The Second World War is remembered in history not only for catastrophic destruction, the ideas of a crazy fanatic and many deaths, but also for August 6, 1945 - the beginning of a new era in world history. The fact is that it was then that the first and this moment the last use of atomic weapons for military purposes. The power of the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima has remained for centuries. In the USSR there was one that frightened the population of the whole world, see the top of the most powerful nuclear bombs and to

There are not so many people who survived this attack, as well as surviving buildings. We, in turn, decided to collect all existing information about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, structure the data on this impact effect and support the story with the words of eyewitnesses and officers from the headquarters.

Was the atomic bomb necessary?

Almost every person living on earth knows that America dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, although the country went through this test alone. Due to the political situation at that time, the States and the control center were celebrating victory while people were dying en masse on the other side of the world. This topic still resonates with pain in the hearts of tens of thousands of Japanese, and for good reason. On the one hand, it was a necessity, because it was not possible to end the war in any other way. On the other hand, many people think that the Americans simply wanted to try out a new deadly “toy.”

Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist for whom science always came first in his life, did not even think that his invention would cause such enormous damage. Although he did not work alone, he is called the father of the nuclear bomb. Yes, in the process of creating the warhead, he knew about the possible harm, although he did not understand that it would be inflicted on civilians who had nothing directly to do with the war. As he said later: “We did all the work for the devil.” But this phrase was uttered subsequently. And at that time he was not distinguished by his foresight, since he did not know what would happen tomorrow and how the Second World War would turn out.

In the American "bins" before 1945, three full-fledged warheads were ready:

• Trinity;
• Baby;
• Fat man.

The first was blown up during testing, and the last two went down in history. The dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was predicted to end the war. After all, the Japanese government did not accept the terms of surrender. And without it, other allied countries will have neither military support nor reserves of human resources. And so it happened. On August 15, as a consequence of the shock experienced, the government signed documents on unconditional surrender. This date is now called the official end of the war.

On whether the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary, historians, politicians and simple people They cannot agree to this day. What's done is done, we can't change anything. But it was precisely this action directed against Japan that became a turning point in history. Threat of new explosions atomic bomb hangs over the planet day after day. Although most countries have abandoned atomic weapons, some still retain this status. The nuclear warheads of Russia and the United States are securely hidden, but conflicts at the political level are not decreasing. And the possibility cannot be ruled out that more similar “actions” will be held someday.

In our native history, we can come across the concept of the “Cold War,” when during the Second World War and after its end, the two superpowers - the Soviet Union and the United States could not come to an agreement. This period began just after the surrender of Japan. And everyone knew that if the countries did not find mutual language, nuclear weapons will be used again, only now not in concert with each other, but mutually. This would be the beginning of the end and would make the Earth again blank slate, unsuitable for existence - without people, living organisms, buildings, only with a huge level of radiation and a bunch of corpses around the world. As a famous scientist said, in the Fourth World War people will fight with sticks and stones, since only a few will survive the Third. After this little lyrical digression Let's return to the historical facts and how the warhead was dropped on the city.

Prerequisites for the attack on Japan

The dropping of a nuclear bomb on Japan was planned long before the explosion. The 20th century is generally distinguished by the rapid development of nuclear physics. Significant discoveries in this industry were made almost every day. World scientists realized that a nuclear chain reaction would make it possible to make a warhead. Here's how they behaved in opposing countries:

1. Germany. In 1938, German nuclear physicists were able to split the uranium nucleus. Then they turned to the government and talked about the possibility of creating a fundamentally new weapon. Then they launched the world's first rocket launcher. This probably spurred Hitler to start the war. Although the studies were classified, some of them are now known. Research centers have created a reactor to generate a sufficient amount of uranium. But scientists had to choose between substances that could slow down the reaction. It could be water or graphite. By choosing water, they, without even knowing it, deprived themselves of the possibility of creating atomic weapons. It became clear to Hitler that he would not be released until the end of the war and he cut funding for the project. But in the rest of the world they didn’t know about it. That is why they were afraid of German research, especially with such brilliant initial results.
2. USA. The first patent for nuclear weapons was received in 1939. All such studies took place in fierce competition with Germany. The process was spurred on by a letter to the US President from the most progressive scientists of that time that a bomb could be created in Europe earlier. And if you don’t have time, then the consequences will be unpredictable. In development, starting in 1943, America was helped by Canadian, European and English scientists. The project was called "Manhattan". The weapon was first tested on July 16 at a test site in New Mexico and the result was considered successful.

In 1944, the heads of the United States and England decided that if the war did not end, they would have to use a warhead. Already at the beginning of 1945, when Germany surrendered, the Japanese government decided not to admit defeat. The Japanese continued to repel attacks on Pacific Ocean and advance. It was already clear then that the war was lost. But morale The "samurai" was not broken. A striking example This was due to the Battle of Okinawa. The Americans suffered huge losses in it, but they are incomparable with the invasion of Japan itself. Although the US bombed Japanese cities, the fury of the army's resistance did not subside. Therefore, the question of application nuclear weapons raised again. The targets for the attack were selected by a specially created committee.

Why Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The target selection committee met twice. For the first time, the Hiroshima Nagasaki nuclear bomb release date was approved. The second time, specific targets for weapons against the Japanese were selected. It happened on May 10, 1945. They wanted to drop the bomb on:

• Kyoto;
• Hiroshima;
• Yokohama;
• Niigata;
• Kokuru.

Kyoto was the largest industrial center of the country, Hiroshima was home to a huge military port and army warehouses, Yokohama was the center of the military industry, Kokuru was home to a large arsenal of weapons, and Niigata was the center of the building military equipment, as well as the port. They decided not to use the bomb at military installations. After all, it was possible not to hit small targets without an urban area around and there was a chance of missing. Kyoto was rejected outright. The population in this city was different high level education. They could assess the significance of the bomb and influence the country's surrender. Some requirements were put forward for other objects. They must be large and significant economic centers, and the process of dropping the bomb itself must cause a resonance in the world. Objects damaged by air raids were not suitable. After all, assessing the consequences after the explosion of a nuclear warhead with General Staff had to be accurate.

