Dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unknown facts. Why Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Next year, humanity will mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, which showed many examples of unprecedented cruelty, when entire cities disappeared from the face of the earth within a few days or even hours and hundreds of thousands of people, including civilians, died. The most striking example of this is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the ethical justification of which is questioned by any sane person.

Japan during the final stages of World War II

As you know, Nazi Germany capitulated on the night of May 9, 1945. This meant the end of the war in Europe. And also the fact that the only enemy of the countries of the anti-fascist coalition remained Imperial Japan, which at that time was officially declared war by about 6 dozen countries. Already in June 1945, as a result of bloody battles, its troops were forced to leave Indonesia and Indochina. But when on July 26 the United States, together with Great Britain and China, presented an ultimatum to the Japanese command, it was rejected. At the same time, even during the time of the USSR, it took upon itself the obligation to launch a large-scale offensive against Japan in August, for which, after the end of the war, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were to be transferred to it.

Prerequisites for the use of atomic weapons

Long before these events, in the fall of 1944, at a meeting of the leaders of the United States and Great Britain, the issue of the possibility of using new super-destructive bombs against Japan was considered. After which the famous Manhattan Project, launched a year earlier and aimed at creating nuclear weapons, began to function with renewed vigor, and work on the creation of its first samples was completed by the end of hostilities in Europe.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: reasons for the bombing

Thus, by the summer of 1945, the United States became the only owner of atomic weapons in the world and decided to use this advantage to put pressure on its longtime enemy and at the same time ally in the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR.

At the same time, despite all the defeats, the morale of Japan was not broken. This was evidenced by the fact that every day hundreds of members of her imperial army became kamikazes and kaiten, directing their planes and torpedoes at ships and other military targets of the American army. This meant that when carrying out a ground operation on the territory of Japan itself, the Allied troops would expect huge losses. It is the latter reason that is most often cited today by US officials as an argument justifying the need for such a measure as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the same time, it is forgotten that, according to Churchill, three weeks before I. Stalin informed him about the Japanese attempts to establish a peaceful dialogue. It is obvious that representatives of this country were going to make similar proposals to both the Americans and the British, since the massive bombing of large cities brought their military industry to the brink of collapse and made capitulation inevitable.

Selecting goals

After receiving agreement in principle to use atomic weapons against Japan, a special committee was formed. Its second meeting took place on May 10-11 and was devoted to the selection of cities that were to be bombed. The main criteria that guided the commission were:

• mandatory presence of civilian objects around a military target;
• its importance for the Japanese not only from an economic and strategic point of view, but also from a psychological one;
• a high degree of significance of the object, the destruction of which would cause resonance throughout the world;
• the target had to be undamaged by bombing for the military to appreciate the true power of the new weapon.

Which cities were considered as targets?

The “contenders” included:

• Kyoto, which is the largest industrial and cultural center and the ancient capital of Japan;
• Hiroshima as an important military port and city where army depots were concentrated;
• Yokahama, which is the center of the military industry;
• Kokura is home to the largest military arsenal.

According to the surviving memories of participants in those events, although the most convenient target was Kyoto, the United States Secretary of War G. Stimson insisted on excluding this city from the list, since he was personally familiar with its sights and was aware of their value for world culture.

Interestingly, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not initially covered. More precisely, the city of Kokura was considered as the second target. This is evidenced by the fact that before August 9, an air raid was carried out on Nagasaki, which caused concern among residents and forced the evacuation of most schoolchildren to the surrounding villages. A little later, as a result of long discussions, backup targets were selected in case of unforeseen situations. They became:

• for the first bombing, if Hiroshima fails to hit, Niigata;
• for the second (instead of Kokura) - Nagasaki.

