Atomic Bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The atomic bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place the 6 and August 9th 1945 on the initiative of the the United States and put an end to the Second world war after the capitulation of Japan on August 14th, 1945. They are the only bombardments nuclear S having taken place in times of Guerre.

The number of deaths is difficult to define and only estimates are available. The Département of the Energy of the United States (DOE) advances the figures of: 70000 for Hiroshima and 40000 people for Nagasaki, killed instantaneously. To this are added the deaths appeared thereafter in reasons of various types of Cancer S and pathologies.

The effects and the justification of the bombardments were the subject many debates and controversies. To kill out of the Civil S is a War crime according to the International conventions. To the United States, the majority from the points of view agree to say that the atomic bombs shortened the war of several months and saved the life of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, whether it is in the Japanese or American camps. The United States indeed envisaged to invade early or late Japan in a named campaign Opération Downfall. Retrospectively, it appears however that the threat of a Soviet invasion had much more weight in the decision of the Emperor.

To Japan, the public opinion tends to think that the use of the bombs was superfluous because the process of capitulation was in hand during the bombardments. However, as it show the files bringing back the deliberations between Hirohito, the cabinet and the staff, it of it was nothing: in answer to the declaration of Potsdam of July 26th, the Japanese government organized the 28 a press conference during which the Prime Minister Suzuki announced the intention of Japan “to be unaware of” ( mokusatsu ) the ultimatum. The files show besides that even after the atomic bombardments, the cabinet remained deeply divided. From this point of view, it is not the bombardment but the Declaration of war of the Soviet Union against Japan the August 8th and its invasion of the Mandchourie which determined the capitulation of Hirohito; bombardment being a secondary factor which will have really influence only during the Cold war.

The survivors of the explosions, the Hibakusha , became the symbol of a fight against the atomic war and weapons throughout the world.

Preparations of the bombardments

The bombs with uranium and plutonium, developed in parallel and secrecy by the the United States (with the assistance of the the United Kingdom and the Canada and many European scientists) under the name of code Projet Manhattan were the second and third machines with having to be used and remained only deployed since this date on a theater of operation.

First test of atomic bomb, Trinity (called “the gadget” partly owing to the fact that it was not an operational weapon), had place in a desert of the New Mexico the July 16th 1945, on the air base of Alamogordo. It was a model with the Plutonium, because the Americans had more doubts about this technology than on that with Uranium.

The decision of launching the bombs on Japan was made by the US president Harry S. Truman for several reasons which the historians endeavoured to analyze, balance or draw aside: to satisfy the public opinion by avenging the soldiers killed on the face for the Pacific, to reduce the duration of the war and to avoid an unloading on the archipelago, to set up a strategy to counter the Soviet Union and to have a dissuasive deterrent force or to justify a program whose cost had been exorbitant. Other explanations are also advanced; they will be taken again and analyzed at the end of this article.

Shortly after the destruction of Hiroshima and before launching another bomb on Nagasaki, Truman launched a last warning to the Japanese authorities (translation of the original text):

was to save Japanese lives of a total destruction that the Ultimatum of the July 26th was formulated with the Conférence of Potsdam. Their leaders immediately rejected this ultimatum. If they do not accept our conditions now, they must expect a flood of ruins come from the airs like it in seen forever from similar on this Earth. After this air attack will follow forces marine and terrestrial of number and in power such as they never saw some and with the aptitudes for the combat of which they are already quite conscious.

As it is detailed in the discussion at the end of this article, the fact that the atomic bombardments were or not justified remains a subject since then of controversy.

The choice of the targets

The meeting of the “Committee of the objectives” ( Target Committee ) with Los Alamos the 10 and May 11th 1945, chooses the targets on the Japanese territory in this order:

According to Robert Jungk (free translation): 1956 p. 178 , needs has confirming refers -->

On the short list of the targets for the atomic bomb, in addition to Hiroshima, Kokura and Niigata, there was also the city of the temples, Kyōto. When the expert on Japan, the professor Edwin O. Reischauer, heard this terrible news, it went precipitately in the office of its chief, the major Alfred MacCormack, in a department of the intelligence services of the army. The shock dissolved it in tears. MacCormack, a lawyer cultivated with the respect of the human life, managed to persuade the secretary of the war Henry L. Stimson to grant a deferment to Kyōto and to withdraw the city of the list.

Reischauer refuted this version in its book My Life Between Japan And America , 1986, p. 101:

I would have probably done that if I had on the occasion of it, but this account does not contain an ounce of truth. As it amply was already proven by my friend Otis Cary de Doshisha with Kyōto, the only person who deserves the honors to have saved Kyōto of the destruction is Henry L. Stimson, the secretary of the War of the time, which had known and admired Kyōto since its honeymoon more than three decades before.

This assertion is partially confirmed by Richard Rhodos which describes the refusal of Stimson about the bombardment of Kyōto, going against the will of the general Leslie Groves.

The May 31st 1945, Stimson brings together the military and scientific main actors Manhattan project. They discussed the disadvantages related to a warning given to the Japanese before the attack. They feared that the Japanese do not move prisoners of war in direction of the zones planned for the bombardment or that the apparatuses are cut down. It could be also that the bomb is a fiasco with an incomplete explosion. Edward Teller proposed to explode the bomb of night, without warnings, with the top of bay of Tōkyō to avoid the human losses and to shock the opinion. This idea was rejected: the Japanese had already proven their unbounded combativeness with the Kamikaze S and it was not sure that an action without massive destruction is sufficient to destabilize them.

Oppenheimer suggested attacking with several bombs the same day for definitively stopping the war. The Groves general opposed it because the targets had already been the subject of conventional bombardments and that the effects of the bombs would not be significant enough on these already devastated grounds. Moreover, the estimates on this date on the power of a nuclear explosion (no test not having been carried out) did not correspond as well as possible that to half, at worst with a tenth of what was going to be really the case. The effects were not yet precisely known. It is only after the test of Trinity that the nature of the mission could be sealed.

Reaction of Japan to the ultimatum of Potsdam

Japanese files as the newspaper of the Minister of Justice Koichi Kido show that Hirohito and the cabinet insisted to obtain a conditional rendering whereas the government carried out parallel negotiations with the Soviet Union. Among these conditions were the disarmament of the troops by the Japanese authorities, the judgment of the criminals by the Japanese authorities, the absence of occupying forces in Japanese ground and the safeguarding of the imperial mode and the Emperor.

Between on July 27th and on August 6th, whereas Hirohito was the subject of intense pressures of his/her brothers and his/her uncles requiring of him to abdicate in favor of his/her son, the government took refuge in dumbness. In waiting of an exit to the negotiations carried out with Soviet, the emperor ordered on July 31st with the Minister of Justice Kôichi Kido to take imperial measurements to defend “at all costs” the distinguished

The order to attack

Only some people are with the current of the orders given by president Truman. The July 21st 1945, the president approves the dropping of the bombs on Japan. The July 24th, the order is relayed by the secretary of the War, Henri Stimson. The July 25th, the general Thomas Handy sends a secret order to the general Carl A. Spaatz, it will be the only order written concerning the use of the atomic bomb (see free translation about Handy for submission to Spaatz). The July 28th, Japan refuses the agreement of Potsdam and the use of the bomb is inescapable.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima during the Second world war

Located in the Région of Chūgoku on the delta of the river Removed, the city was divided into seven islands.

Camps of the army had settled in the surroundings. Among most important, one found there those of the 5th Division and the command center of the general Hata. This one managed the whole of the defense of the southernmost part of the archipelago. The general headquarter of the second armed was located in a mountainous sector of the city at 10 kilometers of the center, in the Château of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima was a center of important provisioning and a logistic base for the Japanese soldiers. The city was a center of communications, a stock room and of gathering for the troops. The population of Hiroshima was mobilized, like other Japanese cities, against the American invader: the women and the children learned how to fight with sticks and to support the effort of war that it is in the offices or the factories.

The city was selected as target because it had not undergone air raids yet: she constituted an ideal zone to evaluate the impact of the atomic bomb. The center of the city had several reinforced concrete buildings just as less solid constructions. In periphery, the dwellings out of wooden côtoyaient the small shops, forming a dense collection of light structures. Some factories had been established in the suburbs. The fire hazard was high in Hiroshima: the concentration of the buildings and the materials used were favourable with a maximum destruction thanks to the heating effects of the bomb.