Two cities were chosen as the main ones - Hiroshima and Kokura. For each of them, a so-called safety net was determined. Nagasaki became one of them. Hiroshima was attractive due to its location and size. The power of the bomb must be increased by nearby hills and mountains. Significance was also attached psychological factors, which could have a special impact on the population of the country and its leadership. Also, the effectiveness of a bomb must be significant in order for it to be recognized throughout the world.

History of the bombing

The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima was scheduled to explode on August 3rd. It has already been delivered by cruiser to the island of Tinian and assembled. It was separated by only 2500 km from Hiroshima. But she pushed back the terrible date by 3 days bad weather. Therefore, the event of August 6, 1945 occurred. Despite the fact that military operations took place near Hiroshima and the city was often bombed, no one was afraid anymore. In some schools, classes continued and people worked according to their usual schedule. Most of the residents were on the street, eliminating the consequences of the bombing. Even small children cleared away the rubble. 340 (245 according to other sources) thousand people lived in Hiroshima.

Numerous T-shaped bridges connecting six parts of the city were chosen as the location for dropping the bomb. They were clearly visible from the air and crossed the river lengthwise and crosswise. From here one could see both the industrial center and the residential sector, consisting of small wooden buildings. At 7 o'clock in the morning the air raid alarm sounded. Everyone immediately ran for cover. But already at 7:30 the alarm was canceled, as the operator saw on the radar that no more than three aircraft were approaching. Entire squadrons were flown in to bomb Hiroshima, so the conclusion was drawn that they were reconnaissance operations. Most people, mostly children, ran out of hiding to look at the planes. But they were flying too high.

The day before, Oppenheimer had given the crew members clear instructions on how to drop the bomb. It should not have exploded high above the city, otherwise the planned destruction would not have been achieved. The target should be clearly visible from the air. The pilots of the American B-29 bomber dropped the warhead at the exact time of the explosion - 8:15 am. The “Little Boy” bomb exploded at an altitude of 600 meters from the ground.

Consequences of the explosion

The yield of the Hiroshima Nagasaki nuclear bomb is estimated to be between 13 and 20 kilotons. It was filled with uranium. It exploded over the modern Sima hospital. People who were a few meters from the epicenter burned immediately, since the temperature here was around 3-4 thousand degrees Celsius. From some, only black shadows remained on the ground and steps. Approximately 70 thousand people died per second, and hundreds of thousands more received terrible injuries. The mushroom cloud rose 16 kilometers above the earth.

According to eyewitnesses, at the moment of the explosion the sky turned orange, then a fiery tornado appeared, which was blinding, then the sound passed through. Most of those who were within a radius of 2-5 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion lost consciousness. People flew 10 meters away and looked like wax dolls, the remains of houses were spinning in the air. After the survivors came to their senses, they rushed en masse to the shelter, fearing the next combat use and a second explosion. No one yet knew what an atomic bomb was or imagined the possible dire consequences. All the clothes were left on the units. Most wore rags that had not yet faded. Based on the words of eyewitnesses, we can conclude that they were scalded with boiling water, their skin hurt and itched. In places where there were chains, earrings, rings, a scar remained for life.

But the worst thing began later. People's faces were burned beyond recognition. It was impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman. The skin of many began to peel off and reached the ground, holding on only by their nails. Hiroshima resembled a parade of the living dead. Residents walked with their arms outstretched in front of them and asked for water. But they could only drink from the canals along the road, which is what they did. Those who reached the river threw themselves into it to relieve the pain and died there. The corpses flowed downstream, accumulating near the dam. People with babies who were in the buildings grabbed them and died frozen like that. Most of their names have never been identified.

Within minutes, black rain with radioactive contamination began to fall. This has scientific explanation. The nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki increased the air temperature significantly. With such an anomaly, a lot of liquid evaporated, and it very quickly fell on the city. The water mixed with soot, ash and radiation. Therefore, even if a person was not seriously injured from the explosion, he became infected by drinking this rain. It penetrated into the canals and onto the products, contaminating them with radioactive substances.

The dropped atomic bomb destroyed hospitals, buildings, and there was no medicine. The day after, survivors were taken to hospitals about 20 kilometers from Hiroshima. Burns there were treated with flour and vinegar. People were wrapped in bandages like mummies and sent home.

Not far from Hiroshima, the residents of Nagasaki had no idea about exactly the same attack on them, which was being prepared on August 9, 1945. Meanwhile, the US government congratulated Oppenheimer...

on the ground"

70 years of tragedy

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

70 years ago, on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. The total number of victims of the tragedy is over 450 thousand people, and the survivors still suffer from diseases caused by radiation exposure. According to the latest data, their number is 183,519 people.

Initially, the US had the idea of ​​dropping 9 atomic bombs on rice fields or in the sea to achieve a psychological effect to support landing operations, planned for the Japanese Islands at the end of September 1945. But in the end, it was decided to use new weapons against densely populated cities.

Now the cities have been rebuilt, but their inhabitants still bear the burden of that terrible tragedy. The history of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the memories of survivors is in a TASS special project.

Bombing of Hiroshima © AP Photo/USAF

Ideal target

It was not by chance that Hiroshima was chosen as the target for the first nuclear strike. This city met all the criteria to achieve maximum quantity casualties and destruction: flat location surrounded by hills, low buildings and flammable wooden buildings.

The city was completely wiped off the face of the Earth. Surviving eyewitnesses recalled that they first saw a flash of bright light, followed by a wave that burned everything around. In the area of ​​the epicenter of the explosion, everything instantly turned to ashes, and human silhouettes remained on the walls of the surviving houses. Immediately, according to various estimates, from 70 to 100 thousand people died. Tens of thousands more died from the consequences of the explosion, and total number victims as of August 6, 2014 are 292,325 people.
Immediately after the bombing, the city did not have enough water not only to put out the fires, but also for people who were dying of thirst. Therefore, even now the residents of Hiroshima are very careful about water. And during the memorial ceremony, a special ritual “Kensui” (Japanese - offering water) is performed - it reminds of the fires that engulfed the city and the victims who asked for water. It is believed that even after death, the souls of the dead need water to alleviate suffering.

