The Bomb

1. The Bomb Aim: Should the U.S. have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan? Should Truman be held responsible for crimes against humanity?

2. Vocab • Atomic bomb • Manhattan Project – atomic bomb program @ Princeton, 1939, Albert Einstein; with refugees from Germany – Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, George Linberg – taught at Columbia, knew German’s were working on the bomb. Robert Oppenheim – professor of nuclear theories, Berkley – had remorse. • First Hydrogen Bomb test – Inoetoc, Marshall Island. Less than 25% of test participants alive. • Battle Fatigue (now called PTSD)

3. Panay • Pearl Harbor; “A date that will live on in infamy.” • Potsdam Conference • Universal Declaration of Human Rights • Japanese Instrument of Surrender • U-Boat • Kamikaze attacks Essential Questions: • How did the U.S. justify the use of the atomic bomb? • What events lead the U.S. to use such force? • Did the U.S. make the right decision? (Provide evidence!)

4. Enola Gay – plane used to drop atomic bomb on Japan “Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday…These games you play, they're gonna end in more than tears someday Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home…Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today Aha this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't fade in our dreams away” - OMD

6. Atomic Bomb After-Affects: Environmental and Medical • Radiation released from each step in the nuclear weapons production cycle causes cancer, congenital defects, mental retardation, immune destruction, cancer, stillbirths and other health problems. Similar syndromes have been observed among the workers exposed to radiation in nuclear power plants in Japan, or in down-winders living in the irradiated zones near Hanford, and in the Chernobyl children, as well as the areas close to the nuclear test sites. • In 1984 the United Nations Human Rights Committee noted that “it's evident that the designing, testing, manufacture, possession and deployment of nuclear weapons are among the greatest threats to the right to life which confront mankind today” and concluded that “the production, testing, possession, deployment and use of nuclear weapon should be prohibited and recognized as crimes against humanity.” • Radiation polluted vast amounts of soil and water at hundreds of nuclear weapons facilities all over the world. Many of the substances released, including plutonium, uranium, strontium, cesium, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury and cyanide, are carcinogenic and/or mutagenic and remain hazardous for thousands, some for hundreds of thousands, of years. Contaminants from nuclear weapons production and testing have often travelled far down wind and down stream.

7. The burial of radioactive materials is presently being promoted as the solution to radioactive waste disposal. However, at present, there are no known disposal routes for long-lived radioactive materials. The burial of these materials must not be confused with their safe containment and isolation from the environment. Whether the storage containers, the store itself, or the surrounding rocks will offer enough protection to stop radioactivity from escaping in the long term is impossible to predict. One of the most likely mechanisms of pollution in connection with waste disposal in rock is the contamination of groundwater. Underground waters may come into contact with radioactive elements that have leached out from the waste and contaminate the drinking water of both local and distant communities. • The use of atomic bombs affected more than lives: economic destruction, loss of political leadership (especially at the local level), and the need to mobilize resources for relief and recovery would present extraordinary demands on weakened political institutions. In the interest of implementing survival programs, legal norms and practices would have to be suspended for prolonged periods in many areas. Decentralization of political power and more authoritarian methods of political, social, and economic control would be probable responses to post-attack conditions.  

8. Enola Gay – plane used to drop atomic bomb on Japan “Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday…These games you play, they're gonna end in more than tears someday Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home…Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today Aha this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way Aha Enola Gay, it shouldn't fade in our dreams away” - OMD

10. Estimates of Casualties –Statistics by the Manhattan Engineer District Hiroshima bomb (Little Boy)– uranium, dropped Aug. 6th, weighed 9,700 lbs.; B29 called Box Car, dropped bomb and then the plane banked (made a U); killed 70,000 by the end of 1945. 140,000 5 years later; by 1950, 200,000 died from radiation; 20,000 tons of dynamite. Nagasaki bomb (Fat Man) – plutonium, dropped , power of 21,000 tons of TNT; Paul Tibets flew Enola Gay (named for his mom); killed 40,000 immediately; 140,000 within 5 years from radiation.

11. Doctor Report: “December 1945 - protrusion started, red, contracted; May 1946 - protrusion becomes most noticeable, red, excessively contracted; July 1946 - partial flattening occurred, reddish purple, contraction continues but also some wrinkles; October 1946 - light keloids flattened, purple color takes on, contraction somewhat eases; January 1947 - heavy keloids shrink and wrinkles increase; purplish blue wrinkles occur.”

13. This boy had thermal burns on more than one-third of his body, and his chest and the left side of his belly were seriously injured. He managed to leave the hospital after 3 years and 7 months. This person, who miraculously recovered, is now a father of two children, and recollects what happened then: “At that time I was riding a red bicycle on the streets of Sumiyoshi township (about 2 kilometers from the hypocenter). I was 16 years old, and it was my second year as a telegram messenger. The moment of face, I was blinded by the flash and thrown 3 meters away by the blast that came from my rear left, and my bicycle was twisted and bent. It was strange that I was not bleeding and did not feel any pain until I reached an underground shelter 300 meters away. The moment I reached the shelter, I felt severe pain in my back, which ran through my whole body. From then on, for three days and three nights, I kept on groaning in the shelter, and on the fourth day I was finally rescued and sent to a first-aid station. In the early stages, the only treatment I received for my burns was the application of a mixture of ash and oil as a substitute for medicine. I do not know how many times I yelled "kill me!" because of the severe pain and desperate feeling.”

15. 21-years-old soldier who was 1 kilometer from the hypocenter. Since he was indoors, he was saved from burns, but, as he received cuts on his back, right elbow and right belly, first-aid treatment was given to him. However, when we follow his medical record, we learn more: August 18 --Hair falling out is noticed; August 19 --Bleeding from gum, and purplish subcutaneous hemorrhage starts to appear as in the photograph; August 30 --Is hospitalized in the Ujina Branch of the Army Hospital, and on the 31st becomes feverish; September 1 --Tonsillitis occurs and with a sore throat he can not eat. Bleeding from gum dose not stop, and subcutaneous hemorrhage multiplies on face and upper half of body: September 2 --Has an indistinct consciousness and starts to talk in delirium. September 3 --Died at 9:30 p.m. This photograph was taken 2 hours before his death at the request of an American Army surgeon. This soldier's symptom record is a typical description of the acute effects of radiation.

17. Twenty years after the bombing, in the autumn of 1971, human bones were accidentally found on the grounds of Ninoshima Junior High School on Ninoshima Island, where thousands of A-bomb victims dies. Believing these bones were remains of A-bomb victims, the Hiroshima municipality dug the area for about one month and recovered the remains of 617 bodies. The remains of A-bomb victims are still being recovered scores of years after the bombing. Hiroshima, Nagasaki and surrounding areas are still the graveyards of the A-bomb victims.

19. TASK: In your notebook, write a BRIEF newspaper article answering ONE of the following questions. Include a title, and EVIDENCE for your answers. (1) Should Truman have dropped the bomb? (2) Should he be held responsible for crimes against humanity?

20. After the Bombs Are Dropped… After instilling fear in the Japanese people using media, the American gov’t. tried to abruptly end the war. General Mac Arthur met Emperor Hirohito on the U.S.S. Missouri and presided over the Japanese surrender. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was written to declare an armistice between all armed forces. It explains the Japanese military being taken over by Allies: “We hereby command all Japanese forces wherever situated and the Japanese people to ease hostilities forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil property, and to comply with all requirements which may be imposed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by agencies of the Japanese Government at his direction.” This gave the Allied Powers complete control over the Japanese military in order to secure an efficient armistice. Japan did not have proper funding to repair the nation, the U.S. helped Japan rebuild to an extent…