Information concerning the number of people present in the city during the bombardment is very variable, energy of: 255000 with: 348000 inhabitants. The estimates given by the troops and the workers are probably vague. The American report/ratio indicating: 255000 inhabitants had been based on the statistics of rice rationing of June 1945.

Preparations

Two hours after the success of the test Trinity , the bombs Conceited Man and Little Boy took the departure since San Francisco in direction of Tinian on board the Croiseur Indianapolis . The Americans had envisaged two attacks if the first did not appear sufficient. The July 26th 1945, they arrived on the American basis. July 28th and the next day, four planes Green Hornet flew away from the United States to bring the last components necessary to the bombs: the plutonium heart for Conceited Man and uranium cylinders for Little Boy .

The captain of the US Navy William Parsons was charged with maintenance and the organization with the assembly with the bombs on the spot. He set up the various workshops necessary to this operation because one did not know yet how much bombs would be employed to come to end from Japan. During this time in the United States, the fissile production of material continued for a third bomb.

The only possible vector for the bomb was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, single heavy bomber able to reach Japan at the time and a unit especially created for the nuclear bombardment was setting-up, the '' 509th Composite Group ''.

Little Boy was installed in B-29 but was not armed. One feared indeed that the plane is not crushed and that the bomb does not start accidentally, pulverizing the island immediately. The accidents with these bombers were current and the soldiers did not want to take risks. It was decided that the armament would be done after takeoff, one of the most delicate phases of the mission. The team involved itself without slackening to polish the mission and more particularly Parsons which was charged to arm the bomb in flight with all the responsibilities than that implied.

The commander Paul Tibbets then decided to baptize B-29 with a single name, that of his mother (Enola Gay), to place the plane and his crew “under a lucky star” as he will say it during an interview. Little before takeoff, of the journalists had piled up around the bomber for immortaliser the event.

Bombardment

Hiroshima was the priority target for the bombardment. The August 6th 1945, time was clearly above the city. Several B-29 ( Jabbit III for Kokura and Full House for Nagasaki) had been sent on the others target if the mission on Hiroshima had suddenly been diverted, but the other cities all were covered by clouds. B-29 controlled by Paul Tibbets, Enola Gay had left to 2:45 the island Tinian. The plane transported with him the bomb Little Boy . This one was armed in flight by the captain with navy William Parsons after takeoff.

Approximately an hour before the bombardment, the Japanese had detected the approach of an American plane on the south of the archipelago. Alarm was started with advertisements for submission to the population and a program stop of the radio in several cities. The plane flew over Hiroshima and disappeared. This plane was in fact B-29 of recognition, Straight Flush , which announced the good conditions of visibility for the bombardment. The Radar S Japanese detected then a new group of planes with high-altitude but their number relatively low, only three, made that alarm was raised after ten minutes. The recommendations for the population were to gain the shelters if B-29 were visible, but no raid was awaited put aside of the recognition.

It was acted in fact of the three B-29 of the raid on Hiroshima which evolved/moved with more than 9.500 meters of altitude:

Second lieutenant, Morris R. Jeppson, was the last with touching the bomb when it placed the fuses of armament. Little before 8:15, Enola Gay arrived above the city. The order to bombard was given by Tibbets, major Thomas Ferebee was carried out by aiming at the Aioi bridge in form of T , this one constituting an ideal benchmark in the center of the city. Shortly after 8:15, the bomb Little Boy left the compartment at an altitude of 9450 Mr. With 8:16 mn 2 S, after approximately 43 seconds of freefall, activated by the sensors of altitude and its radars, it exploded with 580 meters with the vertical of the Shima hospital, in full heart of the agglomeration, to 170 m in the south-east of the bridge concerned, releasing an energy equivalent to approximately 15000 tons of TNT.

An enormous incandescent gas bubble of more than 400 meters in diameter was formed in some fractions of a second, radiating a powerful thermal radiation. In lower part, close to the hypocentre, the temperature of the surfaces exposed to this radiation rose a short moment, very superficially, with can be 4000°C. Incendie S started even with several kilometers. The people exposed to this flash were burned. Those protected inside or by the shade from the buildings were buried or wounded by remains projections when a few seconds later the Shock wave arrived on them. Winds from 300 to 800 km/h devastated the streets and the dwellings. The long martyrdom of the survivors did nothing but start whereas the mushroom cloud, aspiring dust and the remains, began its rise from several kilometers. An enormous generalized hearth started quickly with peaks of temperature in certain places. So certain zones were saved during the explosion, they were to thereafter face a flood of fire caused by the intense movements of the masses of air. This “storm of fire” was similar to those observed during the bombardments flamers on the German cities.

Enola Gay had meanwhile carried out a steep turn with 155° towards the North-West and turned back. The members of the crew, protected by glasses, could attend the explosion. Bob Lewis, the copilot of Enola Gay exclaims:

My God, whom did we make? Even if I live hundred years, I keep forever these a few minutes with the spirit.

The bomber returned in Tinian where the crew was decorated for his mission and where a great festival awaited them. Both other B-29 charged to recover data remained sufficiently a long time around the site of the explosion to photograph mushroom cloud and the damage, to film the neighborhoods and to collect information on the mission.

Discovered destruction by the Japanese

The operator in charge of the radio connections with Tōkyō, an employee of the Japanese Hōsō Kyōkai, noticed that the station of Hiroshima did not answer any more. He tried to restore the communication via another phone line, this one had also keep silent himself. Approximately twenty minutes later, the railway center which managed the telegraphs with Tōkyō realized that the principal line had ceased functioning until the north of Hiroshima. All these problems were the object of a report/ratio near the Japanese headquarters.

The principal command on several occasions tried to call the command center of the army in Hiroshima. The silence which followed left dubitative the persons in charge of Tōkyō. They knew that no enemy raid with a great number of planes had taken place, the radars had announced only some planes here and there. Moreover, no important stock of explosives was in Hiroshima at this time. An official young person of the Japanese general headquarter was then sent urgently to Hiroshima by plane to note the damage and to turn over to Tōkyō with information on potential destruction. It was thought that they were just some lines cut by an isolated bombardment.

The officer went to the airport and took his take-off in direction of south-west. After three hours of flight, its pilot and distinguished to him an immense cloud of smoke to the top from Hiroshima. The apparatus was however with 160 kilometers and was not long in flying over the zone. They did not cease turning around the devastated city, the two members on board could not believe what they saw: fires with kilometers with the round, a thick cloud surrounding the city and more than of the ruins. The plane lands in the south of the city and the officer took measures after having informed Tōkyō of it.

The capital will be informed of the precise cause of the disaster only sixteen hours later. It is at this time that the White House made the public advertisement with Washington.

During this time in Hiroshima, the helps were long in coming and many were those which perished during the first hours. An intense thirst gained the inhabitants, the victims sought water hopelessly, but the soldiers had received the order not to give to drinking with the badly burned persons. A few hours after the explosion, the atomic cloud having reached colder zones and being responsible for moisture, the rain started to fall on Hiroshima. It contained a very great quantity of radioactive dusts and ashes gave him a color close to the black. The survivors most reached could not prevent themselves from drinking this contaminated water which was going to result in death in many cases.

Victims

The number of the victims will undoubtedly be never known because the circumstances (partly evacuated city, presence of refugees coming from other cities, destruction of the files of civil statue, simultaneous disappearance of all the members of the same family, cremations of mass) make any accountancy exact impossible, in particular of deaths occurred in the first hours.
  • According to an estimate of 1946: The population at the time of the attack would have been of 245000 inhabitants, 70 to 80000 would have been killed and as much wounded
  • According to an estimate of 1956: on a population of 256300 hearts, 68000 were killed and 76000 wounded.
  • According to another the most recent: On a population from 310000,90 to 140000 people were killed.
  • According to the mayor of Hiroshima at the time of a political discourse in 2005, the total of dead would rise with 237  062 people. But this number is to be taken with precautions.

