|
Background Information
<br /> WW 11 and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age Effect of the Bomb on Hiroshima
<br /> During World War 11,the U.S.government funded a The atomic bomb that was detonated by the Manhat-
<br /> team of international scientists as part of a secret tan Project was more powerful than 20,000 tons of
<br /> program called the Manhattan Project.Their purpose TNT.The test blast could be seen for more than 200
<br /> was to develop the world's first nuclear weapons. miles.
<br /> In May of 1945,WW 11 in Europe was ending.The U.S. In Hiroshima,the searing flash of heat created when
<br /> and its Allies turned their full attention to the war in the bomb exploded killed 70,000 people instantly. In
<br /> the Pacific.The memory of the Japanese bombing of the years since then,the death toll has risen to more
<br /> Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was still fresh in the than 260,000, including the thousands who died from
<br /> minds of many Americans and the U.S.was engaged in the effects of radiation exposure from the blast.Chil-
<br /> bloody fighting against the Japanese at Iwo Jima and dren were especially susceptible to the radiation and
<br /> Okinawa.Those two conflicts resulted in 75,000 U.S. many, like Sadako Sasaki,developed leukemia and
<br /> casualties and the loss of countless Japanese lives. other cancers many years after the bomb was
<br /> dropped.
<br /> In late July 1945 at Potsdam,Germany,the Allies
<br /> demanded that Japan surrender unconditionally. In Those who survived the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima
<br /> that same month,the Manhattan Project completed an and Nagasaki are known as hibakusha,a word that
<br /> atomic bomb and conducted a successful test means"explosion affected people."There are still hi-
<br /> explosion in New Mexico. In weighing alternatives, bakusha alive today, many of whom have dedicated
<br /> including a planned full-scale invasion of the Japanese their lives to working for peace and to sharing their
<br /> mainland, U.S. President Truman saw the use of this stories with the next generation.To learn more about
<br /> new weapon as a way to hasten the war's end.After the hibakusha and their stories, visit
<br /> the Japanese rejected the Potsdam Declaration and www.hibakushastories.org.
<br /> refused to surrender, President Truman authorized
<br /> use of the atomic bomb. Japan Today
<br /> On August 6, 1945,the first atomic bomb, nicknamed Like the hibakusha before them,a new generation of
<br /> "Little Boy,"was dropped over Honshu Island on the Japanese must worry about the possible impact of ex-
<br /> Man,"was dropped on Nagasaki.Shortly thereafter,
<br /> city of Hiroshima.On August 9th,a second bomb, "Fat posure to radiation on their health and that of their Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's capitulation.The children.
<br /> formal surrender was signed on September 2, 1945. On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake
<br /> Japan is the only country in the world to have struck northeastern Japan and triggered a devastating
<br /> experienced an atomic bombing.As such, it has tsunami which killed and injured thousands.Whole
<br /> adopted the"three nonnuclear principles"of not villages were razed and millions were affected.Among
<br /> possessing, not manufacturing and not introducing the buildings seriously damaged by the quake and the
<br /> nuclear weapons into Japan. subsequent wave was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
<br /> power plant.The long-term impact of the damage to
<br /> The use of atomic weapons ushered in the Nuclear Age the facility is still unknown.CNN quoted an 82-year-old
<br /> and opened debate on the use of atomic power. hibakusha named Keijiro Matsushima as saying"It's
<br /> Debate continues today. like the third atomic bomb attack on Japan,but this
<br /> time,we made it ourselves."
<br /> Information courtesy of www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/abomb.htm,www.worldwariihistory.info/WWIl/,http*//weNapan.org/kidsweb/explore/history/
<br /> q5.html,www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/97e/peace/e/06/bakugeki,htm,www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/aslapcf/03/14/japan.hiroshima/index.html
<br /> For additional information on the history of World War 11 in the Pacific,why Hiroshima was chosen as a target,and the effects of the bomb,visit
<br /> www.pearlharbor.org,http.//avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mpO5.asp,...mpO6.asp,...mpO3.asp,...mplO.asp,
<br /> www.efo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima,htm,www.atomicarchive.com/Effects/effectsl.shtml,...effects2.shtml,...effectsl7.shtml
<br /> Science:Biology-,Social Studies*History and Biography 2
<br /> The Marcia P.Hoffman Performing Arts Institute,All Rights Reserved 2011
<br />
|