The director of the Hiroshima Peace Museum with his dead father's watch and buckle © EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN

The clock hands have stopped

The hands of almost all the clocks in Hiroshima stopped at the moment of the explosion at 08:15 am. Some of them are collected at the Peace Museum as exhibits.

The museum was opened 60 years ago. Its building consists of two buildings designed by the outstanding Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. In one of them there is an exhibition about the atomic bombing, where visitors can see personal belongings of the victims, photographs, and various material evidence of what happened in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Audio and video materials are also shown there.

Not far from the museum is the Atomic Dome, the former building of the Exhibition Center of the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry, built in 1915 by Czech architect Jan Letzel. This structure miraculously survived the atomic bombing, although it stood only 160 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, which is marked by a regular memorial plaque in an alley not far from the dome. All the people inside the building died, and its copper dome instantly melted, leaving a bare frame. After the end of World War II, the Japanese authorities decided to preserve the building as a sign of memory of the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima. Now it is one of the main attractions of the city, reminiscent of the tragic moments of its history.

Statue of Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima Peace Park © Lisa Norwood/wikipedia.org

Paper cranes

Trees near the Atomic Dome are often decorated with colorful paper cranes. They have become an international symbol of peace. People from different countries They constantly bring homemade figurines of birds to Hiroshima as a sign of mourning for the terrible events of the past and in tribute to the memory of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who survived the atomic bombing in Hiroshima at the age of 2. At the age of 11, she was found to have signs of radiation sickness, and the girl’s health began to deteriorate sharply. One day she heard a legend that whoever folds a thousand paper cranes will definitely recover from any illness. She continued to fold the figures until her death on October 25, 1955. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a crane was installed in the Peace Park.

In 1949, a special law was passed, thanks to which large funds were provided for the restoration of Hiroshima. A Peace Park was built and a fund was established to store materials about the atomic bombing. Industry in the city was restored after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 thanks to the production of weapons for the US Army.

Now Hiroshima is modern city with a population of approximately 1.2 million people. It is the largest in the Chugoku region.

Zero mark atomic explosion in Nagasaki. Photo taken in December 1946 © AP Photo

Zero mark

Nagasaki became the second Japanese city, after Hiroshima, to be subject to American bombing in August 1945. The initial target of the B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney was the city of Kokura, located in the north of the island of Kyushu. By coincidence, on the morning of August 9, there was heavy cloudiness over Kokura, so Sweeney decided to turn the plane to the southwest and head to Nagasaki, which was considered as a backup option. Here the Americans were also beset by bad weather, but the plutonium bomb called “Fat Man” was eventually dropped. It was almost twice as powerful as the one used in Hiroshima, but inaccurate aiming and the peculiarities of the local terrain somewhat reduced the damage from the explosion. Nevertheless, the consequences of the bombing were catastrophic: at the moment of the explosion, at 11.02 local time, 70 thousand residents of Nagasaki were killed, and the city was practically wiped off the face of the Earth.

In subsequent years, the list of disaster victims continued to grow with those who died from radiation sickness. This number increases every year, and the numbers are updated every year on August 9th. According to data announced in 2014, the number of victims of the Nagasaki bombing increased to 165,409 people.

Years later, an atomic bomb museum was opened in Nagasaki, as in Hiroshima. Last July, his collection was replenished with 26 new photographs, which were taken a year and four months after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities. The images themselves were recently discovered. In particular, they depict the so-called zero mark - the site of the direct explosion of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. Captions on the back of the photographs indicate that the photographs were taken in December 1946 by American scientists who were visiting the city at the time to study the consequences of a terrible atomic attack. “The photographs are of particular value, as they clearly demonstrate the full scale of the destruction, and, at the same time, make it clear what work was done to restore the city practically from scratch,” the Nagasaki administration believes.

One of the photos shows a strange arrow-shaped monument installed in the middle of the field, the inscription on which reads: “Zero mark of the atomic explosion.” Local experts are at a loss as to who installed the almost 5-meter monument and where it is now. It is noteworthy that it is located exactly in the place where the official monument to the victims of the atomic bombing of 1945 now stands.

Hiroshima Peace Museum © AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye

Blind spots of history

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been the subject of careful study by many historians, but 70 years after the tragedy, many blank spots remain in this story. There is some evidence individuals, who believe that they were born “in a shirt”, because, according to them, a few weeks before the atomic bombing, information appeared about a possible deadly strike on these Japanese cities. Thus, one of these people claims that he studied at a school for children of high-ranking military personnel. According to him, several weeks before the strike, all personnel educational institution and his students were evacuated from Hiroshima, which saved their lives.

There are also completely conspiracy theories according to which, on the threshold of the end of World War II, Japanese scientists, with the help of colleagues from Germany, approached the creation of an atomic bomb. Weapons of terrible destructive power allegedly could appear in imperial army, whose command was going to fight to the end and constantly hurried the nuclear scientists. The media claim that records have recently been found containing calculations and descriptions of equipment for enriching uranium for subsequent use in creating a Japanese atomic bomb. The scientists received the order to complete the program on August 14, 1945, and apparently were ready to carry it out, but did not have time. The American atomic bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the entry of the Soviet Union into the war did not leave Japan any chance to continue hostilities.

No more war

Survivors of the bombings in Japan are referred to by the special word "hibakusha" ("person who suffered from the bombing").

In the first years after the tragedy, many hibakusha hid the fact that they survived the bombing and received a high dose of radiation because they were afraid of discrimination. Then they were not provided with financial assistance and were denied treatment. It took 12 years before the Japanese government passed a law making treatment for bomb victims free of charge.

Some of the hibakusha have dedicated their lives to educational work aimed at terrible tragedy didn't happen again.

