A nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The terrible consequences of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima
An American B-29 Superfortress bomber named “Enola Gay” took off from Tinian early on August 6 with a single 4,000 kg uranium bomb called “Little Boy”. At 8:15 a.m. the "baby" bomb was dropped from a height of 9,400 m above the city and carried out free fall 57 seconds. At the moment of detonation, a small explosion provoked an explosion of 64 kg of uranium. Of these 64 kg, only 7 kg went through the fission stage, and of this mass, only 600 mg turned into energy - explosive energy that burned everything in its path for several kilometers, leveling the city with a blast wave, starting a series of fires and plunging all living things into radiation flow. It is believed that about 70,000 people died immediately, with another 70,000 dying from injuries and radiation by 1950. Today in Hiroshima, near the epicenter of the explosion, there is a memorial museum, the purpose of which is to promote the idea that nuclear weapons will cease to exist forever.
May 1945: selection of targets.
During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Target Selection Committee recommended Kyoto (a major industrial center), Hiroshima (an army storage center and military port), and Yokohama (a military center) as targets for the use of atomic weapons. industry), Kokura (the largest military arsenal) and Niigata (a military port and mechanical engineering center). The Committee rejected the idea of using these weapons against exclusively military purpose, because there was a chance to miss a small area that was not surrounded by a vast urban area.
When choosing a goal, great importance was attached psychological factors, such as:
achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,
the first use of a weapon must be significant enough for its importance to be recognized internationally. The committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was due to the fact that its population had a higher level of education and was thus better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima was of such a size and location that, taking into account the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.
US Secretary of War Henry Stimson removed Kyoto from the list due to the city's cultural significance. According to Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, Stimson "knew and appreciated Kyoto from his honeymoon there decades ago."
Pictured is US Secretary of War Henry Stimson
On July 16, the world's first successful test of an atomic weapon was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons of TNT.
On July 24, during the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed Stalin that the United States had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Truman did not specify that he was referring specifically to atomic weapons. According to Truman's memoirs, Stalin showed little interest, saying only that he was glad and hoped that the United States could use it effectively against the Japanese. Churchill, who carefully observed Stalin's reaction, remained of the opinion that Stalin did not understand the true meaning of Truman's words and did not pay attention to him. At the same time, according to Zhukov’s memoirs, Stalin understood everything perfectly, but did not show it, and in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting he noted that “We will need to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work.” After the declassification of the American intelligence services' operation "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodore Hall even announced the planned date of the first nuclear test a few days before the Potsdam Conference. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1944.
On July 25, Truman approved orders, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as weather permits, and the following cities in the future as bombs become available.
On July 26, the governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China signed the Potsdam Declaration, which set out the demand for Japan's unconditional surrender. The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the declaration.
The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration, the text of which was broadcast on the radio and scattered in leaflets from airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government did not express any desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki said at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was nothing more than the old arguments of the Cairo Declaration in a new wrapper, and demanded that the government ignore it.
Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet response to the evasive diplomatic moves [what?] of the Japanese, did not change the government’s decision. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that imperial power must be protected at all costs.
An aerial view of Hiroshima shortly before the bomb was dropped on the city in August 1945. Shown here is a densely populated area of the city on the Motoyasu River.
Preparing for the bombing
During May-June 1945, the American 509th Mixed Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was several miles from other units and was carefully guarded.
On July 26, the cruiser Indianapolis delivered the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian.
On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed an order to combat use nuclear weapons. This order, drafted by the head of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, ordered a nuclear strike “on any day after the third of August as soon as possible.” weather conditions" On July 29, the commander of US strategic aviation, General Carl Spaatz, arrived on Tinian, delivering Marshall's order to the island.
On July 28 and August 2, components of the “Fat Man” atomic bomb were brought to Tinian by plane.
Commander A.F. Birch (left) numbers the bomb, codenamed "Baby", physicist Dr Ramsay (right) will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989.
The "baby" was 3 m long and weighed 4,000 kg, but contained only 64 kg of uranium, which was used to provoke a chain of atomic reactions and subsequent explosion.
Hiroshima during World War II.
Hiroshima was located on a flat area, slightly above sea level at the mouth of the Ota River, on 6 islands connected by 81 bridges. The city's population before the war was over 340 thousand people, making Hiroshima the seventh largest city in Japan. The city was the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Main Army of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, who commanded the defense of all of Southern Japan. Hiroshima was an important supply base for the Japanese army.
In Hiroshima (as well as in Nagasaki), most buildings were one- and two-story wooden buildings with tiled roofs. Factories were located on the outskirts of the city. Outdated firefighting equipment and insufficient personnel training created high danger fire even in peacetime.
