Atomic Bombs

That depends on who you ask. If you ask a Marine or soldier in the Pacific in 1945, they would probably agree that it was justified. The casualty projections for the invasion were running at an expected 2,000.000 killed and wounded. Don't forget most Americans also blamed Japan for getting the US into the war by attacking Pearl Harbor. The Japanese obviously didn't feel that the unleashing of the bomb on civilians was justified.

They were called Little Boy and Fat man. (see related question link below)

The US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan to shock Japan's government into ending the war without an invasion. While an invasion would cost the lives of nearly one million US soldiers, half a million British soldiers, every Allied POW in Japan, and at the very least a majority of the Japanese people living in Japan, dropping the bombs caused over 250,000 casualties. It was decided that dropping the bombs would ultimately cause less casualties than any other method of ending the war.

it would prevent high casualties that would be caused by an invasion of mainland Japan.

ethical concerns

The Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped by the B-29 bomber called Bockscar piloted by Major Charles Sweeney of the 393rd Heavy Bomber Squad. He did not personally let the bomb out the bomb bay door, merely the piloted the plane. The bombardier's name was withheld.

The british tested their atomic bombs in Australia.

I believe it was Los Alamos

Los Alamos was a town, it still is, no city developed the atomic bomb, it was a group of scientists that developed it.

Both have critical mass and both use chain reactions

President Harry Truman had many alternatives at his disposal for ending the war: invade the Japanese mainland, hold a demonstration of the destructive power of the atomic bomb for Japanese dignitaries, drop an atomic bomb on selected industrial Japanese cities, bomb and blockade the islands, wait for Soviet entry into the war on August 15, or mediate a compromised peace.

At the end of World War II, few questioned Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most Americans accepted the obvious reasoning: the atomic bombings brought the war to a more timely end. They did not have a problem with over one hundred thousand of the enemy being killed. After all, the Japanese attacked America, and not the other way around. In later years, however, many have begun to question the conventional wisdom of "Truman was saving lives," putting forth theories of their own. However, when one examines the issue with great attention to the results of the atomic bombings and compares these results with possible alternatives to using said bombs, the line between truth and fiction begins to clear. Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan was for the purpose of saving lives and ending the war quickly in order to prevent a disastrous land invasion.

The atomic bomb creates a tremendous explosion that is more powerful than regular TNT bombs and one of the by products of the atomic reaction is radiation.

Atomic and hydrogen bombs create different types of damage and effects depending on where it is exploded. If it is exploded underground it has one type of effect. If the bomb is exploded in outer space, then there is no air so the explosion is dispelled in almost pure radiation and light energy.

Answer

They were also a major scare tactic. Let's face it. If your opponent has something that can wipe out most of an entire city, aren't you going to do as they say?

With two adversaries now armed with the same weapon; warfare had to be fought WITH LIMITATIONS; the Korean & Vietnam Wars. Conventional weapons only; no nukes.

Enola gay crew

Colonel Paul Tibbets

Captain Robert Lewis

Captain Theodore Van Kirk

Major Thomas Ferebee

Lieutenant Jacob Beser

Sergeant Joseph Stiborik

Private Richard Nelson

Staff Sergeant Wyatt Duzenbury

Staff Sergeant Robert Caron

Captain Deke Parson

2nd Lieutenant Morris Jeppson

Bockscar crew

Major Charles Sweeney

First Lieutenant Charles Albury

Captain James Van Pelt, Jr.

Captain Kermit Beahan

Lieutenant Jacob Beser

Staff Sergeant Ed Buckly

Sergeant Abe Spitzer

Master Sergeant John Kuharek

Sergeant Raymond Gallagher

Staff Sergeant Albert Dehart

Commander Frederick Ashworth

2nd Lieutenant Fred Olivi

The ultimate decision to use the bomb or not lay with the President of the United States. The bomb was originally built to use on Germany. Once it was defeated they had to consider whether or not to use it on Japan to motivate them Japanese leaders to surrender and capitulate to the Potsdam Declaration. Based on all the information provided to President Truman he chose to drop the bombs in the hopes of ending the war and avoid having millions of Japanese and Allied Forces killed in an mainland invasion.

He had to weigh the advantage of murdering hundreds of thousand Japanese over the loss of millions people from Japan, the USA, Australia and other countries. He opted for the lesser of two evils. At the time the bombs were dropped they had no guarantee the bombs would even work or motivate the Japanese to surrender. The Allied Forces did not learn until years later that the Japanese were building the atomic bomb and had planned to use it on the United States. So It is likely the decision to drop the bombs prevented the Japanese from using them on the USA.

He wanted to end the war very quickly and have the unconditional surrender of Japan.

See website: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. by saying when they died

Chaotic conditions made accurate accounts most difficult. Some victims were vaporized instantly, many survivors were horribly disfigured, and death from radiation was uncertain-it might not claim its victims for days, weeks, months, or even years.

The initial death count in Hiroshima, set at 42,000-93,000, was based solely on the disposal of bodies, and was thus much too low. Later surveys covered body counts, missing persons, and neighborhood surveys during the first months after the bombing, yielding a more reliable estimate of 130,000 dead as of November 1945. A similar survey by officials in Nagasaki set its death toll at 60,000-70,000. (Its plutonium bomb was more powerful, but its destructive range was limited by surrounding hills and mountains).

Additional counts indicated high levels of short-term mortality in both cities:

-Over 90% of persons within 500 meters (1,600 ft.) of ground zero in both cities died.

-At 1.5 km (almost one mile), over 2/3 were casualties, and 1/3 died.

-Of those at a distance of 2 km (1.2 mi.), half were casualties, 10% of whom died.

-Casualties dropped to 10% at distances over 4 km (2.4 mi.)

Atomicbombmuseum

There is a website in the related links below that has the answer.

The Hanford site near Richland, WA had the plutonium production reactors and extraction canyons that made and purified plutonium for implosion type bombs.

No One.


Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. The atomic bomb was invented in 1945. By this time there was no threat to Pearl Harbor.

Truman had no idea the atomic bomb was being developed. He was not even vice president when president Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the development of the atomic bomb on October 9, 1941 after a meeting with Vannevar Bush and then vice president Henry A. Wallace. At this time the United States was not even officially involved in WW2. Truman was first informed of the development of the atomic bomb by secretary of war Henry L. Stimson shortly after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945 only months before the first atomic bomb was tested. Effectively the atomic bomb was already completely developed before Truman was even aware of it, all that remained to be done was proof testing and combat use (and Franklin D. Roosevelt had already put the military wheels in action before his death for selection of target cities in Japan, although this selection process was not complete until late May 1945).

Harry S. Truman ordered the atomic bombs (Fat Boy and Little Man) to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan during the closing days of WWII. No other president has used an atomic bomb as an act of aggression. However, testing of atomic bombs lasted through many presidential terms.

The whole country of japan was destroyed and in ruin.

2 cities were destroyed by atomic bombs, considering the power of an atom bomb the destruction not as great as they figured. Many other cities in Japan were fire bombed to destroy any military industry they had. Tokyo was bombed on a number of occasions.

Enola gay which dropped the bomb over Hiroshima and Bockscar which dropped the bomb over Nagasaki.