Hiroshima
What was happening to Japan?
Why did they drop the bomb?
between 1942 and 1945 the Americans had been involved in a strategic bombing campaign in Japan.
Impacts of the bomb
In July 1945 the war on the pacific was still in process, slowly. The fighting between Japan and the Allies was very fierce. Japan was ready to fight with their build up of a million of troops, the Americans however, were feared that if they continued to fight the Japanese their troops would be lost and it would carry on through to the year of 1946.
The Americans estimate the number killed as 117,000
Key Events
21 July - Truman recived the report that the bomb was ready to be used
26 July - The British, Chinese and Americans called for Japan to unconditionally surrender. The Soviet Union did not agree
28 July - The Japanese refused to surrender unconditionally
3 August - The Japanese again asked for negotiated peace
6 August - An American B29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb, codenamed 'Little Boy' on the Japanese city of Hiroshima
9 August - The Americans dropped a second atomic bomb, codenamed 'Fat Man' on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
14 July - Japan surrendered unconditionally
President Truman said that he dropped the atomic bomb because he wanted the Japanese war to end quickly.
The Japanese estimate the number at 250,000
Many more suffered horrific injuries
In the years following many of the survivors, known as 'hibakusha', developed ill healthh
Studies of the 'hibakusha' have allowed doctors to better understand radiation poisoning
He also said that he didn't want to keep losing all the
American troops lives.
After affects
Between the 1960s and the 1990s, people lived in the shadow of fear of a nuclear war
Today politicians worry what would happen if terrorists got their hands on a nuclear bomb
Some historians believed that he dropped it because he didn't want the soviet union getting involed in the far east.
The atomic bomb changed international relations
The Cold War
A war where no fighting happens
The dropping of the nuclear bombs is therefore a major historical event