Wounds related on the luminous flash and the fires

Wounds found at 65% of the wounded survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, persons in charge can be 50% of the deaths, caused by several mechanisms:
  • Burns of the skin discovered by the thermal radiation emitted during a fraction of a second at the time of the explosion. It should be noted that the least opaque obstacle could provide a certain protection: the wearing of clothing, in particular clear, shade of the buildings, the foliage of the trees… It east can be the wound most characteristic of a nuclear explosion.
    • Of the first-degree burns (erythema evoking a sunstroke) was observed with more than 4 km (occasionally 5) of the hypocentre.
    • Of the third-degree burns (mortals if wide) on the naked skin up to 1,5 km (occasionally 2,5).
    • the people close to the hypocentre had the parts of the body exposed to the flash carbonized instantaneously until the hypoderme. They failed in a few minutes at a few hours (the thermal radiation about 100 c/cm ² was released in the space of 0,3 second, which is fifteen times more important than what would normally cause a third degree burn).
One estimates that the thermal radiation at summer responsible directly for approximately 20 to 30% for died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  • Burns by the flames: Many a Incendie S burst in the city after the explosion: in twenty minutes, fires met in only one generalized hearth, causing the appearance of a column of hot air and strong winds. This true storm of fire lasted 16 hours and devastated 11 square kilometers what left only few chances to the victims, often already wounded, which was trapped there. Contrary to the raids conventional flamers, the attack of Hiroshima limited considerably the possibilities of escape of the population by destroying a broad zone. It is only when the whole of fuel was exhausted that fire stopped. The number of the deaths related to the fires is undoubtedly very important but impossible to estimate because much bodies were destroyed by the flames.
  • an side effect but quite as mortal, was the appearance of a great quantity of Carbon monoxide. This gas involved the Asphyxie in the middle of the hearth and there were certainly few survivors (A priori no testimony confirms the assertation of a massive CO release).
  • Enfin, those which had the eyes pointed towards the fireball had the retina burned or damaged, causing blindnesses (generally reversible). This sudden incapacity to move prevented a great number of people finding a shelter and from escaping death whereas the fires developed.

Wounds related on the shock wave and the effect of breath

Wounds found at 70% of the wounded survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But seldom serious. The most probable assumption is that immobilized the seriously injureds were condemned when the fires developed in the debris.
  • direct Effect: by Barotraumatisme: internal lesions by rupture of the tympanums, the sines, the lungs or the digestive tract due to the sharp variation of the pressure to the passage of the wave. A priori of such lesions were little observed (one did not find a lesion of the tympanums, the most fragile body, that at less than 10% of the survivors close to the hypocentre).
  • Indirect, and undoubtedly much more fatal:
    • the passage of the Shock wave caused the collapse of the buildings (up to 2 km in the case of dwellings out of wooden). It is estimated that a great number of victims succumbed buried under the debris, the more so as of the fires developed to with it quickly.
    • While breaking, wood, glass and the other construction materials were transformed into projectiles mortals. Casualties presented lacerations up to 2 km of the Hypocentre.
    • the breath moved the victims brutally and wounded them by fall or crushing.

Irradiation

Causes of Irradiation:
  • the leading cause was the instantaneous irradiation at the time of the explosion (external irradiation by Neutron S and rays γ emitted by the nuclear reactions in the bomb). It with represented a lethal amount for 50% of the people exposed outside (that is to say 4 Gy) to a little more than 1 km of distance from the hypocentre. The buildings, in particular those out of concrete, provided a certain protection.
  • Much less important because the bomb with exploded far from the ground: irradiation by the induced radioactivity (neutron Activation): At the time of the explosion the bombardment by the neutrons returned the materials radioactive meadows of the hypocentre by formation of radionuclides. This radioactivity decreased quickly and remained confined at a zone where the thermal radiation had normally already almost very killed. One estimates that it represented the first day, to the maximum, an accumulated dose of 0,6 Gy. Second at the fifth day it represented less than 0,1 Gy.
  • quite as anecdotic: Irradiation following the radioactive fallout: i.e. irradiation by the radionuclides produced during the explosion and falling down of the atomic cloud in the form of dust or black rain. In Hiroshima the explosion having been air, there were relatively little repercussions because the cloud rose quickly with very high-altitude where the radionuclides dispersed (total dose accumulated to the maximum on the ground of 0,4 Gy).

The signs of irradiation one found at 30% of the wounded survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, person in charge can be 5 to 15% of the deaths, often by syndrome of acute irradiation. The exact number of the deaths related to the syndrome of acute irradiation is difficult to determine because the majority of these victims also presented wide thermal burns, quickly fatal with a rather similar general symptomatology. No effects of radiations was highlighted beyond 2,4 km of the hypocentre.

  • the principal demonstration with thus be the Syndrome of acute irradiation: A few days at a few weeks after the attack the irradiated victims presented a phase of preambles with asthenia, cephalgias, nauseas, vomiting. After a phase of latency of a few days to a few weeks during which the health condition of the victims seemed to improve occurred an aggravation with asthenia, cephalgias, nauseas, vomiting, diarrhea, immunodépression, loss of the hair, hemorrhage and possibly death. At the end of 4 months and in the absence of death the evolution was directed towards the cure.
  • Exposure in utero of the Fetus, consequence of the irradiation of expectant mothers. It at summer observed of died in utero (Abortion), of the delays of growth, the backwardnesses or malformations (nonhereditary).

Medical effects in the long run of the irradiation

  • the Leucémie S. As from 1947 an increase in the incidence of leukemias was observed among the irradiated survivors. A maximum was reached in 1951, then this incidence declined to disappear in 1985. On 50000 irradiated survivors followed from 1950 to 1990, it was observed 89 cases of leukemias mortals ascribable to radiations (either less than 0,2% of the followed irradiated survivors).
  • the Cancer S “solids”: Followed irradiated survivors showed starting from end of the year 50 a progressive increase in the incidence of cancers, in particular those of the lung, digestive tract and center. On 50000 survivors irradiated followed of 1950 to 1990, it was observed 339 cases of cancers mortals ascribable to radiations (either approximately 0,6%).
  • medical Effets others that cancers among irradiated survivors: occurred of cataracts, Sterility (often reversible at the man), of an increase in the frequency of the diseases (noncancerous) pulmonary, cardiac or digestive with a possible reduction in the lifespan. The number of these deaths seems equal to the number or the half of the number of that due to cancers and leukemias (either approximately from 0,5 to 1%).
In March 2007 in Japan, meadows of 252000 still alive people are considered " hibakusha" (survivors of the bomb). But on this number 2242 (less than 1%) are recognized like suffering of a disease caused by radiations.

Effects on the descent of the irradiated population

The results of the follow-up of the descendants of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (30000 children of irradiated parents, which represents a statistically significant population) did not make it possible to observe an increase in malformations or disorders genetic.

Resistance of constructions

The buildings in Reinforced concrete in the center of Hiroshima were designed according to antiseismic standards. Their structure resisted in general the incredible constraints caused by the proximity of the explosion. Because of explosion in the air, the breath had a more or less perpendicular direction compared to the ground, which perhaps limited the damage. Resistance and the protection which these structures offered are highlighted by the following figures: the chances to be still alive later 20 days were 50% for the people who were at the time of the explosion with:

  • 200 m of the hypocentre in a concrete building (but final chance of survival: 12%).
  • 675 m in a building (not specified, school buildings).
  • 2 km outside a building.
The “dome”, center of promotion of the industry of Hiroshima drawn by the Czech architect Jan Letzel, was very close to the hypocentre. This building resisted the breath and was famous Mémorial of the peace of Hiroshima . It belongs to the monuments of UNESCO since 1996 in spite of the protests of the United States and China.

The residences traditionally out of wooden were completely shaven by the breath until a distance of 2 km of the hypocentre. With beyond and up to 3 km the damage was important but reparable, in the condition which they survived the fires which followed.

Reaction of the Japanese government

The bombardment of Hiroshima did not modify of anything the attitude Hirohito and the government which continued to be unaware of the ultimatum and did not take any measurement to start the process of rendering, always hoping for an exit favorable to the negotiations with the Soviet Union.