Preparation

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki required careful preparation. During the second half of May and June, the 509th Combined Aviation Group was redeployed to a base on Tinian Island and exceptional security measures were taken. A month later, on July 26, the atomic bomb “Baby” was delivered to the island, and on the 28th, some of the components for assembling “Fat Man” were delivered to the island. On the same day, who at that time served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed an order ordering nuclear bombing to be carried out at any time after August 3, when weather conditions were suitable.

First atomic strike on Japan

The date of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be stated unambiguously, since nuclear strikes on these cities were carried out within 3 days of each other.

The first blow was struck in Hiroshima. And this happened on June 6, 1945. The “honor” of dropping the “Baby” bomb went to the crew of a B-29 aircraft, nicknamed “Enola Gay,” commanded by Colonel Tibbetts. Moreover, before the flight, the pilots, confident that they were doing a good deed and their “feat” would be followed by a speedy end to the war, visited the church and received an ampoule of s in case they were captured.

Together with Enola Gay, three reconnaissance aircraft took off, designed to determine weather conditions, and 2 boards with photographic equipment and devices for studying the parameters of the explosion.

The bombing itself went completely without problems, since the Japanese military did not notice the objects rushing towards Hiroshima, and the weather was more than favorable. What happened next can be observed by watching the film “The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” - a documentary film assembled from newsreels made in the Pacific region at the end of World War II.

In particular, it shows which, according to Captain Robert Lewis, who was a member of the Enola Gay crew, was visible even after their plane flew 400 miles from the bomb drop site.

Bombing of Nagasaki

The operation to drop the “Fat Man” bomb, carried out on August 9, proceeded completely differently. In general, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the photo of which evokes associations with well-known descriptions of the Apocalypse, was prepared extremely carefully, and the only thing that could make adjustments to its implementation was the weather. This is what happened when, in the early morning of August 9, a plane under the command of Major Charles Sweeney took off from the island of Tinian with the “Fat Man” atomic bomb on board. At 8:10 a.m. the plane arrived at the place where it was supposed to meet the second, the B-29, but did not find it. After 40 minutes of waiting, the decision was made to carry out the bombing without a partner aircraft, but it turned out that there was already 70% cloud cover over the city of Kokura. Moreover, even before departure it was known that the fuel pump was faulty, and at the moment when the board was over Kokura, it became obvious that the only way to drop the Fat Man was to do it while flying over Nagasaki. Then the B-29 headed towards this city and made a drop, focusing on the local stadium. Thus, by chance, Kokura was saved, and the whole world learned that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had occurred. Fortunately, if such words are at all appropriate in this case, the bomb fell far from the original target, quite far from residential areas, which somewhat reduced the number of victims.

Consequences of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

According to eyewitness accounts, within a few minutes everyone who was within a radius of 800 m from the epicenters of the explosions died. Then fires started, and in Hiroshima they soon turned into a tornado due to the wind, whose speed was about 50-60 km/h.

The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki introduced humanity to the phenomenon of radiation sickness. The doctors noticed her first. They were surprised that the condition of the survivors first improved, and then they died from the disease, the symptoms of which resembled diarrhea. In the first days and months after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, few could have imagined that those who survived it would suffer from various diseases throughout their lives and even give birth to unhealthy children.

Subsequent events

On August 9, immediately after the news of the bombing of Nagasaki and the declaration of war by the USSR, Emperor Hirohito advocated immediate surrender, subject to the preservation of his power in the country. And 5 days later, the Japanese media spread his statement about the cessation of hostilities to English language. Moreover, in the text, His Majesty mentioned that one of the reasons for his decision was the presence of “terrible weapons” in the enemy’s possession, the use of which could lead to the destruction of the nation.

Work on the creation of a nuclear bomb started in the USA in September 1943, based on the research of scientists different countries, started back in 1939.

In parallel with this, a search was carried out for the pilots who were supposed to reset it. From the thousands of dossiers reviewed, several hundred were selected. Following an extremely tough selection process, Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbetts, who had served as a test pilot of Bi-29 aircraft since 1943, was appointed commander of the future formation. He was given the task: to create a combat unit of pilots to deliver the bomb to its destination.