“About 30 years ago, I happened to see a friend of mine on TV, he was among the participants in the march to ban nuclear weapons. This prompted me to join this movement. Since then, remembering my experience, I explain that atomic weapons are This is an inhumane weapon. It is completely indiscriminate, unlike conventional weapons. I have dedicated my life to explaining the need to ban atomic weapons to those who do not know anything about atomic bombings, especially young people,” wrote hibakusha Michimasa Hirata on one of the websites. dedicated to preserving the memory of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Many Hiroshima residents whose families were affected to varying degrees by the atomic bomb are trying to help others learn more about what happened on August 6, 1945 and to convey the message of the dangers of nuclear weapons and war. Near the Peace Park and the Atomic Dome memorial you can meet people who are ready to talk about the tragic events.

“August 6, 1945 is a special day for me, it’s my second birthday. When the atomic bomb was dropped on us, I was only 9 years old. I was in my house about two kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion in Hiroshima. A sudden brilliant flash hit over my head. She fundamentally changed Hiroshima... This scene, which then developed, defies description. This is pure hell on earth,” Michimasa Hirata shares his memories.

Bombing of Hiroshima © EPA/A PEACE MEMORIAL MUSEUM

"The city was enveloped in huge fire whirlwinds"

“70 years ago, I was three years old. On August 6, my father was at work 1 km from the place where the atomic bomb was dropped,” said one of the hibakusha, Hiroshi Shimizu. “At the moment of the explosion, he was thrown back by a huge shock wave. He He immediately felt that numerous pieces of glass were pierced into his face, and his body began to bleed. The building where he was working instantly burst into flames. Everyone who could ran out to the nearby pond. The father spent about three hours there. At this time, the city was enveloped in huge fires. vortices.

He was only able to find us the next day. Two months later he died. By that time, his stomach had completely turned black. Within a radius of one kilometer from the explosion, the radiation level was 7 sieverts. This dose can destroy cells of internal organs.

At the time of the explosion, my mother and I were at home about 1.6 km from the epicenter. Since we were inside, we were able to avoid a lot of radiation. However, the house was destroyed by the shock wave. Mother managed to break through the roof and get out into the street with me. After that, we evacuated to the south, away from the epicenter. As a result, we managed to avoid the real hell that was going on there, because there was nothing left within a radius of 2 km.

For 10 years after the bombing, my mother and I suffered from various illnesses caused by the dose of radiation we received. We had stomach problems, nosebleeds all the time, and our general immune system was also very poor. All this passed when I was 12 years old, and after that I didn’t have any health problems for a long time. However, after 40 years, illnesses began to haunt me one after another, the functioning of my kidneys and heart sharply deteriorated, my spine began to hurt, signs of diabetes and problems with cataracts appeared.

Only later did it become clear that it was not just the dose of radiation that we received during the explosion. We continued to live and eat vegetables grown on contaminated soil, drink water from contaminated rivers and eat contaminated seafood."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (left) and hibakusha Sumiteru Taniguchi in front of photographs of people affected by the bombing. Top photo shows Taniguchi himself © EPA/KIMIMASA MAYAMA

"Kill me!"

Photo of one of the most famous figures The movements of the hibakusha Sumiteru Taniguchi, taken in January 1946 by an American war photographer, spread throughout the world. The photo, dubbed "red back," shows severe burns on Taniguchi's back.

“In 1945, I was 16 years old,” he says. “On August 9, I was delivering mail on a bicycle and was about 1.8 km from the epicenter of the bombing. At the moment of the explosion, I saw a flash, and the blast wave threw me off my bicycle. The heat was burning everything was in its path. At first I had the impression that a bomb had exploded next to me. The ground beneath my feet was shaking as if it had happened. strong earthquake. After I came to my senses, I looked at my hands - they were in literally the skin was hanging off. However, at that moment I didn’t even feel pain.”

“I don’t know how, but I managed to get to the ammunition factory, which was located in underground tunnel. There I met a woman, and she helped me cut off pieces of skin on my arms and bandage them somehow. I remember how after that they immediately announced the evacuation, but I could not go myself. Other people helped me. They carried me to the top of the hill where they laid me under a tree. After that I fell asleep for a while. I woke up from machine gun fire from American planes. The fires made it as light as day, so the pilots could easily monitor the movements of people. I lay under the tree for three days. During this time, everyone who was next to me died. I myself thought I was going to die, I couldn’t even call for help. But I was lucky - on the third day people came and saved me. Blood oozed from the burns on my back and the pain grew rapidly. In this condition, I was sent to the hospital,” Taniguchi recalls.

Only in 1947 was the Japanese able to sit down, and in 1949 he was discharged from the hospital. He underwent 10 operations, and treatment continued until 1960.

“In the first years after the bombing, I couldn’t even move. The pain was unbearable. I often shouted: “Kill me!” The doctors did everything so that I could live. I remember how they repeated every day that I was alive. During the treatment, I learned for myself everything that radiation is capable of, all the terrible consequences of its impact,” Taniguchi said.

Children after the bombing of Nagasaki © AP Photo/United Nations, Yosuke Yamahata

"Then there was silence..."

“When the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, I was six years old and living with my family in a traditional Japanese house,” recalls Yasuaki Yamashita. “Usually in the summer, when it was hot, I would run to the mountains with my friends to catch dragonflies and cicadas. But on this day I was playing at home. Mom was preparing dinner next to me, as usual. Suddenly, at exactly 11.02, we were blinded by a light, as if 1000 lightning flashed at the same time. Mom pushed me to the ground and covered me. strong wind and the rustle of the fragments of the house flying towards us. Then there was silence..."

"Our house was 2.5 km from the epicenter. My sister, she was in next room, severely cut by flying glass shards. One of my friends went to play in the mountains that ill-fated day, and a heat wave from a bomb explosion hit him. He suffered severe burns and died a few days later. My father was sent to help clear the rubble in the center of Nagasaki. At that time we did not yet know about the danger of radiation, which caused his death," he writes.

On August 6, 1945, the United States used its most powerful weapon of mass destruction to date. It was an atomic bomb, equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT. The city of Hiroshima was completely destroyed, tens of thousands civilians destroyed. While Japan was recovering from this devastation, three days later the United States again launched a second nuclear strike on Nagasaki, under the guise of a desire to achieve Japanese surrender.

