Hiroshima and the Bomb

1. Hiroshima and the Bomb By: Anya Chang-DePuy

2. The Effect On Aug. 6th, 1945 America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The effect of it was horrible. Hiroshima was completely destroyed. Over thirty thousand people were killed from the explosion. The bodies of anyone even remotely close to where the bomb was dropped automatically turned to black char. Birds flying near it blew up in flames. Building collapsed while windows and glass shattered. Small fires started throughout the city all combining into one huge firestorm that engulfed the city.

3. Effect Continued.. The firestorm let off intense thermal heat which caused severe burns and even loss of eyesight. Clothing patterns were actually burned into peoples skin. People as far away as even 3.5 kilometers from where the bomb was dropped suffered thermal burns of bare skin. The thermal rays killed most everyone within 1 kilometer of the bomb. Tile and glass melted from the heat and all combustible materials were consumed.

4. Radiation Illness After the actually explosion of the bomb, more deaths were still to come. The radiation of the bomb caused an illness that killed over tens of thousands of people. Cancer was one main outcome from the illness. Thousands that had thought they had made it through the terror, soon realized they had not at all when the symptoms of the radiation illness first started to show. The deaths from the illness were not extremely noticeable until a few weeks after the bombing but it did not subside for about two months. This and other sicknesses that were caused by the explosion added around 100,000 deaths to the already high death toll.

5. Effect on the War The war still went on however, and a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan only a few days after the bombing of Hiroshima.After this second bomb was dropped, Japan had no choice but to surrender to the United States. They were not equipped with such weapons that could cause such extensive damage. The atomic bomb was nothing to compete against and two major cities were already destroyed by atomic bombs. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war.

6. Quote “I lay there buried alive under our house when the bomb hit our city. The bomb started great fires. The fires came nearer and nearer to us as workers tried to reach us. ‘Hurry!’ they cried to one another as the flames came nearer. At last the workers reached us and pulled me and my mother out from under everything, before the flames reached us.”

7. Bibliography • http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm • http://www.wtj.com/archives/hiroshima.htm • http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesson_95_Notes.htm • http://www.world-war-2.info/atomic-bomb/