Preliminary calculations showed that the bomber dropping the bomb would have only 43 seconds to leave the danger zone before the explosion occurred. Flight training continued daily for many months in the strictest secrecy.

Target Selection

On June 21, 1945, US Secretary of War Stimson held a meeting to discuss the choice of future targets:

• Hiroshima is a large industrial center, population about 400 thousand people;
• Kokura is an important strategic point, steel and chemical plants, population 173 thousand people;
• Nagasaki is the largest shipyard, population 300 thousand people.

Kyoto and Niigata were also on the list of potential targets, but serious controversy erupted over them. It was proposed to exclude Niigata due to the fact that the city was located much further north than the others and was relatively small, and the destruction of Kyoto, which was a holy city, could embitter the Japanese and lead to increased resistance.

On the other hand, Kyoto, with its large area, was of interest as an object for assessing the power of the bomb. Proponents of choosing this city as a target, among other things, were interested in accumulating statistical data, since until that moment atomic weapons had never been used in combat conditions, but only at test sites. The bombing was required not only to physically destroy the chosen target, but to demonstrate the strength and power of the new weapon, as well as to have the greatest possible psychological effect on the population and government of Japan.

On July 26, the United States, Britain and China adopted the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded unconditional surrender from the Empire. Otherwise, the Allies threatened the rapid and complete destruction of the country. However, this document made no mention of the use of weapons of mass destruction. The Japanese government rejected the declaration's demands, and the Americans continued preparations for the operation.

For the most effective bombing, suitable weather and good visibility were required. Based on data from the meteorological service, the first week of August, approximately after the 3rd, was considered the most suitable for the foreseeable future.

Bombing of Hiroshima

On August 2, 1945, Colonel Tibbetts's unit received a secret order for the first atomic bombing in human history, the date of which was set for August 6. Hiroshima was chosen as the main target of the attack, with Kokura and Nagasaki as backup targets (in case visibility conditions worsened). All other American aircraft were prohibited from being within the 80-kilometer radius of these cities during the bombing.

On August 6, before the start of the operation, the pilots received glasses with dark lenses designed to protect their eyes from light radiation. The planes took off from the island of Tinian, where the American military aviation base was located. The island is located 2.5 thousand km from Japan, so the flight took about 6 hours.

Together with the Bi-29 bomber, called the “Enola Gay,” which carried the “Little Boy” barrel-type atomic bomb, 6 more aircraft took to the skies: three reconnaissance aircraft, one spare, and two carrying special measuring equipment.

Visibility over all three cities allowed for bombing, so it was decided not to deviate from the original plan. At 8:15 am there was an explosion - the Enola Gay bomber dropped a 5-ton bomb on Hiroshima, after which it made a 60-degree turn and began to move away at the highest possible speed.

Consequences of the explosion

The bomb exploded 600m from the surface. Most of the houses in the city were equipped with stoves that were heated with charcoal. Many townspeople were just preparing breakfast at the time of the attack. Overturned by a blast wave of incredible force, the stoves caused massive fires in those parts of the city that were not destroyed immediately after the explosion.

The heat wave melted house tiles and granite slabs. Within a radius of 4 km, all wooden telegraph poles were burned. The people who were at the epicenter of the explosion instantly evaporated, enveloped in hot plasma, the temperature of which was about 4000 degrees Celsius. Powerful light radiation left human bodies only shadows on the walls of houses. 9 out of 10 people within an 800-meter zone from the epicenter of the explosion died instantly. The shock wave swept at a speed of 800 km/h, turning into rubble all buildings within a 4 km radius, except for a few built taking into account increased seismic hazard.

The plasma ball evaporated moisture from the atmosphere. The cloud of steam reached the colder layers and, mixing with dust and ash, immediately poured black rain onto the ground.