Bombing of Hiroshima

On Monday at 2:45 a.m., the Boeing B-29 Enola Gay took off from Tinian, an island in the North Pacific Ocean, 1,500 km from Japan. A team of 12 specialists were on board to ensure how smoothly the mission would go. The crew was commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbetts, who named the aircraft "Enola Gay". That was his own mother's name. Right before takeoff, the name of the plane was written on board.

"Enola Gay" was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber (aircraft 44-86292), as part of a special air group. In order to deliver such a heavy cargo as a nuclear bomb, the Enola Gay was modernized: the latest propellers, engines, and quickly opening bomb bay doors were installed. Such modernization was carried out only on a few B-29s. Despite the modernization of the Boeing, it had to drive the entire runway to gain the speed required for takeoff.

A couple more bombers were flying next to the Enola Gay. Three more planes took off earlier to find out weather conditions over possible goals. A ten-foot (more than 3 meters) long “Little” nuclear bomb was suspended from the ceiling of the plane. In the "Manhattan Project" (for the development of US nuclear weapons), Captain Navy William Parsons took an important part in the development of the atomic bomb. On the Enola Gay plane, he joined the team as a specialist in charge of the bomb. To avoid possible explosion bombs during takeoff, it was decided to put a combat charge on it right in flight. Already in the air, Parsons exchanged the bomb plugs for combat charges in 15 minutes. As he later recalled: “At the moment when I set the charge, I knew what “Baby” would bring to the Japanese, but I did not feel much emotion about it.

The "Baby" bomb was created on the basis of uranium-235. It was the result of $2 billion worth of research, but never tested. No nuclear bomb has ever been dropped from an airplane. The US chose 4 Japanese cities for bombing:

• Hiroshima;
• Kokura;
• Nagasaki;
• Niigata.

At first there was also Kyoto, but later it was crossed off the list. These cities were centers of military industry, arsenals, and military ports. The first bomb was going to be dropped to advertise the full power and more impressive importance of the weapon in order to attract international attention and hasten Japan's surrender.

First bombing target

On August 6, 1945, the clouds cleared over Hiroshima. At 8:15 a.m. (local time), the Enola Gay's hatch swung open and the Little One flew toward the city. The fuse was set at a height of 600 meters from the ground, at an altitude of 1900 feet the device detonated. Gunner George Caron described the sight he saw through the rear window: “The cloud was shaped like a mushroom of a seething mass of purple-ash smoke, with a fiery core inside. It looked like lava flows engulfing the entire city."

Experts estimate the cloud rose to 40,000 feet. Robert Lewis recalled: “Where we had clearly seen the city a couple of minutes ago, we could already see only smoke and fire creeping up the sides of the mountain.” Almost all of Hiroshima was razed to the ground. Even three miles away, out of 90,000 buildings, 60,000 were destroyed. The metal and stone simply melted, the clay tiles melted. Unlike many previous bombings, the target of this raid was not just one military installation, but an entire city. The atomic bomb, apart from the military, mostly killed civilians. Hiroshima's population was 350,000, of whom 70,000 died instantly directly from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radioactive contamination over the next five years.

A witness who survived the atomic explosion described: “The people’s skin turned black from burns, they were completely bald, since their hair was burned, it was not clear whether it was the face or the back of the head. The skin on their hands, faces and bodies was hanging down. If there were one or two such people, it would not be like this severe shock. But wherever I walked, I saw just such people all around, many died right along the road - I still remember them as walking ghosts.”

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

As the people of Japan tried to comprehend the destruction of Hiroshima, the United States was planning a second nuclear strike. It was not delayed so that Japan could surrender, but was carried out immediately three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. On August 9, 1945, another B-29 Bockscar (“Bock machine”) took off from Tinian at 3:49 am. The initial target for the second bombing was supposed to be the city of Kokura, but it was covered by dense clouds. The reserve target was Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m., the second atomic bomb was detonated 1,650 feet above the city.

Fuji Urata Matsumoto, who miraculously survived, spoke about the terrible scene: “The pumpkin field was completely demolished by the explosion. Nothing remained of the entire mass of the harvest. Instead of a pumpkin, there was a woman's head lying in the garden. I tried to look at her, maybe I knew her. The head was of a woman about forty, I have never seen it here, maybe it was brought from another part of the city. A gold tooth gleamed in the mouth, singed hair hung down, the eyeballs were burned and black holes remained.”

... We have done the devil's work for him.

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

On August 9, 1945, human history began new era. It was on this day Japanese city The Little Boy nuclear bomb, with a yield of 13 to 20 kilotons, was dropped on Hiroshima. In three more days American aviation launched a second atomic strike on Japanese territory - the Fat Man bomb 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 the new weapon 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 of the end of World War II.

After this, a new era began, a period of confrontation between two superpowers - the USA and the USSR, which historians called the Cold War. For more than fifty years, the world has been teetering on the brink of a large-scale thermonuclear conflict, which would very likely put an end to our civilization. The atomic explosion in Hiroshima confronted humanity with new threats that have not lost their severity today.

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

Of course, a strike on peaceful cities and a huge number of victims among their residents looks like a crime. However, we should not forget that at that time the bloodiest war in human history was going on, one of the initiators of which was Japan.

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

"The Manhattan Project": 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 open up the possibility of chain nuclear reaction under the influence of a neutron beam.

In 1934, American physicist Leo Szilard received a patent for the creation of an 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, a letter signed by a group of famous physicists was delivered to US President Franklin Roosevelt. 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 this, the Bureau was created scientific research and developments, which dealt with issues of atomic weapons, additional funds were allocated for research in the field of uranium fission.

It should be admitted that American scientists had every reason to be apprehensive: in Germany they were really actively engaged in research in the field atomic physics and had some success. In 1938, German scientists Strassmann and Hahn split a uranium nucleus for the first time. And in 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 prohibited. After the outbreak of World War II, all German research related to the “uranium” topic was strictly classified.

In Germany, more than twenty institutes and other scientific centers. Giants of German industry were involved in the work, and they were personally supervised by German Arms Minister Speer. To obtain a sufficient amount of uranium-235, a reactor was needed, the reaction moderator in which could be either heavy water or graphite. The Germans chose water, which created a serious problem for themselves and practically deprived themselves of the prospects of 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 were quite seriously afraid of Hitler’s atomic bomb.