Hiroshima's population peaked at 380,000 during the war, but before the bombing the population gradually declined due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack the population was about 245 thousand people.
Pictured is the US Army Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber "Enola Gay"
Bombardment
The primary target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (the alternate targets were Kokura and Nagasaki). Although Truman's orders called for atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.
On August 6 at 1:45 a.m., an American B-29 bomber under the command of the commander of the 509th Combined Aviation Regiment, Colonel Paul Tibbetts, carrying the “Baby” atomic bomb on board, took off from the island of Tinian, which was about 6 hours flight from Hiroshima. Tibbetts' plane (Enola Gay) was flying as part of a formation that included six other aircraft: a reserve plane (Top Secret), two controllers and three reconnaissance aircraft (Jebit III, Full House and Straight Flash). The commanders of reconnaissance aircraft sent to Nagasaki and Kokura reported significant cloudiness over these cities. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft, Major Iserli, found that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and sent the signal “Bomb the first target.”
Around seven o'clock in the morning, the Japanese early warning radar network detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid warning was announced and radio broadcasts were stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At approximately 08:00, the radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of incoming aircraft was very small - perhaps no more than three - and the air raid alert was canceled. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard radio message was that it would be wise to head to bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually spotted, and that it was not a raid but just some form of reconnaissance that was expected.
At 08:15 local time, the B-29, being at an altitude of over 9 km, dropped an atomic bomb on the center of Hiroshima. The fuse was installed at a height of 600 meters above the surface; the explosion, the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, occurred 45 seconds after the release.
The first public report of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.
A photo taken from one of two American bombers of the 509th Integrated Group shortly after 8:15 a.m. on August 5, 1945, shows smoke rising from the explosion over the city of Hiroshima.
When the uranium in the bomb went through the fission stage, it was instantly converted into the energy of 15 kilotons of TNT, heating the massive fireball to a temperature of 3,980 degrees Celsius.
Explosion effect
Those closest to the epicenter of the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to coal. Birds flying past burned up in the air, and dry, flammable materials such as paper ignited up to 2 km from the epicenter. Light radiation burned the dark pattern of clothing into the skin and left silhouettes human bodies on the walls. People outside their houses described a blinding flash of light, which was simultaneously accompanied by a wave of stifling heat. The blast wave followed almost immediately for everyone near the epicenter, often knocking them off their feet. Occupants of the buildings generally avoided exposure to the light radiation from the explosion, but not the blast wave - glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was thrown from his house across the street by the blast wave, while the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were 800 meters or less from the epicenter died.
The blast wave shattered glass at a distance of up to 19 km. For those in the buildings, the typical first reaction was the thought of a direct hit from an aerial bomb.
Numerous small fires that simultaneously broke out in the city soon merged into one large fire tornado, creating a strong wind (at a speed of 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The firestorm captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not manage to get out within the first few minutes after the explosion.
According to the memoirs of Akiko Takakura, one of the few survivors who were at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter at the time of the explosion:
Three colors characterize for me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black because the explosion cut off sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood flowing from wounded and broken people. It was also the color of the fires that burned everything in the city. Brown was the color of burnt skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.
A few days after the explosion, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of radiation among the survivors. Soon, the number of deaths among the survivors began to rise again, as patients who had seemed to be recovering began to suffer from this strange new disease. Deaths from radiation sickness peaked 3-4 weeks after the explosion and began to decline only 7-8 weeks later. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. Long-term health effects associated with radiation, such as increased risk cancer haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of their experiences during the explosion.
The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter.
Losses and destruction
The number of deaths from the direct impact of the explosion ranged from 70 to 80 thousand people. By the end of 1945, due to the effects of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion total quantity The death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200,000 people.
According to official Japanese data, as of March 31, 2013, there were 201,779 “hibakusha” alive - people who suffered from the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This figure includes children born to women exposed to radiation from explosions (mostly living in Japan at the time of the calculation). Of these, 1%, according to the Japanese government, had serious cancer caused by radiation exposure after the bombings. The number of deaths as of August 31, 2013 is about 450 thousand: 286,818 in Hiroshima and 162,083 in Nagasaki.
View of the destroyed Hiroshima in the fall of 1945 on one branch of the river passing through the delta on which the city stands
Complete destruction after the dropping of an atomic bomb.
Color photograph of the destruction of Hiroshima in March 1946.
An explosion destroyed the Okita plant in Hiroshima, Japan.