Then the wind hit the city, blowing towards the epicenter of the explosion. Due to the heating of the air caused by the flaring fires, the wind gusts became so strong that large trees were torn out by their roots. Huge waves arose on the river, in which people drowned as they tried to escape in the water from the fire tornado that engulfed the city, destroying 11 km2 of the area. According to various estimates, the number of deaths in Hiroshima was 200-240 thousand people, of which 70-80 thousand died immediately after the explosion.

All communication with the city was severed. In Tokyo, they noticed that the local Hiroshima radio station had disappeared from the air and the telegraph line had stopped working. After some time, information began to arrive from regional railway stations about an explosion of incredible force.

An officer of the General Staff urgently flew to the scene of the tragedy, who later wrote in his memoirs that what struck him most was the lack of streets - the city was evenly covered with rubble, it was not possible to determine where and what was just a few hours ago.

Officials in Tokyo could not believe that damage of such magnitude was caused by just one bomb. Representatives of the Japanese General Staff turned to scientists for clarification on what weapons could cause such destruction. One of the physicists, Dr. I. Nishina, suggested the use of a nuclear bomb, since rumors had been circulating among scientists for some time about attempts by the Americans to create one. The physicist finally confirmed his assumptions after a personal visit to the destroyed Hiroshima, accompanied by military personnel.

On August 8, the US Air Force command was finally able to assess the effect of its operation. Aerial photography showed that 60% of the buildings located on an area of ​​\u200b\u200ba total area of ​​​​12 km2 turned into dust, the rest were piles of rubble.

Bombing of Nagasaki

An order was issued to compile leaflets in Japanese with photographs of the destroyed Hiroshima and a full description of the effect of a nuclear explosion, for their subsequent distribution over Japanese territory. In case of refusal to surrender, the leaflets contained threats to continue the atomic bombing of Japanese cities.

However, the American government was not going to wait for the Japanese reaction, since it did not initially plan to get by with just one bomb. The next attack, planned for August 12, was postponed to the 9th due to the expected worsening of the weather.

Kokura was assigned as the target, with Nagasaki as a backup option. Kokura was very lucky - cloud cover, together with a smoke screen from a burning steel plant, which had been subjected to an air raid the day before, made visual bombing impossible. The plane headed towards Nagasaki, and at 11:02 am dropped its deadly cargo on the city.

Within a radius of 1.2 km from the epicenter of the explosion, all living things died almost instantly, turning to ashes under the influence of thermal radiation. The shock wave reduced residential buildings to rubble and destroyed a steel mill. The thermal radiation was so powerful that the skin of people who were not covered by clothing, located 5 km from the explosion, was burned and wrinkled. 73 thousand people died instantly, 35 thousand died in terrible suffering a little later.

On the same day, the US President addressed his compatriots on the radio, thanking in his speech the higher powers for the fact that the Americans were the first to receive nuclear weapons. Truman asked God for guidance and guidance on how to most effectively use atomic bombs for higher purposes.

At that time, there was no urgent need for the bombing of Nagasaki, but, apparently, research interest played a role, no matter how scary and cynical it may sound. The fact is that the bombs differed in design and active substance. The Little Boy that destroyed Hiroshima was a uranium bomb, while the Fat Man that destroyed Nagasaki was a plutonium-239 bomb.

There are archival documents proving the US intention to drop another atomic bomb on Japan. A telegram dated August 10, addressed to the Chief of Staff, General Marshall, reported that, given appropriate meteorological conditions, the next bombing could be carried out on August 17-18.

On August 8, 1945, fulfilling the obligations undertaken within the framework of the Potsdam and Yalta conferences, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, whose government still harbored hopes of reaching agreements to avoid unconditional surrender. This event, coupled with the overwhelming effect of the American use of nuclear weapons, forced the least militant members of the cabinet to appeal to the emperor with recommendations to accept any conditions of the United States and allies.

Some of the most militant officers tried to stage a coup to prevent such a development of events, but the plot failed.

