The Atomic Bomb Essay Example For Students

The Atomic Bomb Essay There has been a long standing debate on why The Atomic Bomb Essay was used to defeat Japan. The threat of Russian advancement in Europe and in Asia was enough to worry the top officials in the United States and British governments. Wherever the Russians moved through they took for themselves. The imminent invasion of mainland Japan and the allied casualties that came with it were also a factor in the decision to drop the bomb, as said in document A. The dropping of the bomb was not entirely used to stop the Russian advancement. If the allied forces had invaded mainland Japan, many lives on both sides would have been lost. Most probably more than were lost in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. The tactics that the allies had used up to this point had cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. This was when the Japanese only had maybe two or three thousand men on an island; whereas on the mainland millions of people who would fight until their death to protect their country. Can you imagine if the Americans invaded mainland Japan where they had not only soldiers to fight against but the citizens of Japan loyal to Hirohito? Massive destruction, immense loss of life, and prolonging of the war until late 1946, as stated in document A, would result from invading on foot instead of using the bomb. Robert S. Oppenheimer, was the father of the Atomic Bomb. After Albert Einstein stated that if the Nazis made a nuclear weapon first, the results would be devastating. Due to this, Oppenheimer decided to race to develop such a weapon, before the Nazis. On August 6, 1945, the first Atomic Bomb used in warfare, was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. U. S. President, Harry Truman ordered the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, on what he reported would only destroy military bases. The devastation turned out to be nothing like anybody had ever seen before. On August 2, 1945 20th Air Force attacks targets in Japan on 6th August. Primary TargetHiroshima. At this point, only the direct order of President Truman could stop the dropping of the bomb. As it turned out, Truman thought nothing of the sort. His intention was to bomb Hiroshima, and nothing was going to stop him. The bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima was nicknamed Little Boy Three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The bombing of Nagasaki completely wiped out the northern part of the city. The nickname for this bomb was called Fat Man. There are a few reasons why these two cities each have different nicknames. The Nagasaki bomb did not destroy as much as the Hiroshima bomb, nor did it kill as many people. So then why is the Nagasaki bomb called the Fat Man and the Hiroshima bomb called Little Boy. The Fat Man was made of plutonium and consisted of twenty-two kilotons of TNT. As for the Little Boy, it was made of uranium, and was made up of only thirteen kilotons of TNT. Even though the Hiroshima bomb was not made up to do even near the amount of damage as the Nagasaki bomb, it turned out that did more damage. The reason for this is because, the geographic location of Nagasaki, with its mountainous terrain prevented it from doing the same amount of destruction as in Hiroshima. In the two bombings there was a large gap in the number of people that died. In Hiroshima the city population at the time of the bombing was 310,000, The estimated deaths was 90,000-140,000 people. As for the Nagasaki bombing, the city population before the bombing was 250,000. The estimated number of deaths was 60,000-80,000 people. Notice that the word, estimated, was used for both amounts of deaths. The reason for this is because, the number of deaths cannot be precisely known because records of military personnel in each city were destroyed. There have been several comparisons between the damage capabilities of the two bombs. First of all, it was said that to achieve maximum blast effect, the bomb had been set to detonate 1800 feet over Hiroshima. This is approximately 548 meters. The bomb in Hiroshima reached a height of 580+/-15 meters. As for the bomb in Nagasaki, it reached a height of 500+/-10 meters. The radius in which ceramic roof tiles melted was 600m in the Hiroshima bombing and 1000m in the Nagasaki bombing. My Family of Five Essay They contacted the British after the the Battle of Midway with a message from the Japanese foreign minister Togo. The message said that the Japanese was ready to be helpful if the British Government was willing to talk.(McManus 2) In the United States, Army chief of Staff George Marshall wanted to continue fighting and did not want to hear of any peace or surrender talks. He believed .