Look how the sidewalk has been raised and there's a drainpipe sticking out of the bridge. Scientists say this was due to the vacuum created by the pressure from the atomic explosion.
Twisted iron beams are all that remains of the theater building, located about 800 meters from the epicenter.
The Hiroshima Fire Department lost its only vehicle when the western station was destroyed by an atomic bomb. The station was located 1,200 meters from the epicenter.
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Radioactive contamination
Concepts " radioactive contamination“in those years did not yet exist, and therefore this question was not even raised then. People continued to live and rebuild destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality rate of the population in subsequent years, as well as diseases and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. Evacuation of the population from contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.
It is quite difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since the first atomic bombs were technically relatively low-power and imperfect (the Baby bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only about 700 g reacted division), the level of contamination of the area could not be significant, although it represented serious danger for the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident on Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the reactor core there were several tons of fission products and transuranium elements - various radioactive isotopes that accumulated during operation of the reactor.
Terrible consequences...
Keloid scars on the back and shoulders of a victim of the Hiroshima bombing. The scars formed where the victim's skin was not protected from direct radiation rays.
Comparative preservation of some buildings
Some reinforced concrete buildings in the city were very stable (due to the risk of earthquakes), and their frames did not collapse, despite the fact that they were quite close to the center of destruction in the city (the epicenter of the explosion). This is how the brick building of the Hiroshima Chamber of Industry (now commonly known as the "Genbaku Dome", or "Atomic Dome"), designed and built by the Czech architect Jan Letzel, survived, which was only 160 meters from the epicenter of the explosion (at the height of the bomb detonation 600 m above the surface). The ruins became the most famous artifact of the Hiroshima atomic explosion and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, despite objections from the US and Chinese governments.
A man looks at the ruins left after the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima.
People lived here
Visitors to Hiroshima Memorial Park look at a panoramic view of the aftermath of the atomic explosion on July 27, 2005 in Hiroshima.
Memorial flame in honor of the victims of the atomic explosion at the monument in the Hiroshima Memorial Park. The fire has burned continuously since it was lit on August 1, 1964. The fire will burn until “all the atomic weapons on earth disappear forever.”
These are the shots! During World War II, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., a U.S. B-29 Enola Gay bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. About 140,000 people were killed in the explosion and died in the following months. Three days later, when the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, an estimated 80,000 people were killed.
On August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. To this day, this bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case of the use of nuclear weapons in human history.
The US government decided to drop the bombs, believing that this would hasten the end of the war and would not require prolonged bloody fighting on the main island of Japan. Japan was strenuously trying to control two islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as the Allies approached. 
These wrist watch, found among the ruins, stopped at 8.15 am on August 6, 1945 - during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
The flying fortress Enola Gay lands on August 6, 1945 at a base on Tinian Island after bombing Hiroshima. 
This photo, which was released in 1960 by the US government, shows the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb size is 73 cm in diameter, 3.2 m in length. It weighed 4 tons, and the explosion power reached 20,000 tons of TNT. 
This photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows the main crew of the B-29 Enola Gay bomber that dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts stands in the center. The photo was taken in the Mariana Islands. This was the first time nuclear weapons were used during military operations in human history. 
Smoke rises 20,000 feet high over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, after an atomic bomb was dropped during the war. 
This photograph taken on August 6, 1945, from the city of Yoshiura, across the mountains north of Hiroshima, shows smoke rising from the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The photo was taken by an Australian engineer from Kure, Japan. The stains left on the negative by radiation almost destroyed the photograph. 
Survivors of the explosion of the atomic bomb, first used in military action on August 6, 1945, are waiting medical care in Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion killed 60,000 people at the same moment, and tens of thousands died later due to radiation exposure. 
August 6, 1945. In the photo: military medics provide first aid to the surviving residents of Hiroshima shortly after an atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, used in military action for the first time in history. 
After the explosion of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, only ruins remained in Hiroshima. Nuclear weapons were used to hasten Japan's surrender and end the Second world war, for which US President Harry Truman ordered the use of nuclear weapons with a capacity of 20,000 tons of TNT. The surrender of Japan took place on August 14, 1945. 
On August 7, 1945, the day after the atomic bomb exploded, smoke billows across the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan. 
President Harry Truman (pictured left) sits at his desk in the White House next to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson after returning from the Potsdam Conference. They discuss the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 
The skeleton of a building among the ruins on August 8, 1945, Hiroshima. 
Survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki walk among the ruins, with raging fire in the background, August 9, 1945. 
