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Japan bombings. If anyone survived after a nuclear explosion, tens of thousands of people began to suffer from radiation sickness. Who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima? The situation through the eyes of the Japanese

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples of combat use in human history nuclear weapons. Carried out by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II in order to hasten the surrender of Japan in the Pacific theater of operations of World War II.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay bomber, named after the mother (Enola Gay Haggard) of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, August 9, 1945, atomic bomb"Fat Man" ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.

The shock of the US atomic bombings had a profound effect on Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and Japanese Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori, who were inclined to believe that the Japanese government should end the war.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender that formally ended the Second world war, was signed on September 2, 1945.

The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.

Prerequisites

In September 1944, at a meeting between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Hyde Park, an agreement was reached, according to which the possibility of using atomic weapons against Japan was envisaged.

By the summer of 1945, the United States of America, with the support of Great Britain and Canada, as part of the Manhattan Project, completed preparatory work to create the first working models of nuclear weapons.

After three and a half years of direct US involvement in World War II, about 200,000 Americans were killed, about half of them in the war against Japan. In April-June 1945, during the operation to capture the Japanese island of Okinawa, more than 12 thousand American soldiers were killed, 39 thousand were injured (Japanese losses ranged from 93 to 110 thousand soldiers and over 100 thousand civilians). It was expected that the invasion of Japan itself would lead to losses many times greater than those of Okinawan.

Model of the bomb "Kid" (eng. Little boy), dropped on Hiroshima

May 1945: Target selection

During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Targeting Committee recommended as targets for the use of atomic weapons Kyoto (the largest industrial center), Hiroshima (the center of army warehouses and a military port), Yokohama (the center of military industry), Kokuru (the largest military arsenal) and Niigata (military port and engineering center). The committee rejected the idea of using these weapons against a purely military target, as there was a chance of overshooting a small area not surrounded by a vast urban area.

When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:

achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,

the first use of the weapon must be significant enough to international recognition its importance. The Committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was supported by the fact that its population had more high level education and thus better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima, on the other hand, was of such a size and location that, given the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.

US Secretary of War Henry Stimson struck Kyoto off 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."

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the map of Japan

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.

July 24 during Potsdam Conference US President Harry Truman told Stalin that the United States had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Truman didn't specify what he meant exactly. atomic weapon. According to Truman's memoirs, Stalin showed little interest, remarking only that he was glad and hoped that the US could use him effectively against the Japanese. Churchill, who carefully observed Stalin's reaction, remained of the opinion that Stalin did not understand true meaning Truman's words and ignored him. At the same time, according to Zhukov's memoirs, Stalin perfectly understood everything, but did not show it and, in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting, noted that "It will be necessary to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work." After the declassification of the operation of the American intelligence services "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodor Hall, a few days before the Potsdam Conference, even announced the planned date for the first nuclear test. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1944.

On July 25, Truman approved the order, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as the weather allowed, and in the future, the following cities, as bombs arrived.

On July 26, the governments of the United States, 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 aircraft, was rejected. The Japanese government has not expressed a desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated 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 of the Japanese, did not change the decision of the government. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that the imperial power must be protected at all costs.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Combined Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was a few miles from the rest of the units and was carefully guarded.

On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the order to combat use nuclear weapons. This order, developed by the head of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, ordered to inflict nuclear strike"on any day after the third of August, as soon as possible weather". On July 29, US Strategic Air Command General Karl Spaats 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 aircraft.

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 population of the city before the war was over 340 thousand people, which made 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 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 fire equipment and insufficient training of personnel created a high fire hazard even in peacetime.

The population of Hiroshima peaked at 380,000 during the course of the war, but before the bombing, the population gradually decreased due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack, the population was about 245 thousand people.

Bombardment

The main target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (Kokura and Nagasaki were spares). Although Truman's order called for the atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.

On August 6, at 1:45 am, an American B-29 bomber under the command of the commander of the 509th mixed aviation regiment, Colonel Paul Tibbets, carrying the atomic bomb "Baby" on board, took off from Tinian Island, which was about 6 hours from Hiroshima. Tibbets' aircraft ("Enola Gay") flew as part of a formation that included six other aircraft: a spare aircraft ("Top Secret"), two controllers and three reconnaissance aircraft ("Jebit III", "Full House" and "Street Flash"). Reconnaissance aircraft commanders sent to Nagasaki and Kokura reported significant cloud cover over these cities. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft, Major Iserli, found out that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and sent a signal "Bomb the first target."

Around 7 a.m., the Japanese early warning radar network detected the approach of several American aircraft bound for southern Japan. An air raid alert was issued and radio broadcasts stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At about 08:00 a 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 called off. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard message was broadcast over the radio that it would be wise to go to the bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually seen, and that it was not a raid that was expected, but just some kind of reconnaissance.

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 first public announcement of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.

The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank entrance at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter

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 clothes into the skin and left the silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside the houses described a blinding flash of light, which simultaneously came with a wave of suffocating heat. The blast wave, for all who were near the epicenter, followed almost immediately, often knocking down. Those in the buildings tended to avoid exposure to the light from the explosion, but not the blast wave—glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was blasted out of his house across the street as the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were at a distance of 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 fiery tornado that created strong wind(speed 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The fiery tornado captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not have time 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 the time of the explosion at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter,

Three colors characterize for me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black because the explosion cut off the 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, peeling skin exposed to light from the explosion.

A few days after the explosion, among the survivors, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of exposure. Soon, the number of deaths among survivors began to rise again as patients who appeared to be recovering began to suffer from this strange new disease. Death from radiation sickness reached a peak 3-4 weeks after the explosion and began to decline only after 7-8 weeks. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. The long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the explosion.

The first person in the world whose cause of death was officially listed as a disease caused by the consequences nuclear explosion(radiation poisoning), was the actress Midori Naka, who survived the Hiroshima explosion, but died on August 24, 1945. Journalist Robert Jung believes that it was Midori's disease and its popularity among ordinary people that allowed people to find out the truth about the emerging "new disease". Until the death of Midori, no one attached importance mysterious deaths people who survived the explosion and died under circumstances unknown to science at the time. Jung believes that Midori's death was the impetus for accelerated research in nuclear physics and medicine, which soon managed to save the lives of many people from radiation exposure.