Questioned on the question of the responsibility compared to the war and to the bombardment for Hiroshima by a journalist for Tokyo on October 31st, 1975, the Emperor was done evasive and tried to justify his attitude: “We did not study this literary question much and consequently, we do not include/understand it well and let us not can answer. For Hiroshima, it is very regrettable that the nuclear bombs were released and we are sorry for the citizens of this city. That could not however be prevented because it arrived in time of war. ”

Nagasaki

Nagasaki during the Second world war

The town of Nagasaki was one of the largest ports of the south of Japan and represented an essential pawn of the Complexe Japanese militaro-industrialist. Various industries were established there: factories of military equipment, companies charged with the ammunition and the bombs, factories for the construction of ships and planes, etc

This important effort of war required modern means which contrasted with the remainder of Nagasaki: the residences were traditional, with timber structures. The walls were out of wood with sometimes plaster and the roofs were covered with tiles. The factories of limited sizes and the buildings commercial were also built out of wood. The structures could not thus resist strong explosions.

Nagasaki widens during several years without really following a precise plan. The dwellings were placed close to the factories in the valley and the density of constructions was high. Before the atomic attack, Nagasaki had never been the subject of bombardments to large scales. The 1945, some bombs of strong power however were released on the city. Some of these bombs struck the port and naval constructions in the south-western part of the city. Other bombs aimed at the factories Mitsubishi and three bombs out of six touched the hospital of Nagasaki. In spite of damage limited, the impact on the population was important: part of the children was evacuated towards rural areas, accompanied by other people.

Bombardment

The morning of the August 9th 1945 with 3:49, B-29 Bockscar started from Tinian in direction of Japan. On its board, the bomb Conceited Man which was to be released on Kokura. Two other B-29 took off shortly after: The Great Artist controlled by Frederick Glass of bier and The Big Stink controlled by the Hopkins lieutenant-colonel.

After 10 minutes of flight, the commander Ashworth activated the bomb by charging the fuses and ordered not to go down in lower part 1500 meters to avoid an accidental detonation. The three planes were to give each other appointment to the top of the island of Yakushima but “Bockscar” met only The Great Artiste . During more than 40 minutes, the two bombers had patience while turning around the island. During this time, the weather information given by the reconnaissance aircraft arrived: clouds partially covered Nagasaki and Kokura but the bombardment was normally possible.

The other not appearing plane, they moved towards Kokura. Arrived at the top of the city towards 10:20, the crew of Bockscar faced a new problem: the cloud cover with 70% prevented the bombardment. After three overflights of Kokura, the squadron moved towards Nagasaki, the second target, to carry out a visual bombardment of the principal factories of the city. “Bocksar” however had to face new unforeseen with the impossibility of having the fuel of reserve.

To 7:50, an air raid warning was given to Nagasaki but it was quickly raised in the neighborhoods of 8:30. When the planes appeared with the top of the city towards 10:56, the Japanese thought that they were reconnaissance aircraft, then currents, and no alarm was given.

A few minutes before the explosion of the bomb, The Great Artiste released instruments attached to three parachutes. Messages bound for the professor Ryukochi Sagane, a physicist specialized in the nuclear power which had worked with three of the members of the Manhattan project, accompanied the parachuted equipment. The texts required of him to inform the Japanese public about the dangers of the atomic bomb, but these letters were found only at the end of the war.

11:02, an opening in the clouds on Nagasaki allowed the bomber Bockscar , the captain “Kermit” Beahan, to aim at the zone envisaged, a valley with industries. Fat Man was then released and exploded with 469 meters of altitude. The detonation took place between the two potential targets: the factory of steel-works and armament of Mitsubishi in north and the factory of Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedes in the south.

Three shock waves reached the two planes. The Great Artiste continued his scientific expedition around Nagasaki while Bockscar moved towards the south. The return towards Tinian was not done without encumbers. Without fuel of reserve, Bockscar was likely to have to be posed at sea. Sweeney decided to land with Okinawa. It is almost while planing that the bomber arrived on the track, an engine had already stopped in vol. a score of minutes later, The Great Artiste landed in his turn accompanied by The Big Stink which had moved in solo towards Nagasaki to take photographs.

The three planes filled the tank with fuel and turned over to Tinian where they arrived on August 9th at 23:30. One now knows that tens of last additional minutes to await The Big Stink allowed Kokura to avoid the bombardment following a sudden degradation of the weather conditions.

Just as for Hiroshima of uncertainties concerning the number of the victims exist in Nagasaki. According to the same sources as we had quoted in connection with Hiroshima:

  • According to the estimate of 1946: 35000 people would have been killed and a little more wounded.
  • According to that of 1956: on a population of 173800 hearts, 38000 were killed and 21000 wounded.
  • According to most recent: On a population from 250000,60 to 80000 people were killed.
There exists in Nagasaki some characteristics compared to Hiroshima:
  • the weapon used being more powerful (a power equivalent to approximately 20000 tons of TNT) the damage close to the hypocentre seem to have been more important.
  • the agglomeration being divided by several hills the destruction were less wide because the reliefs “masked” certain districts.
  • the habitat being more diffuse the violence of the fires was limited, they reflect two hours to take significant proportions, with one duration of a few hours and there was no generalized conflagration.
  • the weapon being of a different model (bends with plutonium instead of a bomb with uranium) the different distribution of the γ radiation and neutrons at summer, which seems to have modified the frequency of the types of leukemias observed.

After the bombardments

Announces in the press

As of the advertisement by Truman of the attack on Hiroshima, the new one makes the round the world tour. The American press titrates “Atomic bomb, World' S Most Deadly, Blasts Japan; New Era in Warfare is Opened Secret by U.S Weapon”, “Atom Bomb, World' S Greatest, Hits Japs! ” or “Japan City Blasted by Atomic Bomb”. The NewYork Times largely covers the event, the atomic word appears hundreds of times in the edition of August 7th.

The US government had taken care not to too much give details on the explosion of Hiroshima. It occults in particular the effects of radiations and the slow anguish of the survivors. The soldiers wanted especially to give the impression to be in possession of a conventional bomb equivalent to several tens of thousands of tons of TNT. No photograph of the town of Hiroshima or mushroom cloud are provided for the edition of August 6th, the newspapers are satisfied to announce the position of the city on a chart.

In France, the Paddle announces that “the first atomic bomb was launched on Japan”. In Japan, the advertisements are more discrete and voluntarily distorted, the press speaks about “incendiary bombs” which caused “some damage”. The following days, the situation being impossible to hide, the remarks will be done more moderate while speaking about a “new type of bomb”.

As of on August 7th, the soldiers confirm the devastation of more than 60  % of Hiroshima without mentioning the human losses. An air photograph of Hiroshima taken by the US Air Force is diffused with about thirty targets including only four truly military objectives.

With the passing days, of information will be given to alleviate the increasing curiosity of the public. The newspapers then have 14 cuts provided by the Pentagone and use them almost without final improvements with the greatest satisfaction of the government. They still speak about the Manhattan project under titles very fuzzy like “Atom Bombs Made in 3 Hidden Cities” (atomic bombs built in three hidden cities). Tibbets and its crew give only some details relating to only what they saw after the explosion. Parsons indicates that its only satisfaction was that the bomb correctly exploded and that it “was worth the sorrow to shorten the war”.

Almost all the newspapers were favorable to the decision to bombard Japan. Light a remord however for the Washington Post which writes:

Even if we deplore this need with the atomic bomb, a fight until death obliges all the combatants to inflict a maximum of damage to the enemy and this in the shortest amount of time. (...) We express without reserve our gratitude with regard to science to have given us this new weapon before the end of the war.

The 7 and August 8th 1945, no newspaper will be published in Hiroshima. Thirty-five years later, the August 6th 1980, an special edition “Hiroshima Tokuho” (the phantom newspaper) reported the facts as if the explosion had just occurred and that its three reporters accompanied by a cameraman advanced in direction of the hypocentre.

The third bomb

After the bombardment of Nagasaki and the entry in war of the Soviet Union against Japan, the negotiations were activated. The end of the war seemed close but the United States prepared the launching of a third bomb if the first two missions would not have been sufficient. The captain William Parsons was not authorized to leave the island of Tinian before rendering. He was indeed to ensure the provisioning and the assembly of the additional bombs if Japan persisted in the conflict. The American soldiers wanted to make accept the Japanese whom they laid out of an unlimited number of nuclear weapons. The theories on the third bomb are multiple but testimonys are recut on a point: an additional bomb could not be ready before a few weeks.