Crew members of the B-29 bomber "The Great Artiste" that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki surrounded Major Charles W. Swinney in North Quincy, Massachusetts. All crew members participated in the historic bombing. From left to right: Sergeant R. Gallagher, Chicago; Staff Sergeant A. M. Spitzer, Bronx, New York; Capt. S. D. Albury, Miami, Florida; Captain J.F. Van Pelt Jr., Oak Hill, West Virginia; Lieutenant F. J. Olivi, Chicago; Staff Sergeant E.K. Buckley, Lisbon, Ohio; Sergeant A. T. Degart, Plainview, Texas, and Staff Sergeant J. D. Kucharek, Columbus, Nebraska. 
This photograph of an atomic bomb exploding over Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II was released by the Commission on nuclear energy and the US Department of Defense in Washington on December 6, 1960. The Fat Man bomb was 3.25 m long, 1.54 m in diameter, and weighed 4.6 tons. The power of the explosion reached about 20 kilotons of TNT. 
A huge column of smoke rises into the air after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. As a result of the explosion of a bomb dropped by a bomber air force US Army B-29 Bockscar, immediately killed more than 70 thousand people, tens of thousands more died later as a result of radiation exposure. 
A huge nuclear mushroom cloud over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, after a US bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city. The nuclear explosion over Nagasaki occurred three days after the United States dropped the first-ever atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 
A boy carries his burned brother on his back on August 10, 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Such photos were not published by the Japanese side, but after the end of the war they were shown to the world media by UN employees. 
The arrow was installed at the site of the atomic bomb landing in Nagasaki on August 10, 1945. Most of the affected area remains empty to this day, the trees remained charred and mutilated, and almost no reconstruction was carried out. 
Japanese workers clear debris from damaged areas in Nagasaki, an industrial city in the southwest of Kyushu island, after an atomic bomb was dropped on it on August 9. A chimney and a lonely building are visible in the background, while ruins are visible in the foreground. The photo was taken from the archives of the Japanese news agency Domei. 
Mother and child try to move on with their lives. The photo was taken on August 10, 1945, the day after the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. 
As seen in this photo, which was taken on September 5, 1945, several concrete and steel buildings and bridges remained intact after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II. 
A month after the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945, a journalist tours the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan. 
Victim of the first atomic bomb explosion in the ward of the first military hospital in Udzina in September 1945. The thermal radiation generated by the explosion burned a design from the kimono fabric onto the woman's back. 
Most of the territory of Hiroshima was wiped off the face of the earth by the explosion of the atomic bomb. This is the first aerial photograph after the explosion, taken on September 1, 1945. 
The area around the Sanyo Shoray Kan (Trade Promotion Center) in Hiroshima was left in ruins after an atomic bomb exploded 100 meters away in 1945. 
A reporter stands among the rubble in front of the shell of what was once the city's theater in Hiroshima on Sept. 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States to hasten Japan's surrender. 
Ruins and a lonely building frame after the explosion of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Photo taken on September 8, 1945. 
Very few buildings remain in the devastated Hiroshima, a Japanese city that was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb, as seen in this photograph taken on September 8, 1945. (AP Photo) 
September 8, 1945. People walk along a cleared road among the ruins created after the explosion of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6 of the same year. 
A Japanese man discovered the remains of a child's tricycle among the ruins in Nagasaki, September 17, 1945. The nuclear bomb dropped on the city on August 9 wiped out almost everything within a 6-kilometer radius and took the lives of thousands of civilians. 
In this photo, which was provided by the Japan Association of Aftermath Photographers nuclear explosion in Hiroshima (Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima), a victim of an atomic explosion. The man is in quarantine on Ninoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan, 9 kilometers from the blast's epicenter, a day after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city. 
A tram (top center) and its dead passengers after a bomb exploded over Nagasaki on August 9. The photo was taken on September 1, 1945. 
People pass a tram lying on the tracks at Kamiyasho Crossing in Hiroshima some time after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. 
This photo, provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, shows victims of the atomic explosion at the tented care center of the 2nd Hiroshima Military Hospital, located on the beach. Ota River 1150 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, August 7, 1945. The photo was taken the day after the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in history on the city. 
A view of Hachobori Street in Hiroshima shortly after a bomb was dropped on the Japanese city. 
Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, photographed on September 13, 1945, was destroyed by an atomic bomb. 
A Japanese soldier wanders among the ruins in search of recyclable materials in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, just over a month after the atomic bomb exploded over the city. 
A man with a loaded bicycle on a road cleared of ruins in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, a month after the explosion of the atomic bomb. 
On September 14, 1945, the Japanese are trying to drive through a street littered with ruins on the outskirts of the city of Nagasaki, over which a nuclear bomb exploded. 