Japanese awareness of the consequences of the attack

The Tokyo operator of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation noticed that the Hiroshima station stopped broadcasting the signal. He tried to re-establish the broadcast using a different phone line, but that also failed. About twenty minutes later, the Tokyo Rail Telegraph Control Center realized that the main telegraph line had stopped working just north of Hiroshima. From a halt 16 km from Hiroshima, unofficial and confusing reports of a terrible explosion came. All these messages were forwarded to the headquarters of the Japanese General Staff.

Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Hiroshima Command and Control Center. Complete silence from there baffled General base, because they knew that there was no major enemy raid in Hiroshima and there was no significant warehouse explosives. The young staff officer was instructed to immediately fly to Hiroshima, land, assess the damage, and return to Tokyo with reliable information. The headquarters basically believed that nothing serious happened there, and the reports were explained by rumors.

The officer from the headquarters went to the airport, from where he flew to the southwest. After a three-hour flight, while still 160 km from Hiroshima, he and his pilot noticed a large cloud of smoke from the bomb. It was a bright day and the ruins of Hiroshima were burning. Their plane soon reached the city around which they circled in disbelief. From the city there was only a zone of continuous destruction, still burning and covered with a thick cloud of smoke. They landed south of the city, and the officer reported the incident to Tokyo and immediately began organizing rescue efforts.

The first real understanding by the Japanese of what really caused the disaster came from a public announcement from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima after the atomic explosion

Loss 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 action of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths was from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years total The death toll, taking into account deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200 thousand people.

According to official Japanese data as of March 31, 2013, there were 201,779 "hibakusha" alive - people affected by the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This number includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions (predominantly living in Japan at the time of count). Of these, 1%, according to the Japanese government, had serious cancers 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.

Nuclear pollution

The concept of "radioactive contamination" did not yet exist in those years, and therefore this issue was not even raised then. People continued to live and rebuild the destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality of the population in subsequent years, as well as illnesses and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. The evacuation of the population from the contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.

It is rather difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since technically the first atomic bombs were relatively low-yield and imperfect (the "Kid" bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only approximately 700 g reacted division), the level of pollution of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to 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 accumulated during the operation of the reactor.

Comparative preservation of some buildings

Some of the reinforced concrete buildings in Hiroshima were very stable (due to the risk of earthquakes) and their framework did not collapse despite being quite close to the center of destruction in the city (the epicenter of the explosion). Thus stood the brick building of the Hiroshima Chamber of Industry (now commonly known as the "Genbaku Dome", or "Atomic Dome"), designed and built by Czech architect Jan Letzel, 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 exhibit of the Hiroshima atomic explosion and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, despite objections raised by the US and Chinese governments.

On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that

We are now ready to destroy, even faster and more completely than before, all Japanese land-based production facilities in any city. We will destroy their docks, their factories and their communications. Let there be no misunderstanding - we will completely destroy Japan's ability to wage war.

It was to prevent the destruction of Japan that an ultimatum was issued on July 26 in Potsdam. Their leadership immediately rejected his terms. If they do not accept our terms now, let them expect a rain of destruction from the air, the likes of which have not yet been seen on this planet.

Upon receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government met to discuss their response. Beginning in June, the emperor advocated peace negotiations, but the minister of defense, as well as the leadership of the army and navy, believed that Japan should wait to see if attempts at peace negotiations through the Soviet Union would yield better results than unconditional surrender. The military leadership also believed that if it was possible to hold out until the start of the invasion of Japanese islands, it would be possible to inflict such losses on the Allied forces that Japan could win terms of peace other than unconditional surrender.

On August 9, the USSR declared war on Japan and Soviet troops launched an invasion of Manchuria. Hopes for the mediation of the USSR in the negotiations collapsed. The top leadership of the Japanese army began preparations for declaring martial law in order to prevent any attempts at peace negotiations.

The second atomic bombing (Kokura) was scheduled for 11 August, but was pushed back 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather that was forecast to begin on 10 August.

Nagasaki during World War II

Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range divided the districts of the city.

The development was chaotic: out of the total city area of 90 km², 12 were built up with residential quarters.

During World War II, the city, which was a major sea port, has gained special meaning also as an industrial center in which steel production and the Mitsubishi shipyard, Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo production were concentrated. The city produced tools, ships and other Combat vehicles.

Nagasaki was not subjected to large-scale bombing until the explosion of the atomic bomb, but as early as August 1, 1945, several high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city, damaging shipyards and docks in the southwestern part of the city. Bombs also hit the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories. The August 1 raid resulted in a partial evacuation of the population, especially schoolchildren. However, at the time of the bombing, the city's population was still around 200,000.

Nagasaki before and after the atomic explosion

Bombardment

The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the spare was Nagasaki.

At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.

Unlike the first bombardment, the second was fraught with numerous technical problems. Even before takeoff, a fuel pump malfunction was discovered in one of the spare fuel tanks. Despite this, the crew decided to conduct the flight as planned.

At approximately 7:50 am, an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 am.

At 08:10, after reaching a rendezvous point with other B-29s participating in the sortie, one of them was found missing. For 40 minutes, Sweeney's B-29 circled around the rendezvous point, but did not wait for the missing aircraft to appear. At the same time, reconnaissance aircraft reported that the cloudiness over Kokura and Nagasaki, although present, still allows for bombing under visual control.

At 08:50, B-29, carrying the atomic bomb, headed for Kokura, where it arrived at 09:20. By this time, however, 70% cloud cover was already observed over the city, which did not allow visual bombing. After three unsuccessful visits to the target, at 10:32 B-29 headed for Nagasaki. By this point, due to a fuel pump failure, there was only enough fuel for one pass over Nagasaki.

At 10:53, two B-29s came into the air defense field of view, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance and did not announce a new alarm.

