lack of injuries.|3|.
This happened repeatedly to several other people. Some took hours to die; others days. The few doctors who survived worked at a frantic pace and without adequate materials to help the survivors. Those who didn't die from radiation led a lifetime of sudden illness, most notably cancer.
Read too:Japan after World War II
Japanese surrender
After the use of atomic bombs, Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, formalizing the surrender on September 2 with the signing of the minutes by Emperor Hirohito on the ship USS Missouri.
|1| PELLEGRINO, Charles. The last train from Hiroshima: the survivors look back. São Paulo: Leya, 2010, p.4.
|2|Idem, p.14-15
|3|Idem, p.30
*Image credits: Everett Historical and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/efeitos-das-bombas-atomicas-sobre-hiroshima-nagasaki.htm