It is also thought that the soldiers had had a great room for maneuver on behalf of Truman. Stanley Goldberg points out that it is probably the Groves general who had the last word for the bombardment on Nagasaki. Groves was to show the importance of this bomb to explain the enormous investment authorized for the Manhattan project.

In the files of the general Spaatz, it is mentioned that the US Air Force wished to release the third bomb on Tōkyō if the Japanese did not return the weapons rather quickly. In answer to this request, it was indicated that the decision had already been made and that the target would be Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido.

The major Charles Sweeney, pilot of Bockscar, took share with the last raid against Japan the August 14th 1945. B-29 most important ( Gay Enola and Bockscar ) remained on Tinian, just as The Great Artiste which contained all the hardware requirement with the analysis of another atomic explosion. Two B-29 flew away for the United States in order to charge with the material and the components intended for the assembly of an additional bomb.

Richard Frank affirms that the general Marshall and the Groves general had delayed the transport of the third bomb and that this one could not be available before the August 21st 1945. According to Chuck Hansen, the United States had two bombs of the type Fat Man with the end of the year 1945 but the exact date of their assembly is not known.

As for the scientists of the National laboratory of Los Alamos, several testimonys agree to say that a plutonium heart was in the course of manufacture and of delivery. Oppenheimer ordered itself, without an explicit order of Truman, not to charge the radioactive material which was to take the road of San Francisco. This piece of plutonium was to probably arrive at Tinian with the neighborhoods of the August 20th.

The rendering of Japan

The Soviet invasion with the Manzhouguo precipitated the decision of Hirohito, on August 9th, he asked his Minister of Justice Kōichi Kido to organize an imperial conference “to control the situation” because “the Soviet Union declared the war and began the hostilities to us”. During this conference held in the night of the 9 to the 10, the Emperor announced his decision to go to the ultimatum allies and requested the preparation of an imperial declaration from the condition which this declaration “does not carry damage to the prerogatives of Its Majesty as Sovereign”.

The 12, Hirohito informed officially the imperial family of her decision. The prince Asaka, one of the uncles of the Emperor, asked him then: “Will the war continue if the imperial institution and the national policy (kokutai) cannot be preserved? ” It what laconically Hirohito answered: “Of course. ”

The 14, while an attempt at mutiny of an small group of soldiers opposed to rendering was subdued, Hirohito approved the imperial declaration and, the following day, delivered its famous speech to the radio.

The 17, it emitted a “edict with the soldiers and the sailors” ordering to them to deposit the weapons and binding its decision to proceed to rendering to the Soviet invasion of the Manchukuo, overlooking the atomic bombardments.

Recall: chronology of the events

Arrival of the Americans

The August 28th 1945, the Americans unload on the archipelago under the orders of the general George Marshall. Groups of expert are sent to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They must make a report of the situation as well at the human level as military with the destruction of the buildings. The Japanese are surprised by the elegance of these officers who start to interviewing hundreds of people. These testimonys will make it possible to better estimate the effects of the bombs on the population.

The special correspondents all are deafened by the extent of the damage. September 5th, the journalist William Burchett publishes a report in the Daily Express :

In Hiroshima, thirty days after the first atomic bomb which destroyed the city and made tremble the world, of people which had not been reached during cataclysm, is still today dying mysteriously, awfully, of an unknown evil for which I do not have an other name only that of atomic plague. (…) Their hair falls. Bluish tasks appear on their bodies. And then they start to bleed, of the ears, the nose, the mouth. To the beginning, the doctors allotted these symptoms in a state of generalized weakness. They made with their patient injections of vitamin A. the results were horrible, the flesh started to rot around the hole made by the needle of the syringe. (…) Since, (people) die at the rate of 100 per day.

As of its capitulation, Japan is under American supervision. The country will know a similar fate in Germany with arrests of the principal dignitaries. Following the example Lawsuit of Nuremberg, the court of Tōkyō condemns the defendants of which Hideki Tōjō for their war crimes (Tōjō will be hung on December 22nd, 1948). The emperor Hirohito will not be threatened and will remain on the throne until his death in 1989.

The office of censure counts approximately 6000 employees in 1946. Those are charged to listen to the communications and to limit the capacity of the press. The journalists are not authorized to inquire into the atomic bombs and the effects noted in the two disaster victims cities.

The November 3rd 1946, the new constitution, modelled according to the desires of the allied forces, is adopted then definitively validated the May 7th 1947. The United States occupies Japan until April 1952. Certain islands will be restored in Japan only in the Années 1970.

Comparative analysis of the American bombardments

Groups of expert of the American army, sent to Japan immediately after the atomic Explosion to analyze the damage, estimated that the bomb on Hiroshima was equivalent to an air raid of 220 transporting B-29: 1200 tons of incendiary bombs, 400 tons of bombs of strong power and 500 tons of cluster bombs. Hiroshima counts : 140000 dead at the end of 1945; Nagasaki, : 74000 dead and : 75000 wounded during the explosion.

As comparison, the Bombardment of Dresden, one of the largest bombardments of the Second world war which took place in Germany of the 13 to the February 15th 1945, required 580 bombers (B-17 and Avro Lancaster). On the whole: 1554 tons of conventional bombs and 164 tons of incendiary bombs destroyed the city. The number of deaths varies according to the sources, being in a fork ranging between: 25000 and: 40000 dead.

Hamburg will undergo a similar fate at the time of the Opération Gomorrhe but over one duration of approximately 10 days with: 2714 planes and: 8650 tons of conventional bombs which made: 40000 dead. The historians estimate that the full number of Germans killed in bombardments during the Second world war is in an interval ranging between: 305000 (report/ratio of the US Strategic Bombing in 1945) and 600000.

Discusses on the decision to carry out the bombardments

Arguments for these bombardments

In spite of a discrete diplomatic channel which began with the Japanese civil authorities as of January 1945 (after the invasion of Luçon to the Filipino ), the partisans of the bombardments reflect ahead the problems with the Japanese soldiers who refused any negotiation. So certain members of the civil government made efforts in direction of peace, they did not have the capacity to obtain a cease-fire and even less one rendering. As a Monarchy, the “country of Sun-Raising” could start the way of peace only with the support of the Japanese cabinet. But this one was dominated by the soldiers of the imperial army and the marine, an hard core which wanted to yield under no pretext. A scission was formed then between the army and the civil capacity.

The resistance of the Japanese

The historian Victor Davis Hanson highlights the increasing resistance of the Japanese, determination which appears futile afterwards since the conflict was dedicated to an inescapable exit according to him. The Bataille of Okinawa showed the capacity of the Japanese to be fought at any price, the Japanese soldiers going even until committing suicide not to fall to the hands from the enemy. More 110  000 Japanese and 12  520 Americans were killed during the bloodiest confrontation of the war of the Pacific. The “navy” had to call upon the Lance-flammes and the grenade S to eliminate the last pockets of resistance. The last forces of the Japanese, the Kamikaze S, broke on the ships American and combined by causing important losses. This battle (from April at the end of June 1945) finished only two months before the capitulation of Japan.

When the Soviet Union declared the war in Japan the August 8th 1945 and launched the operation Tempête of August, the imperial army ordered with its last forces in Mandchourie to fight until death. The general major Masakazu Amanu, section head of the operations at the general headquarter of the army, was trustful in his defensive structures which it had thoroughly prepared at the beginning of 1944. According to him, the Allies could not invade the islands of the archipelago. With the determination of its army and the respect of the code of the samurai, Japan was convinced to carry it.

After the destruction of Hiroshima, the civil capacity tried to convince the soldiers that the capitulation according to the conditions posed with the Conférence of Yalta was the only solution. After the destruction of Nagasaki, the Hirohito emperor had to intervene itself to resolve the political situation in the country.

According to certain Japanese historians, the civil leaders in favor of the capitulation transfer a kind of delivery in the atomic bombardments. The two cities became an argument of shock against the continuation of the conflict. Koichi Kido, one of the close relations advisers of the emperor, declared Us, the partisans of peace, were helped by the atomic bomb in our search for the stop of the war . Hisatsune Sakomizu, the secretary as a chief of the cabinet in 1945, described the bombardments as a gold occasion come from the sky which makes it possible Japan to cease the war .