At 10:56 B-29 arrived at Nagasaki, which, as it turned out, was also obscured by clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach. At the last moment, however, bombardier-gunner Captain Kermit Behan (eng.) in the gap between the clouds noticed the silhouette of the city stadium, focusing on which, he dropped the atomic bomb.

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.

explosion effect

japanese boy, top part whose body was not covered during the explosion

A hastily aimed bomb exploded almost midway between the two main targets in Nagasaki, the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories to the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo factory to the north. If the bomb had been dropped further south, between the business and residential areas, the damage would have been much greater.

In general, although the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect of the explosion was less. This was facilitated by a combination of factors - the presence of hills in Nagasaki, as well as the fact that the epicenter of the explosion was over the industrial zone - all this helped to protect some areas of the city from the consequences of the explosion.

From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:

I was knocked to the ground (from my bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. big stones flew in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again ...

When everything seemed to calm down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin, from the shoulder to the fingertips, was hanging like tattered tatters.

Loss and destruction

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of approximately 110 km², of which 22 were on the water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited.

According to a Nagasaki Prefecture report, "humans and animals died almost instantly" up to 1 km from the epicenter. Nearly all houses within a 2 km radius were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper ignited up to 3 km away from the epicenter. Of the 52,000 buildings in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and another 5,400 were severely damaged. Only 12% of the buildings remained intact. Although there was no fire tornado in the city, numerous localized fires were observed.

The death toll by the end of 1945 ranged from 60 to 80 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account those who died from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 140 thousand people.

Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan

The US government expected another atomic bomb to be ready for use in mid-August, and three more each in September and October. On August 10, Leslie Groves, military director of the Manhattan Project, sent a memorandum to George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army, in which he wrote that "the next bomb ... should be ready for use after August 17-18." On the same day, Marshall signed a memorandum with the comment that "it should not be used against Japan until the express approval of the President is obtained." At the same time, discussions have already begun in the US Department of Defense on the advisability of postponing the use of bombs until the start of Operation Downfall, the expected invasion of the Japanese islands.

The problem we are facing now is whether, assuming the Japanese do not capitulate, we should continue to drop bombs as they are produced, or accumulate them in order to then drop everything in a short period of time. Not all in one day, but within a fairly short time. This is also related to the question of what goals we are pursuing. In other words, shouldn't we focus on the targets that will help the invasion the most, and not on industry, troop morale, psychology, etc.? Mostly tactical goals, and not some others.

Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation

Up until August 9, the war cabinet continued to insist on 4 terms of surrender. On August 9, news of the declaration of war came Soviet Union the late evening of August 8 and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at 11 o'clock in the afternoon. At the meeting of the "big six", held on the night of August 10, the votes on the issue of surrender were divided equally (3 "for", 3 "against"), after which the emperor intervened in the discussion, speaking in favor of surrender. On August 10, 1945, Japan handed over to the Allies an offer of surrender, the only condition of which was that the Emperor be retained as a nominal head of state.

Since the terms of the surrender allowed for the continuation of imperial power in Japan, on August 14, Hirohito recorded his surrender statement, which was circulated by the Japanese media the next day, despite an attempted military coup by opponents of the surrender.

In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:

... in addition, the enemy has a terrible new weapon that can take many innocent lives and cause immeasurable material damage. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the collapse and annihilation of the Japanese nation, but also to the complete disappearance of human civilization.

In such a situation, how can we save millions of our subjects or justify ourselves before the sacred spirit of our ancestors? For this reason we have ordered the acceptance of the terms of the joint declaration of our adversaries.

Within a year of the end of the bombing, 40,000 American troops were stationed in Hiroshima and 27,000 in Nagasaki.

Commission for the Study of the Consequences of Atomic Explosions

In the spring of 1948, the National Academy of Sciences Commission on the Effects of Atomic Explosions was formed at Truman's direction to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among the victims of the bombing were found many people not involved in the war, including prisoners of war, forced mobilization of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya and about 3,200 US citizens. Japanese descent(English).

In 1975, the Commission was dissolved, its functions were transferred to the newly created Institute for the Study of the Effects of Radiation Exposure (English Radiation Effects Research Foundation).

Debate on the expediency of atomic bombings

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical validity are still the subject of scientific and public discussion. In a 2005 review of historiography on the subject, the American historian Samuel Walker wrote that "the debate about the appropriateness of the bombing will definitely continue." Walker also noted that "the fundamental question, which has been debated for more than 40 years, is whether these atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the war on pacific ocean on terms acceptable to the United States."

Proponents of the bombings usually claim that they were the cause of Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant losses on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the quick end of the war saved many lives elsewhere in Asia (primarily in China); that Japan was waging an all-out war in which the distinctions between the military and the civilian population are blurred; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped to shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombings argue that they were simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus lacked military necessity that they were fundamentally immoral, a war crime or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 there was no international agreements or treaties directly or indirectly prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).

A number of researchers express the opinion that the main purpose of the atomic bombings was to influence the USSR before it entered the war with Japan on Far East and demonstrate the atomic power of the United States.

Impact on culture

In the 1950s, the story of a Japanese girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from the effects of radiation (leukemia), became widely known. Already in the hospital, Sadako learned about the legend, according to which a person who folded a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will surely come true. Wishing to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands. According to the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Canadian children's writer Eleanor Coer, Sadako only managed to fold 644 cranes before she died in October 1955. Her friends finished the rest of the figurines. According to Sadako's 4,675 Days of Life, Sadako folded a thousand cranes and continued to fold, but later died. Several books have been written based on her story.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons in human history. Implemented armed forces United States at the final stage of World War II in order to hasten the surrender of Japan in the Pacific theater of World War II.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American bomber B-29 "Enola Gay", named after the mother (Enola Gay Haggard) of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" ("Baby") on the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb "Fat Man" ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender, formally ending World War II, was signed on September 2, 1945.

The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.

Prerequisites

By the summer of 1945, the United States of America, with the support of Great Britain and Canada, within the framework of the Manhattan Project, completed preparatory work to create the first working models of nuclear weapons.

