The Bombing of Hiroshima
By: Jackson Mertes

WHY

• The bombing of Hiroshima was the result of the United States dropping the world's first atomic bomb on Japan's Hiroshima in an effort to end world war 2.

HOW

• On August 6, 1945 at approximately 8:15 a.m. the world's first atomic bomb, Little Boy, was dropped from a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay. It was dropped directly over a parade field where soldiers of the Japanese Second Army were doing calisthenics. The 9,700 pound bomb detonated 1,900 feet above the city.

DEVELOPMENT

• The idea was thought up by two German scientists to use nuclear fission to create a catastrophic bomb. When the US heard of this, President Harry Truman started "The Manhattan Project". Major players were President Truman, Major General Leslie R. Groves Jr., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and J. Robert Oppenheimer as the head.

THE RESULT

• 20,000 Japanese soldiers and 70,000-146,000 civilians died.
• The city was utterly destroyed, buildings as many as 3 miles away's windows shattering from the shock wave.

INTERESTING FACTS

• Leaflets were dropped over Tokyo after Hiroshima warning Japan's population to surrender or witness utter destruction. The leaflets said: "We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man. A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2,000 of our giant B-29s can carry on a single mission. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and we solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate. We have just begun to use this weapon against your homeland. If you still have any doubt, make inquiry as to what happened to Hiroshima when just one atomic bomb fell on that city."
• Another fact is that Japan also had a program to develop an a-bomb, but it lacked the support to make any real progress.
• The last interesting fact is that Japan didn't formally surrender until September 2, 1945, 3 weeks and 3 days after a second bomb, Fat Boy, was dropped on Nagasaki.

SOURCES

• www.osti.gov
• en.m.wikipedia.org