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito publicly announced Japan's surrender. Nevertheless, clashes between Japanese and Soviet troops in Manchuria continued for several more weeks.

On August 28, the American-British allied forces began the occupation of Japan, and on September 2, on board the battleship Missouri, the act of surrender was signed, ending World War II.

Long-term consequences of atomic bombings

A few weeks after the explosions, which claimed hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives, people who at first seemed unaffected suddenly began to die en masse. At that time, the effects of radiation exposure were little understood. People continued to live in contaminated areas, not realizing the danger that ordinary water began to carry, as well as the ashes that covered the destroyed cities with a thin layer.

Japan learned that the cause of death of people who survived the atomic bombing was some previously unknown disease thanks to the actress Midori Naka. The theater troupe in which Naka played arrived in Hiroshima a month before the events, where they rented a house for living, located 650m from the epicenter of the future explosion, after which 13 of the 17 people died on the spot. Midori not only remained alive, but was practically unharmed, apart from minor scratches, although all her clothes were simply burned. Fleeing from the fire, the actress rushed to the river and jumped into the water, from where soldiers pulled her out and provided first aid.

Finding herself in Tokyo a few days later, Midori went to the hospital, where she was examined by the best Japanese doctors. Despite all efforts, the woman died, but doctors had the opportunity to observe the development and course of the disease for almost 9 days. Before her death, it was believed that the vomiting and bloody diarrhea that many victims experienced were symptoms of dysentery. Officially, Midori Naka is considered the first person to die from radiation sickness, and it was her death that sparked widespread discussion about the consequences of radiation poisoning. 18 days passed from the moment of the explosion until the death of the actress.

However, soon after the Allied occupation of Japanese territory began, newspaper references to the victims of American bombings gradually began to fade away. During almost 7 years of occupation, American censorship prohibited any publications on this topic.

For those who were victims of the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a special term “hibakusha” appeared. Several hundred people found themselves in a situation where talking about their health became taboo. Any attempts to remind of the tragedy were suppressed - it was forbidden to make films, write books, poems, songs. It was impossible to express compassion, ask for help, or collect donations for the victims.

For example, a hospital created by a group of enthusiastic doctors in Ujin to help the hibakusha was closed at the request of the occupation authorities, and all documentation, including medical records, was confiscated.

In November 1945, at the suggestion of the US President, the ABCS Center was created to study the effects of radiation on survivors of explosions. The organization's clinic, which opened in Hiroshima, conducted only examinations and did not provide medical care to the victims. The center's staff were especially interested in those who were hopelessly ill and died as a result of radiation sickness. Essentially, the purpose of the ABCS was to collect statistical data.

Only after the end of the American occupation did they begin to speak out loud about the problems of the hibakusha in Japan. In 1957, each victim was given a document indicating how far he was from the epicenter at the time of the explosion. Bombing victims and their descendants before today receive financial and medical assistance from the state. However, within the rigid framework of Japanese society there was no place for the “hibakusha” - several hundred thousand people became a separate caste. The rest of the residents, if possible, avoided communication, much less creating a family with the victims, especially after they began to have children with developmental defects en masse. Most of the pregnancies in women living in cities at the time of the bombing ended in miscarriages or the death of babies immediately after birth. Only a third of pregnant women in the explosion zone gave birth to children who did not have serious abnormalities.

The feasibility of destroying Japanese cities

Japan continued the war even after the surrender of its main ally Germany. In a report presented at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the estimated date for the end of the war with Japan was assumed to be no earlier than 18 months after Germany surrendered. According to the USA and Great Britain, the USSR's entry into the war against the Japanese could help reduce the duration of combat operations, casualties and material costs. As a result of the agreements, I. Stalin promised to act on the side of the Allies within 3 months after the end of the war with the Germans, which was done on August 8, 1945.

Was the use of nuclear weapons really necessary? Disputes about this have not stopped to this day. The destruction of two Japanese cities, amazing in its cruelty, was such a senseless action at that time that it gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories.