Model of the bomb "Kid" (eng. Little boy), dropped on Hiroshima

May 1945: Target selection

When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:

achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,

the first use of the weapon must be significant enough for international recognition of its importance. The committee pointed out that Kyoto's choice was supported by the fact that its population had a higher level of education and thus were better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima, on the other hand, was of such a size and location that, given the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the map of Japan

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, remarking only that he was glad and hoped that the US could use him 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 perfectly understood everything, but did not show it and, in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting, noted that "It will be necessary to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work." After the declassification of the operation of the American intelligence services "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodor Hall, a few days before the Potsdam conference, even announced the planned date for the first nuclear test. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1944.

The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration, which had been broadcast over the radio and scattered in leaflets from airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government has not expressed a desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated 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.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Combined Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was a few miles from the rest of the units and was carefully guarded.

On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the order for the combat use of 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 weather conditions permit." On July 29, US Strategic Air Command General Karl Spaats 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 aircraft.

Bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 Hiroshima during World War II

Bombardment

Around 7 a.m., a network of Japanese early warning radars detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid alert was issued and radio broadcasts stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At about 08:00 a 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 called off. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard message was broadcast over the radio that it would be wise to go to the bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually seen, and that it was not a raid that was expected, but just some kind of reconnaissance.

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 first public announcement of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.

The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank entrance at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter

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 clothes into the skin and left the silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside the houses described a blinding flash of light, which simultaneously came with a wave of suffocating heat. The blast wave, for all who were near the epicenter, followed almost immediately, often knocking down. Those in the buildings tended to avoid exposure to the light from the explosion, but not the blast—glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was blasted out of his house across the street as the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were at a distance of 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, which created a strong wind (speed of 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The fiery tornado captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not have time 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 the time of the explosion at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter,

A few days after the explosion, among the survivors, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of exposure. Soon, the number of deaths among survivors began to rise again as patients who appeared 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 after 7-8 weeks. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. The long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the explosion.

The first person in the world whose cause of death was officially indicated as a disease caused by the consequences of a nuclear explosion (radiation poisoning) was the actress Midori Naka, who survived the Hiroshima explosion, but died on August 24, 1945. Journalist Robert Jung believes that it was Midori's disease and its popularity among ordinary people allowed people to know the truth about the emerging "new disease". Until the death of Midori, no one attached importance to the mysterious deaths of people who survived the moment of the explosion and died under circumstances unknown to science at the time. Jung believes that Midori's death was the impetus for accelerated research in nuclear physics and medicine, which soon managed to save the lives of many people from radiation exposure.

Japanese awareness of the consequences of the attack

Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Hiroshima Command and Control Center. The complete silence from there baffled the General Staff, since they knew that there was no major enemy raid in Hiroshima and there was no significant explosives depot. The young staff officer was instructed to immediately fly to Hiroshima, land, assess the damage, and return to Tokyo with reliable information. The headquarters basically believed that nothing serious happened there, and the reports were explained by rumors.

The first real understanding by the Japanese of what really caused the disaster came from a public announcement from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima after the atomic explosion

Loss 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 action of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths was from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200 thousand people.

Nuclear pollution

It is rather difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since technically the first atomic bombs were relatively low-yield and imperfect (the "Kid" bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only approximately 700 g reacted division), the level of pollution of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, several tons of fission products and transuranium elements, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor, were in the reactor core.

Comparative preservation of some buildings

On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that

Upon receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government met to discuss their response. Beginning in June, the emperor advocated peace negotiations, but the minister of defense, as well as the leadership of the army and navy, believed that Japan should wait to see if attempts at peace negotiations through the Soviet Union would yield better results than unconditional surrender. The military leadership also believed that if they could hold out until the invasion of the Japanese islands began, it would be possible to inflict such losses on the Allied forces that Japan could win peace conditions other than unconditional surrender.

The second atomic bombing (Kokura) was scheduled for 11 August, but was pushed back 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather that was forecast to begin on 10 August.

Bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 Nagasaki during World War II

Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range divided the districts of the city.

The development was chaotic: out of the total city area of 90 km², 12 were built up with residential quarters.

During the Second World War, the city, which was a major seaport, also acquired special significance as an industrial center, in which steel production and the Mitsubishi shipyard, Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo production were concentrated. Guns, ships and other military equipment were made in the city.

Nagasaki before and after the atomic explosion

Bombardment

The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the spare was Nagasaki.

At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.

At approximately 7:50 am, an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 am.

At 10:53, two B-29s came into the air defense field of view, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance and did not announce a new alarm.

At 10:56 B-29 arrived at Nagasaki, which, as it turned out, was also obscured by clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach. At the last moment, however, bombardier-gunner Captain Kermit Behan (Eng.) in the gap between the clouds noticed the silhouette of the city stadium, focusing on which, he dropped the atomic bomb.

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.

explosion effect

Japanese boy whose upper body was not covered during the explosion

From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:

I was knocked to the ground (from my bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. Large rocks were flying in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again...

When everything seemed to calm down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin, from the shoulder to the fingertips, was hanging like tattered tatters.

Loss and destruction

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of approximately 110 km², of which 22 were on the water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited.

Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan

Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation

Up until August 9, the war cabinet continued to insist on 4 terms of surrender. On August 9, news came of the declaration of war by the Soviet Union late in the evening of August 8, and of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at 11 o'clock in the afternoon. At the meeting of the "big six", held on the night of August 10, the votes on the issue of surrender were divided equally (3 "for", 3 "against"), after which the emperor intervened in the discussion, speaking in favor of surrender. On August 10, 1945, Japan handed over to the Allies an offer of surrender, the only condition of which was that the Emperor be retained as a nominal head of state.

In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:

Within a year of the end of the bombing, 40,000 American troops were stationed in Hiroshima and 27,000 in Nagasaki.

Commission for the Study of the Consequences of Atomic Explosions

In the spring of 1948, the National Academy of Sciences Commission on the Effects of Atomic Explosions was formed at Truman's direction to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among the victims of the bombing, many uninvolved people were found, including prisoners of war, forced mobilization of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya, and about 3,200 Japanese Americans.