American work in the field of creating atomic weapons has become much more productive. In 1943, the secret program “Manhattan Project” was launched in the United States, led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Groves. Huge resources were allocated to create new weapons; dozens of world-famous physicists participated in the project. American scientists were helped by their colleagues from Great Britain, 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 (“Baby”) and plutonium (“Fat Man”) filling.

On July 16, the world's first nuclear weapons 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

On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered. In the Potsdam Declaration, the United States, China and Great Britain 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 US President and the British Prime Minister, 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 Japanese leadership) that the United States and its allies were winning the war. However, the Japanese were not broken morally, as demonstrated by the Battle of Okinawa, which cost the Allies enormous (from their point of view) casualties.

The Americans mercilessly bombed Japanese cities, but this did not reduce the fury of resistance to the Japanese army. The United States began to think 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 and break their will to resist.

After the question of the use of nuclear weapons against Japan was decided positively, the special committee began to select targets for future bombing. 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 should have had a strong impact on the Japanese psychological effect and show the world a new instrument of US power. Therefore, a number of requirements were put forward for the purpose of the bombing:

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

The cities of Hiroshima and Kokura were initially chosen. Kyoto was removed from the list by US Secretary of War Henry Stimson because he honeymooned there as a young man and was in awe of the city's history.

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

Bombing of Hiroshima

On July 25, US President Truman gave the order to begin bombing on 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.

At the beginning of the summer, the 509th Combined Group of the US Air Force arrived on Tinian Island, the location of which was separate from other units and carefully guarded.

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

Before the war, Hiroshima had a population of 340 thousand people and was the seventh largest Japanese city. According to other information, before the nuclear bombing, 245 thousand people lived in the city. 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 supply base for the Japanese military. Plants and factories were located on its outskirts, the residential sector mainly consisted of low-rise wooden buildings. The headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Army were located in Hiroshima, which essentially provided protection for the entire southern part of the Japanese islands.

The pilots were able to begin the mission only on August 6, before which they were hampered by heavy clouds. At 1:45 on August 6, an American B-29 bomber from the 509th Aviation Regiment, as part of a group of escort aircraft, took off from the Tinian Island airfield. The bomber was named Enola Gay in honor of the mother of the aircraft's commander, Colonel Paul Tibbetts.

The pilots were confident 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 a church, and 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 the 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 approximately eight o'clock in the morning, a B-29 bomber, rising 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 The clock in the city, stopped at the moment of the explosion, clearly recorded its exact time - 8 hours 15 minutes.

results

The consequences of an atomic explosion over a densely populated city were truly terrifying. Exact amount The victims of the bombing on Hiroshima could not be established; it ranges from 140 to 200 thousand. Of these, 70-80 thousand people who were near the epicenter died immediately after the explosion, the rest were much less fortunate. The enormous temperature of the explosion (up to 4 thousand degrees) literally evaporated people’s bodies or turned them into coal. The light radiation left imprinted silhouettes of passers-by on the ground and buildings (“shadows of Hiroshima”) and set fire to all flammable materials at a distance of several kilometers.

Following the flash of unbearably bright light, a suffocating blast wave struck, sweeping away everything in its path. The fires in the city merged into one huge fire tornado, which was driven by a strong wind towards the epicenter of the explosion. Those who did not manage to get out from under the rubble burned in this hellish flame.

After some time, the survivors of the explosion began to suffer from an unknown illness, which was accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea. These were symptoms of radiation sickness, which was unknown to medicine at that time. However, there were other delayed consequences of the bombing in the form of cancer and severe psychological shock, which haunted the survivors 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 residents of Hiroshima began to rebuild their city and continued to live in their original places. The high mortality rate from cancer and various genetic abnormalities in the children of Hiroshima were not immediately associated with the nuclear bombing.

For a long time the Japanese could not understand what happened to one of their cities. Hiroshima stopped communicating and transmitting signals on the air. A plane sent to the city found it completely destroyed. Only after the official announcement from the United States did the Japanese realize what exactly 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 he had an important military significance How major port and an industrial center in which warships, guns, torpedoes, and military equipment were manufactured. The city has never been subjected to large-scale aerial bombing. At the time of the nuclear strike, about 200 thousand people lived in Nagasaki.

On August 9 at 2:47 a.m., 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 clouds prevented the bomb from being dropped on it. The crew's additional target was the city of Nagasaki.

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

Despite the greater power of the ammunition, 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 on some of the power nuclear explosion, and secondly, the bomb went off over the Nagasaki industrial zone. If the explosion had occurred over residential areas, there would have been many more casualties. Part of the area affected by the explosion was generally on the water surface.

The victims of the Nagasaki bomb were from 60 to 80 thousand people (who died immediately or before the end of 1945); the number of people who died later from diseases caused by radiation is unknown. Various figures are cited, the maximum of which is 140 thousand people.

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

Initially, the Americans did not plan to stop at two nuclear strikes. The third bomb was being prepared for mid-August, and three more were planned to be dropped in September. The US government planned to continue atomic bombing until the start of ground operations. However, on August 10, the Japanese government conveyed surrender proposals to the Allies. A day earlier, 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 inhumane crime of the United States. Domestic patriots and fighters against American imperialism like to raise this topic. Meanwhile, the question is not clear-cut.

It should be understood that at that time there was a world war going on, 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 there is often an opinion that nothing serious happened in the Pacific Ocean - but this is an erroneous point of view. Fighting in this region led to the death of 31 million people, most of of which are 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 whom they had been fighting since 1941, and really wanted to end the war with the least losses. The atomic bomb was simply a new type of weapon; they had only a theoretical understanding of its power, and they knew even less about the consequences in the form of radiation sickness. I don’t 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. Until the end of his life, US President Truman believed that he had done the right thing by ordering the bombing.