This area of Nagasaki was once filled with industrial buildings and small residential buildings. In the background are the ruins of a Mitsubishi factory and a concrete school building located at the foot of the hill. 
The top photo shows the bustling city of Nagasaki before the explosion, while the bottom photo shows the wasteland after the atomic bomb exploded. The circles measure the distance from the explosion point. 
A Japanese family eats rice in a hut built from rubble left over from what was once their home in Nagasaki, September 14, 1945. 
These huts, photographed on September 14, 1945, were constructed from the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. 
In the Ginza district of Nagasaki, which was an analogue of New York's Fifth Avenue, the owners of shops destroyed by the explosion nuclear bomb, selling their goods on the sidewalks, September 30, 1945. 
The sacred Torii gate at the entrance to a completely destroyed Shinto shrine in Nagasaki in October 1945. 
Service in Protestant Church Nagarekawa after the atomic bomb destroyed a church in Hiroshima, 1945. 
A young man injured after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki. 
Major Thomas Ferebee, left, from Moscow, and Captain Kermit Behan, right, from Houston, talk at a hotel in Washington, February 6, 1946. Ferebee is the man who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and his interlocutor dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. 
US Navy sailors among the rubble in Nagasaki, March 4, 1946. 
View of the destroyed city of Hiroshima, Japan, April 1, 1946. 
Ikimi Kikkawa shows his keloid scars left after treatment for burns suffered during the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Photo taken at the Red Cross hospital on June 5, 1947. 
Akira Yamaguchi shows his scars from treatment for burns suffered during the nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima. 
Jinpe Terawama, a survivor of the first atomic bomb in history, has numerous burn scars on his body, Hiroshima, June 1947. 
Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts waves from the cockpit of his bomber at a base on Tinian Island on August 6, 1945, before his mission to drop the first atomic bomb in history on Hiroshima, Japan. The day before, Tibbetts named the B-29 Flying Fortress "Enola Gay" in honor of his mother.
Prerequisites for great war in the Pacific region began to arise in the middle of the 19th century, when the American Commodore Matthew Perry, on instructions from the US government, at gunpoint, forced the Japanese authorities to end their policy of isolationism, open their ports to American ships and sign an unequal treaty with the United States that provided serious economic and political advantages Washington.
In a situation where most Asian countries found themselves fully or partially dependent on Western powers, Japan, in order to maintain its sovereignty, had to carry out lightning-fast technical modernization. At the same time, a feeling of resentment against those who forced them to one-sided “openness” took root among the Japanese.
Using its example, America demonstrated to Japan that with the help of brute force it is supposedly possible to solve any international problems. As a result, the Japanese, who had practically never ventured anywhere outside their islands for centuries, began an active expansionist policy directed against other Far Eastern countries. Its victims were Korea, China and Russia.
Pacific Theater
In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria from Korea, occupied it and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. In the summer of 1937, Tokyo began a full-scale war against China. Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing fell that same year. On the territory of the latter, the Japanese army staged one of the most monstrous massacres in world history. From December 1937 to January 1938, the Japanese military killed, using mainly edged weapons, up to 500 thousand civilians and disarmed soldiers. The killings were accompanied by horrendous torture and rape. Rape victims - from young children to elderly women - were then also brutally murdered. The total number of deaths as a result of Japanese aggression in China was 30 million people.
- Pearl Harbor
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In 1940, Japan began expansion into Indochina, and in 1941 it attacked British and American military bases (Hong Kong, Pearl Harbor, Guam and Wake), Malaysia, Burma and the Philippines. In 1942, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, the American Aleutian Islands, India and the islands of Micronesia became victims of aggression from Tokyo.
However, already in 1942 the Japanese offensive began to stall, and in 1943 Japan lost the initiative, although it armed forces were still quite strong. The counter-offensive by British and American forces in the Pacific theater of operations progressed relatively slowly. Only in June 1945, after bloody battles, were the Americans able to occupy the island of Okinawa, annexed by Japan in 1879.
As for the position of the USSR, in 1938-1939 Japanese troops tried to attack Soviet units in the area of Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, but were defeated.
Official Tokyo was convinced that it was faced with too strong an enemy, and in 1941 a neutrality pact was concluded between Japan and the USSR.
Adolf Hitler tried to force his Japanese allies to break the pact and attack the USSR from the east, but Soviet intelligence officers and diplomats managed to convince Tokyo that this could cost Japan too much, and the treaty remained in force de facto until August 1945. The United States and Great Britain received agreement in principle for Moscow to enter the war with Japan from Joseph Stalin in February 1945 at the Yalta Conference.
