Hiroshima Essay

Hello, I shake you warmly by the hand.

I wrote this Hiroshima Essay this year for Humanities over the holidays and it cost me hours and days that could have been spent laying dead in bed (or playing The Sims). It was terribly difficult because I knew that even if I completed it, I would be bombarded with more homework from other subjects. In the end, homework has stolen one week of my hibernation time.

What I found most difficult about writing this essay was finding the motivation to write, however, this was mostly caused by the research. I can positively and confidently say the research has caused distress and unwanted stress to my cerebrum. 

All efforts paid off as I read it over like tens of thousands times and forced by family to read it as well. Unfortunately, my Humanities teacher only gave me a 38 out of 40. I lost one mark in both the criterion for 'use of extensive footnotes' and 'use of extensive primary and secondary sources'. My teacher said I lost marks because compared to other students, my essay was less extensive in terms of its use of footnotes and sources. Very sad, indeed.

Word count: 1600-1700

*Note: All the quotes referencing has disappeared through its journey through cut and paste from the word document, I will however cut and paste the bibliography in the next section.

'The U.S. Government was justified in dropping the bomb on Hiroshima.' To what extent do you agree?

A significant historical event happened on August 6th 1945. It was an event that caused mass destruction, signified the eventual end of World War II, and was the first ever usage of an atomic bomb in history of warfare. It was the “opening [of] the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale.” An atomic bomb is a nuclear weapon in which vast amount of energy are released by nuclear reaction. “It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.” The first usage of the atomic bomb Little Boy was imposed upon Hiroshima, a city of 350 000 civilians. President Harry S. Truman of the United States declared the proposition to release Little Boy on Hiroshima. He believed it would push-forth the surrender of Japan to end the war in order to save American lives. This however is not the sole reason for the bombing. Historians believe there are numerous other motives for this unfortunate resort. Some motives are considered heroic and noble, and others are considered atrocious and appalling. The purposes for the dropping of Little Boy are being examined in every way possible by historians to determine if the act of the bombing by the US Government was justified.

Saving American lives and countless others were one of the more obvious reasons for the bombing. Resorting to ending the war through releasing nuclear weapons on Japan were  believed by the general population that it could save countless lives from both the Allied Powers (primarily American lives) that could have been lost had the war continued. President Truman believed this and was convinced that the Hiroshima bombing “was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction.” However, the truth of this statement remain unrecognisable as 80,000 civilians were instantly killed and tens of thousands more were killed due to radiation poisoning from the aftermath of Little Boy. Among those who were killed, some were American prisoners of war and Koreans who were forced as labourers into Japan. A second atomic bomb was released on Nagasaki after Japanese military leaders refused to surrender again on August 9. This atomic bomb, called Fat Man, was heavier and much more complex than Little Boy. Fat Man had 22,000 tonnes of TNT, whereas Little Boy had 20,000 tonnes of TNT. Although being more complex than its first, Fat Man caused less loss of lives due to the natural topography of Nagasaki which reduced the bomb’s impact. This second bomb instantly killed 40,000 civilians, and 10,000 more civilians died due to poisoning. In total, 120,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki died instantly. America had lost 500,000 lives throughout World War II. This is a greater number of death however, it happened over the 4 year period of their involvement in World War II compared to the 120,000 instant Japanese deaths in the 3 days after the Hiroshima incident. Moreover, Japanese civilians living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to die today because of the poisoning excess of the atomic bombs which, scientists believe will take a thousand years to dissipate completely.