Debate on the expediency of atomic bombings

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical validity are still the subject of scientific and public discussion. In a 2005 review of historiography on the subject, the American historian Samuel Walker wrote that "the debate about the appropriateness of the bombing will definitely continue." Walker also noted that "the fundamental question that has been debated for more than 40 years is whether these atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the Pacific War on terms acceptable to the United States."

Proponents of the bombings usually claim that they were the cause of Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant losses on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the quick end of the war saved many lives elsewhere in Asia (primarily in China); that Japan was waging an all-out war in which the distinctions between the military and the civilian population are blurred; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped to shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombings contend that they were simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus had no military necessity, that they were fundamentally immoral, a war crime, or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 there was no there were international agreements or treaties directly or indirectly prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).

A number of researchers express the opinion that the main purpose of the atomic bombings was to influence the USSR before it entered the war with Japan in the Far East and to demonstrate the atomic power of the United States.

Impact on culture

Their only enemy in World War II was Japan, which also had to surrender soon. It was at this point that the United States decided to show its military might. On August 6 and 9, they dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after which Japan finally capitulated. AiF.ru recalls the stories of people who managed to survive this nightmare.

According to various sources, from the explosion itself and in the first weeks after it, from 90 to 166 thousand people died in Hiroshima, and from 60 to 80 thousand in Nagasaki. However, there were those who managed to stay alive.

In Japan, such people are called hibakusha or hibakusha. This category includes not only the survivors themselves, but also the second generation - children born to women who suffered from the explosions.

In March 2012, there were 210 thousand people officially recognized by the government as hibakusha, and more than 400 thousand did not live to this moment.

Most of the remaining hibakusha live in Japan. They receive some state support, but in Japanese society there is a prejudiced attitude towards them, bordering on discrimination. For example, they and their children may not be hired, so sometimes they deliberately hide their status.

miraculous rescue

An extraordinary story happened to the Japanese Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both bombings. Summer 1945 young engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who worked for Mitsubishi, went on a business trip to Hiroshima. When the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city, it was only 3 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi's eardrums were blown out by the blast wave, incredibly bright White light blinded him for a while. He received severe burns, but still survived. Yamaguchi reached the station, found his wounded colleagues, and with them went home to Nagasaki, where he became the victim of a second bombardment.

By an evil twist of fate, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was again 3 kilometers from the epicenter. When he was telling his boss at the company office about what happened to him in Hiroshima, the same white light suddenly flooded the room. Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived this explosion as well.

Two days later, he received another large dose of radiation when he almost came close to the epicenter of the explosion, unaware of the danger.

Then followed long years rehabilitation, suffering and health problems. Tsutomu Yamaguchi's wife also suffered from the bombing - she fell under the black radioactive rain. Not escaped the consequences of radiation sickness and their children, some of them died of cancer. Despite all this, Tsutomu Yamaguchi after the war got a job again, lived like everyone else and supported his family. Until he was old, he tried not to attract much attention to himself.

In 2010, Tsutomu Yamaguchi passed away from cancer at the age of 93. He became the only person who was officially recognized by the Japanese government as a victim of the bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Life is like a struggle

When the bomb fell on Nagasaki, the 16-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi delivering mail on a bike. In his own words, he saw what looked like a rainbow, then the blast wave threw him off his bike to the ground and destroyed nearby houses.

After the explosion, the teenager survived, but was seriously injured. The tattered skin hung in tatters from his arms, and there was none on his back at all. At the same time, according to Sumiteru Taniguchi, he did not feel pain, but his strength left him.

With difficulty, he found other victims, but most of them died the night after the explosion. Three days later, Sumiteru Taniguchi was rescued and sent to the hospital.

In 1946, an American photographer took the famous photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi with horrific burns on his back. Body young man was mutilated for life

For several years after the war, Sumiteru Taniguchi could only lie on his stomach. He was released from the hospital in 1949, but his wounds were not properly treated until 1960. In total, Sumiteru Taniguchi underwent 10 operations.

Recovery was aggravated by the fact that then people first encountered radiation sickness and did not yet know how to treat it.

The tragedy experienced had a huge impact on Sumiteru Taniguchi. He devoted his whole life to the fight against the spread of nuclear weapons, became a well-known activist and chairman of the Council of victims during the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.

Today, 84-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi lectures around the world about the terrible consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and why they should be abandoned.

Round orphan

For 16 year old Mikoso Iwasa August 6 was a typical hot summer day. He was in the yard of his house when the neighboring children suddenly saw a plane in the sky. Then an explosion followed. Despite the fact that the teenager was less than one and a half kilometers from the epicenter, the wall of the house protected him from the heat and the blast wave.

However, Mikoso Iwasa's family was not so lucky. The boy's mother was at that time in the house, she was filled with rubble, and she could not get out. He lost his father before the explosion, and his sister was never found. So Mikoso Iwasa became an orphan.

And although Mikoso Iwasa miraculously escaped severe burns, he still received a huge dose of radiation. Due to radiation sickness, he lost his hair, his body became covered with a rash, his nose and gums began to bleed. He has been diagnosed with cancer three times.

His life, like the lives of many other hibakusha, turned into misery. He was forced to live with this pain, with this invisible disease for which there is no cure and which is slowly killing a person.

Among hibakusha, it is customary to remain silent about this, but Mikoso Iwasa did not remain silent. Instead, he became involved in the fight against the spread of nuclear weapons and helping other hibakusha.

To date, Mikiso Iwasa is one of the three chairmen of the Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Victims Organizations.

Was it necessary to bomb Japan at all?

Disputes about the advisability and ethical side of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have not subsided to this day.

Initially, the American authorities insisted that they were necessary to force Japan to capitulate as soon as possible and thereby prevent the losses among its own soldiers that would be possible in the event of a US invasion of the Japanese islands.

However, according to many historians, the surrender of Japan even before the bombing was a matter of course. It was only a matter of time.

The decision to drop bombs on Japanese cities turned out to be rather political - the United States wanted to scare the Japanese and demonstrate their military power to the whole world.

