The Atomic Bomb Hiroshima And Nagasaki

The Enola Gay

Objective The student will be able to explain the pro’s and con’s of using the atomic bomb on Japan during the end of WWII.

Warm-Up Questions Do you think the United States was Justified in Using the Atomic Bomb on Japan? Why or why not? Tell me two things you know about the Atomic Bomb. Why didn’t the United States use the bomb on Germany?

The Two Bombs A picture of Little Boy, which was dropped on Hiroshima. Fat Man, which was dropped on Nagasaki.

The Explosion

The Aftermath..

The Aftermath

Why Use the Bomb? The goal of the weapon was to convince Japan to surrender unconditionally in accordance with the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. U.S. officials estimate that 200,000 American lives were saved by avoiding warfare on mainland Japan.

American Opinion The bombings were looked at by many as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. About 2,400 Americans died. 85% of Americans in 1945 agreed with President Truman that dropping the bomb was the correct thing to do.

Death Toll The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945 Since then, thousands more have died from injuries or illness attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs.

Bomb Info The Bomb was designed to explode in the air at 2,000 feet above the ground. The heat was estimated to reach levels of 5,500 degrees F.

Plans for more atomic attacks on Japan The United States expected to have another atomic bomb ready for use in the third week of August, with three more in September and a further three in October. However, before this plan could be put into action Japan surrendered.

The Genbaku dome

The Genbaku dome today

Remembrance Ceremony Every August 6 the city of Hiroshima holds memorial ceremonies to remember those who died from the bomb. Tens of thousands of people attend. The memorial ceremony begins with a march from the Peace Cathedral to the Cenotaph, the central monument of the whole complex and the site of the stone coffin that holds the Register of A-Bomb Victims. During the ceremony the name of each victim is read. At night the city holds a lantern float on the river and people buy candles for every family member lost to the bomb attack. Peacemakers all over the world have adopted the lantern float as a memorial of this day in their towns and cities. They insert prayers, thoughts and messages of peace in their lanterns.

Remembrance Ceremony

Remembrance of the Bomb Many pregnant women delivered deformed babies and women who carried eight-week-old fetuses bore children with smaller heads and lower intelligence. Children were also muted, that is, their bodies stopped growing. As a result, many young women exposed to the radiation vowed never to marry or to have children because they feared what they might produce

Misc Facts about the Bombing All the watches found in the ground zero were stopped at 8:15 am, the time of the explosion

Misc Facts about the Bombing Within a certain distance from the site of explosion, the heat was so intense that practically everything was vaporized. The shadows of the poles were imprinted on the road surface

Misc Facts about the Bombing Shadows were also left of people and objects, such as the man and ladder or The person who was sitting on these steps.

Japanese Holdouts Japanese holdouts or stragglers were soldiers in the Pacific who, after the August 1945 surrender of Japan, either adamantly doubted the formal surrender due to strong militaristic principles, or were not aware of it because communications were cut off by the United States island hopping campaign. They would continue to fight occupying forces, and later, local police, years after the war was over. On December 8, 1945, three U.S. Marines were ambushed and killed at Asan point on Guam. Many sources cite intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, who surrendered on Lubang Island in the Philippines in March 1974, as the last holdout; the last confirmed holdout appears to be Teruo Nakamura who surrendered on the Indonesian island of Morotai in December 1974.

Summary Questions Did your initial opinion about using the bomb on Japan change after watching the video and taking down power point notes? Do you think countries should be allowed to have atomic weapons? During a war, do you feel that civilians are acceptable targets to attack? Why or why not?