Several historians agree to say that the civil opposition advanced arguments which were sufficient to convince the soldiers of the uselessness of the continuation of the war: neither the unbounded courage of the soldiers, nor the determination at the time them engagements could help Japan against the total destruction by the atomic weapons. Akio Morita, founder of Sony and naval officer during the war, was convinced that they was well the atomic bombs and not the former raids of B-29 on the remainder of the archipelago which had obliged the soldiers to capitulate.

Human costs of a prolongation of the hostilities

The partisans of the nuclear bombardment affirmed that to await the capitulation of Japan was not an option without consequence.

  • Each week which passed, the conventional bombardment campaign of the Japanese cities continued. And its consequences for the population were of an order comparable with the nuclear bombardments. If these raids were on the blow less fatal, their long-term effects were also terrible while depriving of the hundreds of thousands of people of shelters, clothing and resources, which in these times of food shortage could be synonymous with death.

In comparison the attack of Hiroshima destroyed 12 km ², that of Nagasaki 6 km ².

  • the Operation Famine: at the summer 1944 the blockade of Japan was almost complete. The US navy and aviation had the control of coastal water preventing the importation and goods transport between the islands of the archipelago. It was envisaged to supplement the operation by tackling the transportation routes inside the grounds in order to insulate the cities between them. Japan being importer on the food level, the average ration per capita had fallen from 2000 Calorie S before war at 1900 into 44. Before falling at 1650 at summer 45. This situation of malnutrition would undoubtedly have worsened with the prolongation of the hostilities. The famine and the diseases would then have been perhaps responsible for an assessment even heavier than that of the atomic bombs. immediately after the defeat, the estimates on the number of deaths caused by the famine rose with 10 million people /probably drawn from Old The off Hirohito: In Search off Modern Japan but to confirm -->.

  • the Americans envisaged starting from the end of 45 a terrestrial invasion of Japan, the Opération Downfall. Its duration and its human costs strongly depended on the resistance of the imperial army and the Japanese population vis-a-vis the invader. She was to articulate herself in two parts:

    • the Olympic operation: the invasion of Kyushu in November 1945 by 767000 allied soldiers (more than the unloading in Normandy!).
    • If Olympic had been insufficient to obtain rendering, it would have was necessary to launch the Coronet Operation on Honshu and Tōkyō in March 1946 with twice more men than Olympic, implying a massive redeployment of the troops fighting American from Europe.

June 18th, 1945, at a meeting with President Truman, General the Marshall, estimated that the losses (killed, wounded, disappeared) the first 30 days of the invasion of Kyushu could amount to 31000. But the admiral Leahy pointed out that they could also be proportional to that of the Bataille of Okinawa, making the assessment much more expensive. Indeed, in Okinawa, 180000 American faced for 3 months 120000 Japanese: the American losses amounted to 48000 (almost one the third of committed manpower). With Olympic 767000 American would have to face can be 600000 Japanese soldiers… And the Coronet Operation would have been even more fatal: 1,4 million American would have faced 2 to 3 million Japanese until can be at the end of 1946… After the war president Truman spoke about projection of losses for the American army of a half to a million. If the origin of these figures is unknown, the order of magnitude does not appear incredible not compared with the assessment of Okinawa. One can imagine that the American public opinion would not have can be not accepted a long time, after the end of the war in Europe, the losses important and prolonged (it was an army of called). Moreover it could have repudiated its government if it had known that it had at its disposal a " absolue" arms; being able to hasten the end of the conflict and that it had not been used.

From another point of view, one should not lose sight of the fact the human costs of such a terrestrial operation for Japanese. In Okinawa, the 120000 soldiers of the imperial army had been done killed almost until the last, and much of civilians had preferred to commit suicide by whole families rather than to be made prisoner. And to that the assessment of one or two years of additional famine for the populations would have been added.

Prisoners of war

In addition to the arguments called upon previously, the Americans thought that the atomic bomb would be a solution to force Japan to release the hundreds of thousands of prisoner of war and civilians locked up in the concentration camps Japanese disseminated a little everywhere in Asia.

The bomb would be also capable to stop the Japanese atrocities in China and in the whole of the Sphère of coprosperity of large Eastern Asia as well as the forced labor for the nationals of various Asian countries. The fate of the prisoners of war became particularly alarming when the Minister for the war ordered the 1944 to carry out the allied prisoners if Japan had suddenly been invaded. It is also probable that Japan had carried out such punitive actions in the event of prolonged famine.

In answer to the argument of the civil losses and war crimes caused by the use of the atomic weapon, the partisans of the bombardments reflect ahead the total non-observance of the international conventions by Japan that it is on the military or civil level:

  • Civil Forced labor of the S (including the women and the children), including 10 million Chinese civilians only enlisted with the Manchukuo;
  • use of biological weapons and chemical weapons against China, manufactured by the research units of Shiro Ishii (of which in particular the plague with Changde, of the consent even of Japanese defendants to the lawsuit of Khabarovsk)
  • experimentation of the bacteriological and chemical weapons by these same units on thousands of human guinea-pigs
  • training of the children and the women to carry out the Guerilla in the event of invasion ;
  • crimes against the prisoners of war and the civil populations.

The attacks surprised in Pearl Harbor remained deeply engraved in the spirits and Japan was regarded as a cheating enemy that one did not have any more to spare. The father John A. Siemes, professor of philosophy at the catholic university of Tōkyō and witness of the explosion in Hiroshima wrote:

We discussed all together about ethics behind the use of the bomb. Some classified it like pollutant gases and were against its use on civil populations. Others thought that in the all-out war carried out by Japan, there was no difference between the soldiers and the civilians. The bomb in itself was an effective force to stop the bloodshed, to oblige Japan to capitulate and thus to avoid the total destruction. It seems logical to me that which promotes the all-out war cannot, by principle, to criticize the war against the civil populations .

On the thirteen American prisoners of war present in Hiroshima the day of the explosion, only two survived. The US government could allow these some collateral losses. They would have been probably higher if the threat of an atomic attack had been uttered against it Japan before carrying out the bombardment.

The thesis of the USSR

The scientists who worked on the project will testify later to the pressures exerted with an high level to finish the bomb according to a quite precise calendar. This last was closely related to the intrigues of the Soviets and their entry in war planned for the August 8th. Certain historians thus advance the thesis of the USSR which took too much importance and which it was necessary to keep away of the Japanese territories. The war soviético-Japanese woman, instead of 10 months or more discounted, was going to last only 6 days.

For them, it is the imminence of the declaration of war of the USSR in Japan envisaged at the time of the Accords of Yalta three months after the capitulation of Germany (either with the August 8th 1945), which is the determining factor. Indeed, so of Yalta in February 1945, the United States had required the assistance of the USSR to help them to finish an expensive war in human lives with Japan, six months later, with their new nuclear power they did not need more to compose with this cumbersome ally to finish the conflict and to share profits of them (zones of influence, military bases, etc). The United States wanted to thus prove with Stalin as they were present as well at Berlin as in Asia, and than they were opposed to the development Communism, at least in Japan.

One can thus consider that these atomic bombardments were to some extent the sign heralding the Cold war and a show of force on behalf of the United States against Stalin. The Soviet Union will support thereafter various conflicts in Asia that it is the Guerre of Indo-China, of Korea or the Vietnam. Japan will avoid the effects of the expansion of Communism in the area thanks to this American supervision.

Other arguments

Critics think that the United States had other motivations for the bombardments. It was necessary to justify the two billion dollars invested in the Manhattan project, to test other bombs and to wash the affront of Pearl Harbor.

For the historian specialist in the United States Andre Kaspi:

Each one will judge in its heart and conscience, if Truman were reason or wrong, if it did all that it was necessary to do to avoid the last massacre of the war. With the proviso of not forgetting that the Germans and the Japanese themselves had started the conflict, that allied soldiers would still die at the beginning of the summer 1945 in the Pacific Islands and in China, that the discovery of the mass graves, the concentration camps and the jails Japanese women of the jungle did not encourage with pity towards overcome.

Arguments against these bombardments

Many voices protested against the military use of the atomic bombs and wondered about the need for the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This decision remains still strongly criticized that it is in Japan, the United States or in the rest of the world. The atomic weapon always made fear and as of the end of the war, several theses tend to make think that these bombs were not necessary to stop the conflict.