One of them claims that the bombing was not an urgent need, but only a show of force to the Soviet Union. The USA and Great Britain united with the USSR only unwillingly, in the fight against a common enemy. However, as soon as the danger passed, yesterday’s allies immediately became ideological opponents again. Second World War redrew the map of the world, changing it beyond recognition. The winners established their order, simultaneously testing out future rivals, with whom only yesterday they were sitting in the same trenches.

Another theory claims that Hiroshima and Nagasaki became testing sites. Although the United States tested the first atomic bomb on a deserted island, the true power of the new weapon could only be assessed in real conditions. The still unfinished war with Japan provided the Americans with a golden opportunity, while providing an iron-clad justification with which politicians repeatedly covered themselves later. They were “simply saving the lives of ordinary American guys.”

Most likely, the decision to use nuclear bombs was made as a result of a combination of all these factors.

• After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the situation developed in such a way that the Allies were not able to force Japan to surrender only on their own.
• The entry of the Soviet Union into the war obligated subsequently to listen to the opinion of the Russians.
• The military was naturally interested in testing new weapons in real conditions.
• Demonstrate to a potential enemy who is boss - why not?

The only justification for the United States is the fact that the consequences of the use of such weapons had not been studied at the time of their use. The effect exceeded all expectations and sobered even the most militant.

In March 1950, the Soviet Union announced the creation of its own atomic bomb. Nuclear parity was achieved in the 70s of the twentieth century.

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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.

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

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 massacre, and millions of photographs were destroyed, and pressure in the US 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 came to light, but what happened, compared to the images of German concentration camps that 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, killing 70,000 people instantly from the 6,000 degrees Celsius, the rest died from the shock wave, which left buildings standing and destroyed trees within a 120 km radius.

A few minutes later, the atomic mushroom reaches a height of 13 kilometers, causing acid rain that 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 an American program to develop 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 the 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 wrote an appeal to 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 a large mass of uranium, which will generate a lot of energy […] thanks to which you can create bombs..

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 became a 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. While in the hospital room, 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. According to various 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 an 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 made an official visit to Japan.

An American B-29 Superfortress bomber named “Enola Gay” took off from Tinian early on August 6 with a single 4,000 kg uranium bomb called “Little Boy”. At 8:15 a.m., the “baby” bomb was dropped from a height of 9,400 m above the city and spent 57 seconds in free fall. At the moment of detonation, a small explosion provoked an explosion of 64 kg of uranium. Of these 64 kg, only 7 kg went through the fission stage, and of this mass, only 600 mg turned into energy - explosive energy that burned everything in its path for several kilometers, leveling the city with a blast wave, starting a series of fires and plunging all living things into radiation flow. It is believed that about 70,000 people died immediately, with another 70,000 dying from injuries and radiation by 1950. Today in Hiroshima, near the epicenter of the explosion, there is a memorial museum, the purpose of which is to promote the idea that nuclear weapons will cease to exist forever.

May 1945: selection of targets.

During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Target Selection Committee recommended Kyoto (a major industrial center), Hiroshima (an army storage center and military port), and Yokohama (a military center) as targets for the use of atomic weapons. industry), Kokura (the largest military arsenal) and Niigata (a military port and mechanical engineering center). The committee rejected the idea of ​​using this weapon against a purely military target, since there was a chance of overshooting a small area not surrounded by a large 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 a weapon must be significant enough for its importance to be recognized internationally. The Committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was supported by the fact that its population had more high level education and was thus better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima was of such a size and location that, taking into account the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.
US Secretary of War Henry Stimson removed Kyoto from 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."