Manhattan Project
In 1939, a group of physicists, with the support of Albert Einstein, handed over a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt, which stated that Hitler's Germany in the foreseeable future may create a weapon of terrible destructive power - the atomic bomb. The American authorities became interested in the nuclear problem. Also in 1939, the Uranium Committee was created as part of the US National Defense Research Committee, which first assessed potential threat, and then began preparations for the United States to create its own nuclear weapons.
- Manhattan Project
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The Americans recruited emigrants from Germany, as well as representatives from Great Britain and Canada. In 1941, a special Bureau of Scientific Research and Development was created in the United States, and in 1943, work began as part of the so-called Manhattan Project, the goal of which was to create ready-to-use nuclear weapons.
In the USSR, nuclear research has been going on since the 1930s. Thanks to the activities of Soviet intelligence and Western scientists with leftist views, information about preparations for the creation of nuclear weapons in the West began to flow en masse to Moscow starting in 1941.
Despite all the difficulties of wartime, in 1942-1943 nuclear research in the Soviet Union was intensified, and representatives of the NKVD and GRU actively began searching for agents in American scientific centers.
By the summer of 1945, the United States had three nuclear bombs - the plutonium "Thing" and "Fat Man", as well as the uranium "Baby". On July 16, 1945, a “Thing” test explosion was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The American leadership was satisfied with its results. True, according to memories Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov, just 12 days after the first atomic bomb was assembled in the United States, its diagram was already in Moscow.
On July 24, 1945, when US President Harry Truman, most likely for the purpose of blackmail, told Stalin in Potsdam that America had weapons of “extraordinary destructive power,” the Soviet leader only smiled in response. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was present during the conversation, then concluded that Stalin did not understand what was being said at all. However, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was well aware of the Manhattan Project and, having parted ways with the American president, told Vyacheslav Molotov (USSR Foreign Minister in 1939-1949): “We will need to talk with Kurchatov today about speeding up our work.”
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Already in September 1944, an agreement in principle was reached between the United States and Great Britain on the possibility of using the atomic weapons being created against Japan. In May 1945, a target selection committee meeting at Los Alamos rejected the idea of launching nuclear strikes on military targets due to the “possibility of a miss” and the lack of a strong “psychological effect.” They decided to hit the cities.
Initially, the city of Kyoto was also on this list, but US Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted on choosing other targets, since he had warm memories associated with Kyoto - he spent his honeymoon in this city.
- Atomic bomb "Baby"
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
On July 25, Truman approved a list of cities for potential nuclear strikes, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The next day, the cruiser Indianapolis delivered the Baby bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, to the location of the 509th Combined Aviation Group. On July 28, the then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed a combat order on the use of atomic weapons. Four more days later, on August 2, 1945, all the components necessary to assemble the Fat Man were delivered to Tinian.
The target of the first strike was the seventh most populous city in Japan - Hiroshima, where at that time about 245 thousand people lived. The headquarters of the fifth division and the second main army were located on the territory of the city. On August 6, a US Air Force B-29 bomber under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbetts took off from Tinian and headed for Japan. At about 08:00, the plane appeared over Hiroshima and dropped the “Baby” bomb, which exploded 576 meters above the surface of the earth. At 08:15 all clocks stopped in Hiroshima.
The temperature under the plasma ball formed as a result of the explosion reached 4000 °C. About 80 thousand city residents died instantly. Many of them turned to ashes in a split second.
The light radiation left dark silhouettes of human bodies on the walls of buildings. Glass was broken in houses located within a 19-kilometer radius. The fires that arose in the city united into a fiery tornado, destroying people who tried to escape immediately after the explosion.
On August 9, the American bomber headed for Kokura, but there was heavy cloudiness in the area of the city, and the pilots decided to strike at the reserve target - Nagasaki. The bomb was dropped taking advantage of a gap in the clouds through which the city stadium was visible. "Fat Man" exploded at an altitude of 500 meters, and although the power of the explosion was greater than in Hiroshima, the damage from it was less due to the hilly terrain and a large industrial area in which there was no residential development. During the bombing and immediately after it, between 60 and 80 thousand people died.
- Consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the American army on August 6, 1945
Some time after the attack, doctors began to note that people who seemed to be recovering from wounds and psychological shock began to suffer from a new one, previously unknown to anyone. known illness. The peak number of deaths from it occurred three to four weeks after the explosion. This is how the world learned about the consequences of radiation on the human body.