August 2018 marked 73 years since the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities. Nagasaki and Hiroshima today are prosperous metropolises with few reminders of the 1945 tragedy. However, if humanity forgets this terrible lesson, then it is likely to happen again. The horrors of Hiroshima showed people what kind of Pandora's box they had opened by creating nuclear weapons. It was the ashes of Hiroshima that during the decades of the Cold War sobered up too hot heads, preventing them from unleashing a new world massacre.

Thanks to the support of the United States and the abandonment of the previous 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 the high technology. After the end of the war, the Japanese chose new way development, which turned out to be much more successful than the previous one.

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Photochronology after the explosion: the horror that the United States tried to hide.

August 6 is not an empty phrase for Japan, it is the moment of one of the greatest horrors ever committed in the war.

On this day the bombing of Hiroshima took place. After 3 days, the same barbaric act will be repeated, knowing the consequences for Nagasaki.

This nuclear barbarity, worthy of one's worst nightmare, partially eclipsed the Jewish Holocaust carried out by the Nazis, but the act put then-President Harry Truman on the same list of genocide.

Since he ordered the launch of 2 atomic bombs on civilian population Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the direct death of 300,000 people, thousands more died weeks later, and thousands of survivors were physically and psychologically marked by the side effects of the bomb.

As soon as President Truman learned of the damage, he said, “This is the greatest event in history.”

In 1946, the US government banned the dissemination of any testimony about this mass murder, and millions of photographs were destroyed, and pressure in the United States forced the defeated Japanese government to create a decree stating that talking about "this fact" was an attempt to disturb the public peace, and was therefore prohibited.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Of course, on the part of the American government, the use of nuclear weapons was an action to accelerate the surrender of Japan; descendants will discuss how justified such an act was for many centuries.

On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay bomber took off from a base in the Mariana Islands. The crew consisted of twelve people. The crew's training was lengthy; it consisted of eight training flights and two combat sorties. Additionally, a rehearsal for dropping a bomb on an urban settlement was organized. The rehearsal took place on July 31, 1945, a training ground was used as a settlement, and a bomber dropped a mock-up of the supposed bomb.

On August 6, 1945, a combat flight was carried out; there was a bomb on board the bomber. The power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 14 kilotons of TNT. Having completed the assigned task, the aircraft crew left the affected area and arrived at the base. The results of the medical examination of all crew members are still kept secret.

After completing this task, another bomber took off again. The crew of the Bockscar bomber included thirteen people. Their task was to drop a bomb on the city of Kokura. The departure from the base occurred at 2:47 and at 9:20 the crew reached their destination. Arriving at the scene, the aircraft crew discovered heavy clouds and after several approaches, the command gave instructions to change the destination to the city of Nagasaki. The crew reached their destination at 10:56, but there, too, cloudiness was discovered, which prevented the operation. Unfortunately, the goal had to be achieved, and cloud cover did not save the city this time. The power of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21 kilotons of TNT.

In what year Hiroshima and Nagasaki were subjected to a nuclear attack is precisely indicated in all sources: August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima and August 9, 1945 - Nagasaki.

The Hiroshima explosion killed 166 thousand people, the Nagasaki explosion killed 80 thousand people.

Nagasaki after a nuclear explosion

Over time, some document and photo were discovered, but what happened compared to the images German concentration camps, which were strategically distributed by the American government, was nothing more than a fact of what happened in the war and was partially justified.

Thousands of victims had photos without their faces. Here are some of those photos:

All clocks stopped at 8:15, the time of the attack.

The heat and explosion threw out the so-called “nuclear shadow”, here you can see the pillars of the bridge.

Here you can see the silhouette of two people who were sprayed instantly.

200 meters from the explosion, on the stairs of the bench, there is the shadow of the man who opened the doors. 2,000 degrees burned him in his stride.

Human suffering

The bomb exploded almost 600 meters above the center of Hiroshima, 70,000 people died instantly from 6,000 degrees Celsius, the rest died from shock wave, which left buildings standing and destroyed trees within a radius of 120 km.

A few minutes and the atomic mushroom reaches a height of 13 kilometers, causing acid rain, which kills thousands of people who escaped the initial explosion. 80% of the city disappeared.

There have been thousands of cases of sudden burning and very severe burns more than 10 km from the explosion area.

The results were devastating, but after several days, doctors continued to treat survivors as if the wounds were simple burns, and many of them indicated that people continued to die mysteriously. They had never seen anything like it.

Doctors even administered vitamins, but the flesh rotted upon contact with the needle. White blood cells were destroyed.

Most survivors within a 2 km radius were blind, and thousands suffered from cataracts due to radiation.

Burden of Survivors

"Hibakusha" is what the Japanese called the survivors. There were about 360,000 of them, but most of them were disfigured, with cancer and genetic deterioration.

These people were also victims of their own countrymen, who believed that radiation was contagious and avoided them at all costs.

Many secretly hid these consequences even years later. Whereas, if the company where they worked found out that they were “Hibakushi”, they would be fired.

There were marks on the skin from clothing, even the color and fabric that people were wearing at the time of the explosion.

The story of one photographer

On August 10, a Japanese army photographer named Yosuke Yamahata arrived in Nagasaki with the task of documenting the effects of the “new weapon” and spent hours walking through the wreckage, photographing the horror. These are his photographs and he wrote in his diary:

“A hot wind began to blow,” he explained many years later. “There were small fires everywhere, Nagasaki was completely destroyed... we encountered human bodies and animals that lay in our path...”

“It was truly hell on earth. Those who could barely withstand the intense radiation - their eyes burned, their skin “burned” and was ulcerated, they wandered, leaning on sticks, waiting for help. Not a single cloud eclipsed the sun on this August day, shining mercilessly.

Coincidentally, exactly 20 years later, also on August 6, Yamahata suddenly fell ill and was diagnosed with duodenal cancer from the consequences of this walk where he took photographs. The photographer is buried in Tokyo.

Like curiosity: the letter that Albert Einstein sent former president Roosevelt, where he expected the possibility of using uranium as a weapon of significant power and explained the steps to achieve it.

Bombs that were used for the attack

Baby Bomb is the code name for a uranium bomb. It was developed as part of the Manhattan Project. Among all the developments, the Baby Bomb was the first successfully implemented weapon, the result of which had enormous consequences.