Pictured is US Secretary of War Henry Stimson

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, saying only that he was glad and hoped that the United States could use it 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 understood everything perfectly, but did not show it, and in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting he noted that “We will need to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work.” After the declassification of the American intelligence services' operation "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodore Hall even announced the planned date of the first nuclear test a few days before the Potsdam Conference. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall worked for Soviet intelligence already since 1944.
On July 25, Truman approved an order, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as weather permits, and the following cities in the future as bombs become available.
On July 26, the governments of the United States, Great 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 airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government did not express any desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki said 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 [what?] of the Japanese, did not change the government’s decision. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that imperial power must be protected at all costs.

An aerial view of Hiroshima shortly before the bomb was dropped on the city in August 1945. Shown here is a densely populated area of ​​the city on the Motoyasu River.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Mixed Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was several miles from other units and was carefully guarded.
On July 26, the cruiser Indianapolis delivered the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian.
On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed an 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, the commander of US strategic aviation, General Carl Spaatz, 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 plane.

Commander A.F. Birch (left) numbers the bomb, codenamed "Baby", physicist Dr Ramsay (right) will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989.

The "baby" was 3 m long and weighed 4,000 kg, but contained only 64 kg of uranium, which was used to provoke a chain of atomic reactions and subsequent explosion.

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 city's population before the war was over 340 thousand people, making 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 for the 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 firefighting equipment and insufficient training of personnel created a high fire danger even in peacetime.
Hiroshima's population peaked at 380,000 during the war, but before the bombing the population gradually declined due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack the population was about 245 thousand people.

Pictured is the US Army Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber "Enola Gay"

Bombardment

The primary target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (the alternate targets were Kokura and Nagasaki). Although Truman's orders called for atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.
On August 6 at 1:45 a.m., an American B-29 bomber under the command of the commander of the 509th Combined Aviation Regiment, Colonel Paul Tibbetts, carrying the “Baby” atomic bomb on board, took off from the island of Tinian, which was about 6 hours flight from Hiroshima. Tibbetts' plane (Enola Gay) was flying as part of a formation that included six other aircraft: a reserve plane (Top Secret), two controllers and three reconnaissance aircraft (Jebit III, Full House and Straight Flash). The commanders of reconnaissance aircraft sent to Nagasaki and Kokura reported significant cloudiness over these cities. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft, Major Iserli, found that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and sent the signal “Bomb the first target.”
Around seven o'clock in the morning, the Japanese early warning radar network detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid warning was announced and radio broadcasts were stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At approximately 08:00, the 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 canceled. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard radio message was that it would be wise to head to bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually spotted, and that it was not a raid but just some form of reconnaissance that was expected.
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 fuse was installed at a height of 600 meters above the surface; the explosion, the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, occurred 45 seconds after the release.
The first public report of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.

A photo taken from one of two American bombers of the 509th Integrated Group shortly after 8:15 a.m. on August 5, 1945, shows smoke rising from the explosion over the city of Hiroshima.

When the uranium in the bomb fissioned, it was instantly converted into the energy of 15 kilotons of TNT, heating the massive fireball to 3,980 degrees Celsius.

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. The light radiation burned the dark pattern of clothing into the skin and left silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside their houses described a blinding flash of light, which was simultaneously accompanied by a wave of stifling heat. The blast wave followed almost immediately for everyone near the epicenter, often knocking them off their feet. Occupants of the buildings generally avoided exposure to the light radiation from the explosion, but not the blast wave - glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was thrown from his house across the street by the blast wave, while the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were 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, creating a strong wind (at a speed of 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The firestorm captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not manage 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 a distance of 300 m from the epicenter at the time of the explosion:
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 skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.
A few days after the explosion, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of radiation among the survivors. Soon, the number of deaths among the survivors began to rise again, as patients who had seemed 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 7-8 weeks later. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. Long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the blast.

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

Losses 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 radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200,000 people.
According to official Japanese data, as of March 31, 2013, there were 201,779 “hibakusha” alive - people who suffered from the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This figure includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions (mostly living in Japan at the time of the calculation). Of these, 1%, according to the Japanese government, had serious cancer 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.