By 1950, the total number of victims of the bombing of Hiroshima as a result of the explosion and its consequences was estimated at about 200 thousand, and in Nagasaki - at 140 thousand people.
Causes and consequences
In mainland Asia at that time there was a powerful Kwantung Army, on which official Tokyo had high hopes. Its strength, due to rapid mobilization measures, was not reliably known even to the command itself. According to some estimates, the number of soldiers in the Kwantung Army exceeded 1 million. In addition, Japan was supported by collaborationist forces, whose military formations included several hundred thousand more soldiers and officers.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. And the very next day, having secured the support of the Mongolian allies, the USSR advanced its troops against the forces of the Kwantung Army.
“Currently in the West they are trying to rewrite history and revise the contribution of the USSR to the victory over both fascist Germany and militaristic Japan. However, only the entry into the war on the night of August 8-9, fulfilling its allied obligations Soviet Union forced the Japanese leadership to announce surrender on August 15. The Red Army’s offensive against the forces of the Kwantung group developed quickly, and this, by and large, led to the end of World War II,” Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist historian at the Victory Museum, expressed his opinion in an interview with RT.
- Surrender of the Kwantung Army troops
- RIA Novosti
- Evgeny Khaldey
According to the expert, over 600 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered to the Red Army, among whom were 148 generals. Alexander Mikhailov urged not to overestimate the impact of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the end of the war. “The Japanese were initially determined to fight to the end against the United States and Great Britain,” he emphasized.
As noted by a senior researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, associate professor of the Institute foreign languages MSPU Viktor Kuzminkov, “military expediency” of application nuclear strike for Japan - this is only the version officially formulated by the leadership of the United States.
“The Americans said that in the summer of 1945 it was necessary to start a war with Japan on the territory of the metropolis itself. Here the Japanese, according to the US leadership, had to offer desperate resistance and could allegedly inflict unacceptable losses on the American army. But the nuclear bombings, they say, should have nevertheless persuaded Japan to surrender,” the expert explained.
According to the head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Kistanov, the American version does not stand up to criticism. “There was no military need for this barbaric bombardment. Today even some Western researchers admit this. In fact, Truman wanted, firstly, to intimidate the USSR with the destructive power of the new weapon, and secondly, to justify the enormous costs of its development. But it was clear to everyone that the USSR’s entry into the war with Japan would put an end to it,” he said.
Viktor Kuzminkov agrees with these conclusions: “Official Tokyo hoped that Moscow could become a mediator in the negotiations, and the USSR’s entry into the war left Japan no chance.”
Kistanov emphasized that ordinary people and members of the elite in Japan respond differently to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Ordinary Japanese people remember this disaster as it really happened. But the authorities and the press are trying not to highlight some of its aspects. For example, in newspapers and on television, atomic bombings are very often talked about without mentioning which specific country carried them out. Current American presidents for a long time did not visit the memorials dedicated to the victims of these bombings at all. The first was Barack Obama, but he never apologized to the descendants of the victims. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also did not apologize for Pearl Harbor,” he noted.
According to Kuzminkov, the atomic bombings changed Japan greatly. “A huge group of “untouchables” appeared in the country - hibakusha, born to mothers exposed to radiation. Many people shunned them; the parents of young men and girls did not want hibakusha to marry their children. The consequences of the bombings penetrated into people's lives. Therefore, today many Japanese are consistent supporters complete failure from use atomic energy in principle,” the expert concluded.
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The American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed a total of 214 thousand people, were the only cases in history of the use of nuclear weapons.
Let's see what those places look like then and now.
In August 1945, American pilots dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic explosion and its consequences killed 140 thousand people out of a population of 350 thousand in Hiroshima, and 74 thousand in Nagasaki. The vast majority of atomic bomb victims were civilians.
International analysts believe that it is unlikely that the United States will apologize to Japan for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2. Mushroom from the explosion of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. (Photo: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum):
3. Hiroshima in October 1945 and the same place on July 28, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayash | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
4. Hiroshima on August 20, 1945 and the same place on July 28, 2015. (Photo by Masami Oki | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
5. Hiroshima in October-November 1945 and the same place on July 29, 2015. By the way, this place is located 860 meters from the center of the nuclear bomb explosion. (Photo US Army | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
6. Hiroshima in October 1945 and the same place on July 28, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayash | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
7. Hiroshima in 1945 and the same place on July 29, 2015. (Photo US Army | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
8. Nagasaki August 9, 1945 and July 31, 2015. (Photo by Torahiko Ogawa | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
9. Nagasaki in 1945 and the same place on July 31, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayashi | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Retuers):
10. Nagasaki in 1945 and the same place on July 31, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayashi | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Retuers):
11. Nagasaki Cathedral in 1945 and July 31, 2015. (Photo by Hisashi Ishida | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
12. Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 2015. (Photo by Toru Hanai | Reuters):
13. Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. This is a park located on the territory of the former Nakajima district, which was completely destroyed as a result of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. On the territory of 12.2 hectares there is the Peace Memorial Museum, many monuments, a ritual bell and a cenotaph. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi):
14. Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 2015. (Photo by Kimimiasa Mayama):
16. Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki, built in memory of the atomic bombing of the city on August 9, 1945. (Photo by Toru Hanai | Reuters):
“The United States used atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki not to force Japan to surrender, but to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining geopolitical advantage after the end of the war in Asia.