The atomic bomb: a war crime?

Moral aspects

The Projet Manhattan in the beginning was intended to thwart the nuclear program of the Nazi Germany. Following the defeat of the III {{E}} Reich, several scientists who worked on the project had the feeling which the United States was not to be the first to be used of such weapons. Albert Einstein will be reticent vis-a-vis the bomb and Leó Szilárd, which was largely implied in the development of the bomb, will say after the war:

If the Germans had released atomic bombs in our place, we would have qualified war crimes the atomic bombardments on cities, we would have condemned to died the German culprits at the time of the lawsuit of Nuremberg and would have hung them.

The use of the nuclear power to fine soldiers was qualified of “barbarian” since several hundreds of thousands of civilians had perished and that the targets were in strongly populated cities. During the preparations of the bombardments, scientists whose Edward Teller pointed out that it would be preferable to employ the bomb on an uninhabited zone or in full sky during the night, in order to inform the Japanese.

The inhumanity of the air raid of civilians firmly had been denounced by Roosevelt on September 1st 1939 at the time of a call to the European governments (free translation):

During hostilities which prevailed in various places of the world these last years, the air raid without reserve of civilians in not strengthened centers of population mutilated and killed out of the thousands of women and children without defense, and deeply shocked the conscience of humanity.
If there were to be recourse to this inhuman cruelty during the tragedy period of confrontration, to which the world is confronted today, of the hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, which are not responsible for the conflict and which takes part in it neither of near nor by far, would lose the life now.
I thus send this urgent call to all the governments which could take share with the hostilities to publicly affirm its determination to engage its armed forces in the air raid not strengthened civil populations or cities, in no case and aucunes circumstances, provided that these same rules of war are scrupulously complied with by their adversaries.
I ask for an immediate answer.

Legal aspects
Since 1945 the legality of the strategic bombardments and use of the nuclear weapons remains a point discussed of the international law.

It was advanced that the use of atomic weapons with large scales against the civil populations was a war crime, even a Crime against humanity.

  • During the bombardments, the United States was signatories of the Conventions of $the Hague of 1899 and 1907. The second interdict:

    • use of poison or poisoned weapons (Article 23)
    • the attack or bombardment, by any means, of cities, villages, dwellings and buildings not defended (Article 24)
However, these texts are can be insufficient to qualify the war crime: on the one hand, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two military centers of importance, cannot be considered not defended. In addition, the effects of radiations remain secondary compared to the flamers effects and mechanics of these weapons which could not thus be regarded as poisoned ( these terms were heard in their ordinary direction as covering weapons of which the effect first, or even exclusive, is to poison or to asphyxiate ).

  • the United States had tried to prohibit the bombardment indiscerné of civilians in a Convention of $the Hague on the habits of war , which they had signed in 1923. It stipulated:

    • the air raid aiming to terrorize the civil population, to destroy or damage goods of nonmilitary nature or to wound the non-combatant ones is prohibited. (Article 22)
    • the bombardment of cities, cities, villages, dwellings and buildings out of the immediate surroundings of terrestrial military operations is prohibited. Whenever the objectives specified in paragraph 2 are located of kind so that they cannot be bombarded without a indiscerné bombardment of the civil population, the plane must abstain from bombarding. (Article 24-3)
However this convention never entered into force.

  • the fourth Geneva Convention prohibits any measurement of reprisals aiming at the civilians or their goods.

    • However, this convention, signed in 1949, did not apply at the time of the facts (It should be noted however that the argument of non-retroactivity of the Droit did not prevent the Allies from condemning German dignitaries for Crime against humanity at the time of the Procès of Nuremberg, although the concept was defined a posteriori ).
    • the presence of barracks and factories participants in the effort of war could make regard these two cities as military objectives legitimates (these bombardments then not aiming the civilians).

A military abscence of justification

The divergent opinion as for the capacity of Japan to resist the attacks. For the opponents with atomization, Japan was already deeply weakened at the beginning of 1945 and the inescapable capitulation. The general Dwight D. Eisenhower was of this opinion and Henry Stimson in July 1945 informed some. The officer highest graded in the theater of the operations in the Pacific was the general Douglas MacArthur. He was not consulted about the bombardments but will say afterwards that there was no military justification for this attack. The same opinion will be given by the admiral William Leahy, the general Carl Spaatz (ordering US Air Force in the Pacific) and the general sergeant Carter Clarke (officer of the information). The general major Curtis LeMay, the admiral Ernest King (chief of the naval operations), the admiral Chester Nimitz (commander-in-chief of the navy in the Pacific) will also express doubts about the atomic bombardments.

Eisenhower will write in its report The White House Years :

In 1945, the secretary of the Stimson war, then in visit in my general headquarter in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing the dropping of an atomic bomb on Japan. I was those which had the feeling that there was to be a certain number of valid reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. During his exposure of the important facts, I was filled up of a feeling of sadness and announced my deep dissension, first of all on the basis of my conviction that Japan was already beaten and that the bombardment was completely useless, then because I thought that our country was not to shock the world opinion by the use of a bomb which I did not think necessary to save the life of the Americans . (p. 312-313)

Further, he adds:

MacArthur thought that the bombardment was completely useless from a military point of view (p. 775)

A study, the United States Strategic Bombing Survey , organized by the American army after the capitulation, consisted in questioning hundreds of leaders military and civil Japanese about the bombardments, this reveals that:

According to a thorough study of all the facts and with the support of testimonys of Japanese leaders still in life, the group of study is of the opinion that Japan would certainly have capitulated before the December 31st 1945 and perhaps even before November 1st, 1945.

Cleavage enters the civil capacity and the Japanese soldiers

Others affirm that Japan had tried to go for at least two months, but the United States refused while insisting that rendering is done without conditions. In fact, whereas several diplomats supported the capitulation, the Japanese military chiefs prepared the army to fight a decisive battle. The diplomats thought that they could better negotiate the clauses of the armistice in this way. The Americans knew perfectly the Japanese plans, the coding used by the Japanese army, the Code 97 had been bored by the Cryptanalyste S.

The Japanese government forever decided which would be the limits to be fixed for the capitulation, if it is not the safeguarding of the imperial system. Even after the attack on Nagasaki, the Supreme council was always divided but the majority wished that Japan demobilizes its own forces in exchange of what, the authorities would not be continued for war crimes and the territory would not be occupied. Only the direct intervention of the emperor put a term at the dissensions, without avoiding however an attempt at Coup d'etat which was quickly countered.

Another criticism with regard to the bombardments relates to the speed with which the United States estimated the effects of the entry in war of the Soviet Union against Japan. Without retreat on the general situation, the decision to bombard was made in a hasty way. The Americans knew, contrary to the Japanese, that the USSR would enter in war three months after the victory to Europe. As the USSR could not play the role of mediator in the conflict any more and that the world entered the cold war gradually, it became obvious for certain Japanese that the best means of preserving the emperor on the throne was to accept the conditions posed by the opposing party.

The invasion of the archipelago not being imminent, the United States did not have anything to lose to wait a few days to see how the situation would develop. The decision to capitulate was former to the successive attacks conducted by the USSR in Mandchourie, the island of Sakhaline and the islands Kuril. Hokkaido would surely have been invaded by the USSR before the Allies do not reach Kyushu. According to this thesis, the goal of the operation was thus to render comprehensible with the Soviets to remain with the variation.

Other Japanese sources indicate that the atomic bombardments were not the leading cause of the capitulation. The true reason had its source in the massive victories of the Soviets all around Japan. The Japanese feared more one Soviet occupation that the presence of the Americans on the island. It is clear that the two opposing parties had been of all their weight in the decision but the Japanese were persuaded that Stalin would replace monarchy by the Communisme, inconceivable thing for them.

Others critical

Others still think that extra efforts should have been agreed to reduce the number of victims. In addition to these considerations on the human losses, the principal goal of the attack was to have an optimal effect of surprise. The decision of the American strategists was clear: one did not have to give warning before the dropping.

