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Atomic Bombs Dropped Over Japan |
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August 6, 2023, marks the 78th anniversary of dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan to start the final chapter to the end of World War II. In dropping the bomb, the United States became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry in wartime. An estimated 80,000 people were killed and another 35,000 injured as a result of using the bomb. The first bomb was followed three days later on August 9 by the dropping of a second bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, and resulted in the death of another estimated 40,000 people. Japan surrendered a few days later on August 14 with an announcement to the world and formal signing of its surrender on September 2 aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. US President Harry Truman ordered the use of the bomb to bring a speedy end to the conflict after being advised that an invasion of Japan would result in an enormous number of casualties to American troops. The five-ton Hiroshima bomb, named Little Boy, was dropped by an American bomber named Enola Gay and was the explosive equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT. Its blast reduced four square miles of the city to ruins. The Nagasaki bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped from a US B-29 bomber named Bockscar and had the explosive force equivalent to 22,000 tons of TNT. Both planes took off from Tinian Island. Dropping of the atomic bombs was preceded by the Trinity Test conducted in the New Mexico desert near Alamogordo, NM. At 5:30 A.M. on July 16, 1945, Los Alamos scientists detonated a plutonium bomb at a test site located on the U.S. Air Force base at Alamogordo, some 120 miles south of Albuquerque. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a professor of physics at University of California-Berkely, chose the name “Trinity” for the test site. The test had been scheduled for 4 A.M., but when the time came it was raining, and the appointed hour was pushed back to 5:30. Tensions ran high at the test site, where those assembled included the scientist Enrico Fermi (Fermi had directed the first nuclear chain reaction in December 1942), U.S. Army Brigadier General Leslie Groves, Oppenheimer and others. When the bomb was finally detonated atop a steel tower, an intense light flash and sudden wave of heat was followed by a great burst of sound echoing in the valley. A ball of fire tore up into the sky and then was surrounded by a giant mushroom cloud stretching some 40,000 feet across. With a power equivalent to around 21,000 tons of TNT, the bomb completely obliterated the steel tower on which it rested. The nuclear age had begun. The first bomb was delivered to Tinian Island by the USS Indianapolis which was sunk by a Japanese submarine after making the delivery and resulted in the worst sea disaster in the history of the US Navy. Read about the USS Indianapolis by clicking here. Read more about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, the Trinity Test, the USS Indianapolis, and other related topics by clicking on the following links: |
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