It is also important to mention that not all American officials and high-ranking military officials supported this decision. Among those who considered the bombings unnecessary was Army General Dwight Eisenhower who later became President of the United States.

Hibakusha's attitude towards explosions is unequivocal. They believe that the tragedy they experienced should never be repeated in the history of mankind. And that is why some of them dedicated their lives to the fight for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

… We have done his work for the devil.

One of the creators of the American atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer

August 9, 1945 in the history of mankind began new era. It was on this day that the Little Boy nuclear bomb with a yield of 13 to 20 kilotons was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three more days later american aviation launched a second atomic attack on the territory of Japan - the Fat Man bomb ("Fat Man") was dropped on Nagasaki.

As a result of two nuclear bombings, from 150 to 220 thousand people were killed (and these are only those who died immediately after the explosion), Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely destroyed. The shock from the use of new weapons was so strong that on August 15, the Japanese government announced its unconditional surrender, which was signed on August 2, 1945. This day is considered the official date for the end of World War II.

After that, a new era began, a period of confrontation between the two superpowers - the USA and the USSR, which historians called the Cold War. For more than fifty years, the world has teetered on the brink of a massive thermonuclear conflict that would very likely end our civilization. The atomic explosion in Hiroshima put humanity in the face of new threats that have not lost their sharpness even today.

Was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary, was it a military necessity? Historians and politicians argue about this to this day.

Of course, a strike on peaceful cities and a huge number of victims among their inhabitants looks like a crime. However, do not forget that at that time there was the most bloody war in the history of mankind, one of the initiators of which was Japan.

The magnitude of the tragedy that occurred in Japanese cities clearly showed the whole world the danger of new weapons. However, this did not prevent its further spread: the club nuclear states constantly replenished with new members, which increases the likelihood of a repeat of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"Project Manhattan": the history of the creation of the atomic bomb

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of rapid development of nuclear physics. Every year, significant discoveries were made in this field of knowledge, people learned more and more about how matter works. The work of such brilliant scientists as Curie, Rutherford and Fermi made it possible to discover the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction under the influence of a neutron beam.

In 1934, American physicist Leo Szilard received a patent for the atomic bomb. It should be understood that all these studies took place in the context of the approaching world war and against the backdrop of the Nazis coming to power in Germany.

In August 1939, US President Franklin Roosevelt received a letter signed by a group of renowned physicists. Among the signatories was Albert Einstein. The letter warned the US leadership about the possibility of creating in Germany a fundamentally new weapon of destructive power - a nuclear bomb.

After that, the Bureau was created scientific research and research, which dealt with issues of atomic weapons, additional funds were allocated for research in the field of uranium fission.

It must be admitted that American scientists had every reason to be afraid: in Germany they were really actively engaged in research in the field of atomic physics and had some success. In 1938, the German scientists Strassmann and Hahn split the nucleus of uranium for the first time. And next year, German scientists turned to the country's leadership, pointing out the possibility of creating a fundamentally new weapon. In 1939, the first reactor plant was launched in Germany, and the export of uranium outside the country was banned. After the start of the World War, all German studies concerning the "uranium" topic were strictly classified.

In Germany, more than twenty institutes and other scientific centers. The giants of German industry were involved in the work, they were personally supervised by the Minister of Armaments of Germany Speer. To get enough uranium-235, a reactor was needed, in which either heavy water or graphite could be the moderator of the reaction. The Germans chose water, which created a serious problem for themselves and practically deprived themselves of the prospects for creating nuclear weapons.

In addition, when it became clear that German nuclear weapons were unlikely to appear before the end of the war, Hitler significantly cut funding for the project. True, the Allies had a very vague idea about all this and, in all seriousness, they feared Hitler's atomic bomb.

American work in the field of creating atomic weapons has become much more productive. In 1943, the secret Manhattan Project was launched in the United States, led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Groves. Enormous resources were allocated to the creation of new weapons, dozens of world-famous physicists participated in the project. American scientists were assisted by their colleagues from the UK, Canada and Europe, which ultimately made it possible to solve the problem in a relatively short time.

By mid-1945, the United States already had three nuclear bombs, with uranium ("Kid") and plutonium ("Fat Man") fillings.

On July 16, the world's first nuclear test took place: the Trinity plutonium bomb was detonated at the Alamogordo test site (New Mexico). The tests were considered successful.

Political background of the bombings

May 8, 1945 Nazi Germany capitulated unconditionally. In the Potsdam Declaration, the US, China, and the UK invited Japan to do the same. But the descendants of the samurai refused to capitulate, so the war in the Pacific continued. Earlier, in 1944, there was a meeting between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, at which, among other things, they discussed the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the Japanese.

In mid-1945, it was clear to everyone (including the leadership of Japan) that the United States and its allies were winning the war. However, the Japanese were not morally broken, which was demonstrated by the battle for Okinawa, which cost the Allies huge (from their point of view) victims.

The Americans mercilessly bombed the cities of Japan, but this did not reduce the fury of the resistance of the Japanese army. The United States thought about what losses a massive landing on the Japanese islands would cost them. The use of new weapons of destructive force was supposed to undermine the morale of the Japanese, break their will to resist.

After the question of the use of nuclear weapons against Japan was decided positively, a special committee began to select targets for future bombardment. The list consisted of several cities, and in addition to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it also included Kyoto, Yokohama, Kokura and Niigata. The Americans did not want to use a nuclear bomb against exclusively military targets, its use was supposed to have a strong psychological effect on the Japanese and show the whole world a new tool of US power. Therefore, a number of requirements were put forward for the purpose of the bombing:

The cities chosen as targets for the atomic bombing must be major economic centers, significant for the military industry, and also be psychologically important for the population of Japan.
The bombing should cause a significant resonance in the world
The military was not satisfied with the cities that had already suffered from air raids. They wanted to better appreciate the destructive power of the new weapon.

The cities of Hiroshima and Kokura were initially chosen. Kyoto was crossed off the list by US Secretary of War Henry Stimson because he spent Honeymoon and was in awe of the history of this city.