After the bombardment on Hiroshima, Truman announced that “if they do not accept our conditions now, they can expect a rain of ruins which fall from the sky”. The August 8th 1945, of the leaflets were released with the top of Japan and the warnings transmitted via Radio Saipan. The zone close to Nagasaki did not accept leaflets before the August 10th, that is to say one day after the explosion. Propaganda with the information printed on small pieces of paper had been launched however during the weeks which preceded the nuclear attack.

Another subject of discord relates to the amount of time between the destruction of Hiroshima and that of Nagasaki. Certain people advance that the arguments favorable to the use of the bomb did not apply to Nagasaki. In its semi-autobiographical news Timequake , Kurt Vonnegut writes that if the bomb saved the life of his/her comrades of the US Air Force, Nagasaki showed at which point the United States was capable of a cruelty without compassion.

Leaflets

The August 8th 1945, of the leaflets printed on small sheets of paper are released on Japan: ----

日本の人々に: アメリカ合衆国はこのリーフレットで我々が言うことにあなた方の速やかな注意を向けるよう申し上げる. 我々は人類が発明した中でも最も破壊力のある爆弾を所有している. 我々が新しく開発した原子爆弾の一つ一つが巨大なB-29爆撃機が単一の任務で積載する爆弾の2000機分に実際に匹敵する.この恐るべき事実はあなた方にとっては熟考するべきものであり、 我々は断固としてこれが正確であることを厳粛に保証する. 我々はあなた方の国土に対してこの兵器を使用し始めたところである. 今だ疑いを持つならば、たった一つの原子爆弾が投下された時、広島で何が起こったかを聞いてみることだ.この無益な戦争を引き伸ばしている軍隊の全ての資源を破壊するためにこの爆弾を使用する前に、 天皇に今すぐ戦争を終えることを嘆願するように我々はあなた方に申し上げる. 我々の大統領はあなた方のために名誉ある降伏の 13 の結果の概略を述べた. あなた方がこれらの結果を受入れ、新しく、より良いそして平和を愛する日本を築き始めることを我々は強く勧める.軍隊の抵抗を終わらせるための行動を今起こすべきである. さもなければ、我々はこの戦争をすみやかに、武力によって終わらせるため、固い決意の下、この爆弾そして更に優れた兵器全てを行使するものである.
----
FOR SUBMISSION TO the JAPANESE PEOPLE
America requires that you immediately pay attention so that we will read on this sheet.
We are in possession of the most destroying explosive ever designed by the man. Only one of our atomic bombs, which we recently developed, is equivalent to the explosive power of 2.000 B-29 at the time of one only mission. This dreadful assertion must make you reflect and we can ensure you solemnly that it is terribly exact.
We have just started to use this weapon against your fatherland. If you have any doubts, made an investigation and ask what occurred to Hiroshima when only one of our bombs fell on the city.
Before using this bomb to destroy all the military resources which make it possible to continue this useless war, we ask you to make a petition for submission to the emperor to cease the war. Our president exposed the thirteen consequences of a honourable capitulation. We press you to accept these consequences and to begin the process of construction of new Japan, better and in peace.
should now make decisions to You to stop military resistance. We will have differently to solve us to use this bomb and all our others higher weapons to cease quickly and with force this war.

See too

Related subjects

Hiroshima ~ Nagasaki ~ History of Japan ~ Empire of Japan ~ Expansionism of Japan ~ Occupation of strategic Japan Attack on Pearl Harbor ~ Bombardment of Tōkyō ~ Bombardment of Dresden ~ Operation Gomorrhe ~ Guernica ~ Blitz Campaigns of the Pacific ~ All-out war ~ War crime ~ Crime against humanity
  • Weapon of massive destruction
atomic Nuclear weapon ~ Explosion ~ atomic bomb ~ Bomb with hydrogen Syndrome of acute irradiation ~ radioactive Contamination Conventions of $the Hague ~ Protocol of Geneva ~ Geneva Conventions ~ Treated nuclear non-proliferation

Culture

  • Masuji Ibuse ; black Rain , Folio, Gallimard (1972), ISBN 2-07-031637-8. Novel published in 1966 in Japanese, adapted to the cinema in 1989 by Shohei Imamura.

  • Marguerite Duras; Hiroshima My Love , Folio, Gallimard (1960), ISBN 2-07-036009-1. This scenario of Marguerite Duras was carried out by Alain Resnais; the film present of the authentic images of the effects of the bomb and the victims.
  • the Manga Hadashi No Gen , the cartoon film of the Studio Ghibli' S the Tomb of the fireflies and the film of Akira Kurosawa Rhapsodie in August are some examples which take again the context of the time and the bombardments.
  • the piece of music of Krzysztof Penderecki, Thrène for the victims of Hiroshima , was written in 1960 by the type-setter who disapproved the bombardments completely. The October 12th 1964, Penderecki wrote: “The threne expresses my firmest conviction that the sacrifice of Hiroshima never will be forgotten nor lost. ”
  • the type-setter Robert Steadman wrote a part for named chamber music Chansons of Hibakusha . She was played for the first time in 2005 with Manchester.
  • the film the Masters of the shade (original title Conceited Man and Little Boy ) turned in 1989 includes in the broad outlines the history of the Manhattan Project and the bombardments.
  • the documentary-fiction Hiroshima which recalls the preparations of the mission on Hiroshima of Trinity until Nagasaki, was diffused in August 2005 on TSR in Switzerland and TF1 in France.

Documents and books

The beginnings of the atomic era were often approached in the literature. It is impossible to draw up an exhaustive list on such a vast subject, but some works are to be consulted:

; Testimonys

  • John Hersey; Hiroshima , 10/18 (2005), ISBN 2-264-04117-X. Testimonys of six survivors of the bombardment collected by the author then published in the newspaper New-Yorker in August 1946.
  • Keiji Nakazawa ; I was six years old in Hiroshima, on August 6th, 1945, 8:15 , Seek-midday Editeur (1995). ISBN 2862743666
  • Kenzaburo Oe; Notes of Hiroshima , Gallimard (1996). ISBN 2070742776

; Tests

  • François Besse, Hiroshima, the beginning of the atomic era , Altipresse, 2005
  • Samy Cohen, the atomic bomb: strategy of terror , Gallimard, 1995
  • Maya Morioka Todeschini, Hiroshima, 50 years. Japan-America: memories with the nuclear power , Otherwise, 1995
  • Michel Hérubel, Hiroshima, Nagasaki or the end of the divine empire , Presses of the City, 1999
  • Paul Strahern, Oppenheimer and the bomb, I know! , Mallard, 2000

; Reviews

  • Andre Kaspi, “Controversy: did Hiroshima have to be bombarded? ”, in the History , n°32, March 1981
; Manga
  • Keiji Nagazawa, “GEN of Hiroshima” at Giddiness graphic, history of a child (the author) born in Hiroshima and 10 years old in 1945. Very moving, gives a daily and realistic vision (with the sauce manga all the same) of the day and period which followed explosion (incomprehension of the phenomenon, rejection of the survivors by the neighbouring rural populations, American occupation, etc). Very moving and instructive. all the volumes (10) are translated into French.

External French bonds

  • Hiroshima - Nagasaki, diaporama
  • Hiroshima, “Big Bang”, Aérostorie, 1999
  • Trumann and the atomic bomb, Aerostorie, 1999
  • To reconsider Hiroshima
  • true reasons of the destruction of Hiroshima (Le Monde Diplomatique, August 1990)
  • the man who defied the censure
  • Little Boy, a macabre irony
  • Pourquoi Hiroshima?
  • the Manhattan Project, file of Sebastien Jodogne
  • Photograph gallery on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Declaration of Peace of Nagasaki 2006
  • Testimonys on Hiroshima

External English bonds

  • Gay The Enola
  • very complete Site on the atomic bombs
  • Photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in particular of the medical effects.

Museums

  • Hiroshima Memorial Peace Museum, Hiroshima, Japan. Collection of vestiges and personal objects. For a virtual visit: click sure " English Web site " on the right in top then the sure following page " Building" hand;.
  • National Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, the USA. Where B-29 " is exposed; Gay Enola " who bombarded Hiroshima.
  • Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan.
  • National Museum off the USAF, Wright-Patterson AFB meadows of Dayton, Ohio, the USA. Where B-29 " is exposed; Bockscar " who bombarded Nagasaki.

References (in English)

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