Everyone knows that on August 6 and 9, 1945, nuclear weapons were dropped on two Japanese cities. About 150 thousand civilians died in Hiroshima, and up to 80 thousand in Nagasaki.
These dates became mourning dates for the rest of their lives in the minds of millions of Japanese. Every year more and more secrets are revealed about these terrible events, which will be discussed in our article.
1. If anyone survived the nuclear explosion, tens of thousands of people began to suffer from radiation sickness.
Over the course of decades, the Radiation Research Foundation studied 94,000 people to create a cure for the disease that afflicted them.
2. Oleander is the official symbol of Hiroshima. Do you know why? This is the first plant to bloom in the city after the nuclear explosion.
3. According to recent scientific research, those who survived the atomic bombing received an average radiation dose of 210 milliseconds. For comparison: a computed tomography scan of the head irradiates 2 milliseconds, but here it is 210 (!).
4. On that terrible day, before the explosion, according to the census, the number of residents of Nagasaki was 260 thousand people. Today it is home to almost half a million Japanese. By the way, by Japanese standards this is still a wilderness.
5. 6 ginkgo trees, located just 2 km from the epicenter of events, managed to survive.
A year after the tragic events, they bloomed. Today, each of them is officially registered as "Hibako Yumoku", which means "tree that remains alive." Ginkgo is considered a symbol of hope in Japan.
6. After the bomb fell in Hiroshima, many unaware survivors were evacuated to Nagasaki...
It is known that of those who survived the bombings in both cities, only 165 people survived.
7. In 1955, a park was opened at the site of the bombing in Nagasaki.
The main feature here was the 30-ton sculpture of a man. They say that an upraised hand symbolizes the threat of a nuclear explosion, while an outstretched left hand symbolizes peace.
8. The survivors of these terrible events became known as “hibakusha,” which translates to “people affected by the explosion.” The surviving children and adults were subsequently subjected to severe discrimination.
Many believed that they could become infected radiation sickness. It was difficult for Hibakusha to get settled in life, meet someone, or find a job. In the decades following the bombings, it was not uncommon for the parents of a boy or girl to hire detectives to find out whether their child's significant other was a hibakusha.
9. Every year, on August 6, a memorial ceremony is held in the Hiroshima Memorial Park and a minute of silence begins at exactly 8:15 (the time of the attack).
10. To the surprise of many scientists, scientific research has shown that the average life expectancy of modern residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compared with those who were not exposed to radiation in 1945, was reduced by only a couple of months.
11. Hiroshima is on the list of cities that advocate the abolition of nuclear weapons.
12. Only in 1958, the population of Hiroshima grew to 410 thousand people, which exceeded the pre-war figure. Today the city is home to 1.2 million people.
13. Of those who died from the bombing, about 10% were Koreans conscripted by the military.
14. Contrary to popular belief, among children born to women who survived a nuclear attack, various developmental abnormalities and mutations were not identified.
15. In Hiroshima, in the Memorial Park there is a miraculously surviving UNESCO World Heritage Site - the Genbaku Dome, located 160 m from the center of events.
At the time of the explosion, the walls of the building collapsed, everything inside burned down, and the people inside died. Now there is a memorial stone installed near the “Atomic Cathedral,” as it is commonly called. Near it you can always see a symbolic bottle of water, which reminds of those who survived the explosion, but died of thirst in the nuclear hell.
16. The explosions were so strong that people died in a split second, leaving behind only shadows.
These prints were made due to the heat released during the explosion, which changed the color of the surfaces - hence the outlines of bodies and objects that absorbed part of the blast wave. Some of these shadows can still be seen at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
17. The famous Japanese giant monster Godzilla was originally invented as a metaphor for the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
18. Despite the fact that the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect was less. This was facilitated by the hilly terrain, as well as the fact that the center of the explosion was located above an industrial area.