The Manhattan Project is American program on the development of nuclear weapons. The project's activities began in 1943, based on research in 1939. Several countries took part in the project: the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany and Canada. Countries did not participate officially, but through scientists who participated in the development. As a result of developments, three bombs were created:

• Plutonium, codenamed “Thing.” This bomb was detonated during nuclear testing; the explosion was carried out at a special test site.
• Uranium bomb, code name "Baby". The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
• Plutonium bomb, code name "Fat Man". A bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

The project operated under the leadership of two people, nuclear physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer represented the scientific council, and General Leslie Richard Groves acted from the military leadership.

How it all began

The history of the project began with a letter, as it is commonly believed that the author of the letter was Albert Einstein. In fact, four people participated in writing this appeal. Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller and Albert Einstein.

In 1939, Leo Szilard learned that scientists in Nazi Germany had achieved stunning results on chain reaction in uranium. Szilard realized how powerful their army would become if these studies were put into practice. Szilard also realized the minimality of his authority in political circles, so he decided to involve Albert Einstein in the problem. Einstein shared Szilard's concerns and composed an appeal to the American president. The appeal was made on German, Szilard, along with the rest of the physicists, translated the letter and added his comments. Now they are faced with the issue of transmitting this letter to the President of America. At first they wanted to convey the letter through the aviator Charles Lindenberg, but he officially issued a statement of sympathy for the German government. Szilard was faced with the problem of finding like-minded people who had contacts with the President of America, and this is how Alexander Sachs was found. It was this person who handed over the letter, albeit two months late. However, the president’s reaction was lightning fast; a council was convened as soon as possible and the Uranium Committee was organized. It was this body that began the first studies of the problem.

Here is an excerpt from this letter:

Recent work by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, whose manuscript version caught my attention, leads me to believe that elemental uranium may become a new and important source of energy in the near future […] has opened up the possibility of realizing a nuclear chain reaction in large mass uranium, thanks to which a lot of energy will be generated […] thanks to which bombs can be created..

Hiroshima now

The restoration of the city began in 1949; most of the funds from the state budget were allocated for the development of the city. The restoration period lasted until 1960. Little Hiroshima has become huge city, today Hiroshima consists of eight districts, with a population of more than a million people.

Hiroshima before and after

The epicenter of the explosion was one hundred and sixty meters from the exhibition center; after its restoration of the city, it was included in the UNESCO list. Today, the exhibition center is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Hiroshima Exhibition Center

The building partially collapsed, but survived. Everyone in the building died. To preserve the memorial, work was carried out to strengthen the dome. This is the most famous monument to the consequences of a nuclear explosion. The inclusion of this building in the list of values ​​of the world community caused heated debate; two countries, America and China, opposed it. Opposite the Peace Memorial is the Memorial Park. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park covers an area of ​​more than twelve hectares and is considered the epicenter of the nuclear bomb explosion. The park contains a monument to Sadako Sasaki and the Flame of Peace monument. The flame of peace has been burning since 1964 and, according to the Japanese government, will burn until all nuclear weapons in the world are destroyed.

The tragedy of Hiroshima has not only consequences, but also legends.

The Legend of the Cranes

Every tragedy needs a face, even two. One face will be a symbol of survivors, the other a symbol of hatred. As for the first person, it was the little girl Sadako Sasaki. She was two years old when America dropped the nuclear bomb. Sadako survived the bombing, but ten years later she was diagnosed with leukemia. The cause was radiation exposure. Being in hospital ward, Sadako heard a legend that cranes give life and healing. In order to get the life she needed so much, Sadako needed to make a thousand paper cranes. Every minute the girl made paper cranes, every piece of paper that fell into her hands took on a beautiful shape. The girl died without reaching the required thousand. By different sources she made six hundred cranes, and the rest were made by other patients. In memory of the girl, on the anniversary of the tragedy, Japanese children make paper cranes and release them into the sky. In addition to Hiroshima, a monument to Sadako Sasaki was erected in the American city of Seattle.

Nagasaki now

The bomb dropped on Nagasaki claimed many lives and almost wiped the city off the face of the earth. However, since the explosion occurred in industrial zone, this is the western part of the city, buildings in another area were less damaged. Money from the state budget was allocated for restoration. The restoration period lasted until 1960. The current population is about half a million people.

Nagasaki Photos

The bombing of the city began on August 1, 1945. For this reason, part of the population of Nagasaki was evacuated and was not exposed to nuclear damage. On the day of the nuclear bombing, the air raid warning sounded, the signal was given at 7:50 and ended at 8:30. After the air raid ended, part of the population remained in shelters. An American B-29 bomber entering Nagasaki airspace was mistaken for a reconnaissance aircraft and the air raid alarm was not sounded. No one guessed the purpose of the American bomber. The explosion in Nagasaki occurred at 11:02 a.m. airspace, the bomb did not reach the ground. Despite this, the result of the explosion claimed thousands of lives. The city of Nagasaki has several memorial sites for victims of the nuclear explosion:

Gate of Sanno Jinja Shrine. They represent a column and part of the upper floor, all that survived the bombing.

Nagasaki Peace Park

Nagasaki Peace Park. Memorial Complex, built in memory of the victims of the disaster. On the territory of the complex there is a Statue of Peace and a fountain symbolizing contaminated water. Before the bombing, no one in the world had studied the consequences of a nuclear wave of such a scale, no one knew how long they remain in water harmful substances. Only years later did people who drank the water discover that they had radiation sickness.

Atomic Bomb Museum

Atomic Bomb Museum. The museum was opened in 1996; on the territory of the museum there are things and photographs of victims of the nuclear bombing.

Column of Urakami. This place is the epicenter of the explosion; there is a park area around the preserved column.

The victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are remembered annually with a minute of silence. Those who dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki never apologized. On the contrary, the pilots adhere to the state position, explaining their actions by military necessity. Remarkably, the United States of America has not yet made an official apology. Also, a tribunal to investigate the mass destruction of civilians was not created. Since the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only one president has paid an official visit to Japan.