For each city, an additional target was chosen, it was planned to strike at it if the main objective for any reason will not be available. Nagasaki was chosen as insurance for the city of Kokura.

Bombing of Hiroshima

On July 25, US President Truman gave the order to start bombing from August 3 and hit one of the selected targets at the first opportunity, and the second as soon as the next bomb was assembled and delivered.

In early summer, the US Air Force 509th Mixed Group arrived on Tinian Island, the location of which was separate from the rest of the units and carefully guarded.

On July 26, the Indianapolis cruiser delivered the first nuclear bomb, the Kid, to the island, and by August 2, components of the second were transported to Tinian by air. nuclear charge- "Fat Man".

Before the war, Hiroshima had a population of 340 thousand people and was the seventh largest Japanese city. According to other information, 245 thousand people lived in the city before the nuclear bombardment. Hiroshima was located on a plain, just above sea level, on six islands connected by numerous bridges.

The city was an important industrial center and a supply base for the Japanese military. Plants and factories were located on its outskirts, the residential sector mainly consisted of low-rise wooden buildings. Hiroshima was the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Army, which essentially provided protection for the entire southern part of the Japanese islands.

The pilots were able to start the mission only on August 6, before that they were prevented by heavy cloud cover. At 01:45 on August 6, an American B-29 bomber from the 509th Air Regiment, as part of a group of escort aircraft, took off from the airfield of Tinian Island. The bomber was named Enola Gay in honor of the mother of the aircraft commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets.

The pilots were sure that dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima was a good mission, they wanted a speedy end to the war and victory over the enemy. Before departure, they visited the church, the pilots were given ampoules of potassium cyanide in case of danger of being captured.

Reconnaissance planes sent in advance to Kokura and Nagasaki reported that cloud cover over these cities would prevent the bombing. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft reported that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and transmitted a prearranged signal.

Japanese radars detected a group of aircraft, but since their number was small, the air raid alert was canceled. The Japanese decided that they were dealing with reconnaissance aircraft.

At about eight o'clock in the morning, a B-29 bomber, having risen to a height of nine kilometers, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The explosion occurred at an altitude of 400-600 meters, a large number of hours in the city, stopped at the time of the explosion, clearly recorded it exact time– 8 hours 15 minutes.

results

The consequences of an atomic explosion over a densely populated city were truly terrifying. The exact number of victims of the bombing of Hiroshima has not been established, it ranges from 140 to 200 thousand. Of these, 70-80 thousand people who were not far from the epicenter died immediately after the explosion, the rest were much less fortunate. The huge temperature of the explosion (up to 4 thousand degrees) literally evaporated the bodies of people or turned them into coal. Light radiation left imprinted silhouettes of passers-by on the ground and buildings (the "shadow of Hiroshima") and set fire to all combustible materials at a distance of several kilometers.

A flash of unbearably bright light was followed by a suffocating blast wave that swept away everything in its path. The fires in the city merged into one huge fiery tornado, which pumped a strong wind towards the epicenter of the explosion. Those who did not have time to get out from under the rubble were burned in this hellish flame.

Some time later, the survivors of the explosion began to suffer from an unknown disease, which was accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea. These were symptoms of radiation sickness, which at that time was unknown to medicine. However, there were other delayed consequences of the bombing in the form of cancer and severe psychological shock, which haunted the survivors for decades after the explosion.

It should be understood that in the middle of the last century people did not sufficiently understand the consequences of the use of atomic weapons. Nuclear medicine was in its infancy, the concept of "radioactive contamination" as such did not exist. Therefore, after the war, the inhabitants of Hiroshima began to rebuild their city and continued to live in their former places. The high cancer mortality and various genetic abnormalities in the children of Hiroshima were not immediately linked to the nuclear bombing.

The Japanese could not understand for a long time what happened to one of their cities. Hiroshima stopped communicating and transmitting signals on the air. The plane sent to the city found it completely destroyed. It was only after the official announcement from the US that the Japanese realized exactly what had happened in Hiroshima.

Bombing of Nagasaki

The city of Nagasaki is located in two valleys separated by a mountain range. During World War II, it was of great military importance as a major port and industrial center, where warships, guns, torpedoes, and military equipment were manufactured. The city has never been subjected to large-scale air bombardments. At the time of the nuclear strike, about 200 thousand people lived in Nagasaki.

On August 9, at 2:47 am, an American B-29 bomber, under the command of pilot Charles Sweeney, with the Fat Man atomic bomb on board, took off from the airfield on the island of Tinian. The primary target of the strike was the Japanese city of Kokura, but heavy cloud cover prevented a bomb from being dropped on it. An additional goal for the crew was the city of Nagasaki.

The bomb was dropped at 11.02 and detonated at an altitude of 500 meters. Unlike the "Kid" dropped on Hiroshima, "Fat Man" was a plutonium bomb with a yield of 21 kT. The epicenter of the explosion was located above the industrial zone of the city.

Despite the greater power of the ammunition, the damage and losses in Nagasaki were less than in Hiroshima. Several factors contributed to this. Firstly, the city was located on the hills, which took part of the force of the nuclear explosion, and secondly, the bomb worked over the industrial zone of Nagasaki. If the explosion had occurred over areas with residential development, there would have been much more victims. Part of the area affected by the explosion generally fell on the water surface.

From 60 to 80 thousand people became victims of the Nagasaki bomb (who died immediately or before the end of 1945), the number of deaths later from diseases caused by radiation is unknown. Various figures are given, the maximum of them is 140 thousand people.

In the city, 14 thousand buildings were destroyed (out of 54 thousand), more than 5 thousand buildings were significantly damaged. The fire tornado that was observed in Hiroshima was not in Nagasaki.

Initially, the Americans did not plan to stop at two nuclear strikes. The third bomb was being prepared for mid-August, three more were going to be dropped in September. The US government planned to continue the atomic bombing until the beginning of the ground operation. However, on August 10, the Japanese government transmitted offers of surrender to the Allies. The day before, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, and the country's situation became absolutely hopeless.

Was the bombing necessary?

The debate about whether it was necessary to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not subsided for many decades. Naturally, today this action looks like a monstrous and inhuman crime of the United States. Domestic patriots and fighters against American imperialism love to raise this topic. Meanwhile, the question is not unambiguous.

It should be understood that at that time there was a world war, characterized by an unprecedented level of cruelty and inhumanity. Japan was one of the initiators of this massacre and waged a brutal war of conquest since 1937. In Russia, it is often believed that nothing serious happened in the Pacific Ocean - but this is an erroneous point of view. Fighting in the region has resulted in the deaths of 31 million people, most of of which, - civilians. The cruelty with which the Japanese pursued their policy in China surpasses even the atrocities of the Nazis.

The Americans sincerely hated Japan, with which they had been at war since 1941 and really wanted to end the war with the least losses. The atomic bomb was just a new type of weapon, they had only a theoretical idea of its power, and they knew even less about the consequences in the form of radiation sickness. I do not think that if the USSR had an atomic bomb, anyone from the Soviet leadership would have doubted whether it was necessary to drop it on Germany. US President Truman believed for the rest of his life that he had done the right thing by ordering the bombing.

August 2018 marked the 73rd anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities. Nagasaki and Hiroshima today are thriving metropolitan areas with little resemblance to the tragedy of 1945. However, if humanity forgets this terrible lesson, it will most likely repeat itself again. The horrors of Hiroshima showed people what Pandora's box they opened by creating nuclear weapons. It was the ashes of Hiroshima for decades cold war sobered up too hot heads, not allowing to unleash a new world massacre.

Thanks to the support of the United States and the rejection of the former militaristic policy, Japan has become what it is today - a country with one of the strongest economies in the world, a recognized leader in the automotive industry and in the field of high technology. After the end of the war, the Japanese chose a new path of development, which turned out to be much more successful than the previous one.

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The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons in human history. Carried out by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II in order to hasten the surrender of Japan in the Pacific theater of operations of World War II.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay bomber, named after the mother (Enola Gay Haggard) of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb "Fat Man" ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender, formally ending World War II, was signed on September 2, 1945.

The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.

Prerequisites

Model of the bomb "Kid" (eng. Little boy), dropped on Hiroshima

May 1945: Target selection

When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:

achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,

the first use of the weapon must be significant enough for international recognition of its importance. The Committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was supported by the fact that its population had a higher level of education and thus were better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima, on the other hand, was of such a size and location that, given the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the map of Japan

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.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Combined Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was a few miles from the rest of the units and was carefully guarded.

On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the order for the combat use of nuclear weapons. The order, drafted by Major General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, called for a nuclear attack "on any day after August 3rd, as soon as the weather permits." On July 29, US Strategic Air Command General Karl Spaats 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 aircraft.

Hiroshima during World War II

Bombardment

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 first public announcement of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.

The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank entrance at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter

explosion effect

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.

According to the memoirs of Akiko Takakura, one of the few survivors who were at the time of the explosion at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter,

A few days after the explosion, among the survivors, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of exposure. Soon, the number of deaths among survivors began to rise again as patients who appeared 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 after 7-8 weeks. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. The long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the explosion.

Japanese awareness of the consequences of the attack

The first real understanding by the Japanese of what really caused the disaster came from a public announcement from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima after the atomic explosion

Loss 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 action of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths was from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, taking into account deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200 thousand people.

Nuclear pollution

It is rather difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since technically the first atomic bombs were relatively low-yield and imperfect (the "Kid" bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only approximately 700 g reacted division), the level of pollution of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, several tons of fission products and transuranium elements, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor, were in the reactor core.

Comparative preservation of some buildings

On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that

Upon receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government met to discuss their response. Beginning in June, the emperor advocated peace negotiations, but the minister of defense, as well as the leadership of the army and navy, believed that Japan should wait to see if attempts at peace negotiations through the Soviet Union would yield better results than unconditional surrender. The military leadership also believed that if they could hold out until the invasion of the Japanese islands began, it would be possible to inflict such losses on the Allied forces that Japan could win peace conditions other than unconditional surrender.

The second atomic bombing (Kokura) was scheduled for 11 August, but was pushed back 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather that was forecast to begin on 10 August.

Nagasaki during World War II

Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range divided the districts of the city.

The development was chaotic: out of the total city area of 90 km², 12 were built up with residential quarters.

Nagasaki before and after the atomic explosion

Bombardment

The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the spare was Nagasaki.

At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.

At approximately 7:50 am, an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 am.

At 10:53, two B-29s came into the air defense field of view, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance and did not announce a new alarm.

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.

explosion effect

Japanese boy whose upper body was not covered during the explosion

From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:

I was knocked to the ground (from my bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. Large rocks were flying in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again...

When everything seemed to calm down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin, from the shoulder to the fingertips, was hanging like tattered tatters.

Loss and destruction

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of approximately 110 km², of which 22 were on the water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited.

Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan

Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation

In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:

Within a year of the end of the bombing, 40,000 American troops were stationed in Hiroshima and 27,000 in Nagasaki.

Commission for the Study of the Consequences of Atomic Explosions

In the spring of 1948, the National Academy of Sciences Commission on the Effects of Atomic Explosions was formed at Truman's direction to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among the victims of the bombing, many uninvolved people were found, including prisoners of war, forced mobilization of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya, and about 3,200 Japanese Americans.

Debate on the expediency of atomic bombings

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical validity are still the subject of scientific and public discussion. In a 2005 review of historiography on the subject, the American historian Samuel Walker wrote that "the debate about the appropriateness of the bombing will definitely continue." Walker also noted that "the fundamental question that has been debated for more than 40 years is whether these atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the Pacific War on terms acceptable to the United States."

Proponents of the bombings usually claim that they were the cause of Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant losses on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the quick end of the war saved many lives elsewhere in Asia (primarily in China); that Japan was waging an all-out war in which the distinctions between the military and the civilian population are blurred; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped to shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombings contend that they were simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus had no military necessity, that they were fundamentally immoral, a war crime, or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 there was no there were international agreements or treaties directly or indirectly prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).

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