View of the destroyed Hiroshima in the fall of 1945 on one branch of the river passing through the delta on which the city stands

Complete destruction after the dropping of an atomic bomb.

Color photograph of the destruction of Hiroshima in March 1946.

An explosion destroyed the Okita plant in Hiroshima, Japan.

Look how the sidewalk has been raised and there's a drainpipe. Scientists say this was due to the vacuum created by the pressure from the atomic explosion.

Twisted iron beams are all that remains of the theater building, located about 800 meters from the epicenter.

The Hiroshima Fire Department lost its only vehicle when the western station was destroyed by an atomic bomb. The station was located 1,200 meters from the epicenter.

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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 destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality rate of the population in subsequent years, as well as diseases and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. Evacuation of the population from contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.
It is quite difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since the first atomic bombs were technically relatively low-power and imperfect (the Baby bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only about 700 g reacted division), the level of contamination 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, there were several tons of fission products and transuranium elements in the reactor core - various radioactive isotopes that accumulated during the operation of the reactor.

Terrible consequences...

Keloid scars on the back and shoulders of a victim of the Hiroshima bombing. The scars formed where the victim's skin was not protected from direct radiation rays.

Comparative preservation of some buildings

Some reinforced concrete buildings in the city were very stable (due to the risk of earthquakes), and their frames did not collapse, despite the fact that they were quite close to the center of destruction in the city (the epicenter of the explosion). This is how the brick building of the Hiroshima Chamber of Industry (now commonly known as the "Genbaku Dome", or "Atomic Dome"), designed and built by the Czech architect Jan Letzel, survived, which was only 160 meters from the epicenter of the explosion (at the height of the bomb detonation 600 m above the surface). These ruins became the most famous exhibit of the atomic explosion in Hiroshima and were elevated to the rank of world heritage UNESCO, despite objections expressed by the US and Chinese governments.

A man looks at the ruins left after the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima.

People lived here

Visitors to Hiroshima Memorial Park look at a panoramic view of the aftermath of the atomic explosion on July 27, 2005 in Hiroshima.

Memorial flame in honor of the victims of the atomic explosion at the monument in the Hiroshima Memorial Park. The fire has burned continuously since it was lit on August 1, 1964. The fire will burn until “all the atomic weapons on earth disappear forever.”

The other day the world celebrated a sad anniversary - the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, a US Air Force B-29 Enola Gay, under the command of Colonel Tibbetts, dropped the Baby bomb on Hiroshima. And three days later, on August 9, 1945, a B-29 Boxcar aircraft under the command of Colonel Charles Sweeney dropped a bomb on Nagasaki. The total number of deaths in the explosion alone ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. And that’s not all - about 200 thousand people died from radiation sickness.

After the bombing, real hell reigned in Hiroshima. Witness Akiko Takahura, who miraculously survived, recalls:

“Three colors for me characterize 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 skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.”

Some Japanese people instantly evaporated from the heat radiation, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt

The heat radiation caused some Japanese to instantly evaporate, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt. The shock wave swept away buildings and killed thousands of people. A real fire tornado raged in Hiroshima, in which thousands of civilians burned alive.

In the name of what was all this horror and why were the peaceful cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed?

It's official: to hasten the fall of Japan. But she was already living out her last days, especially when, on August 8, Soviet troops began the defeat of the Kwantung Army. But unofficially these were tests of super-powerful weapons, ultimately directed against the USSR. As US President Truman cynically said: “If this bomb goes off, I’ll have a good club against those Russian boys.” So forcing the Japanese to peace was far from the most important thing in this action. And the effectiveness of atomic bombings in this regard was small. Not them, but successes Soviet troops in Manchuria were the final impetus for capitulation.

It is significant that Japanese Emperor Hirohito's Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, issued on August 17, 1945, notes the significance of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, but does not say a word about the atomic bombings.

According to Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, it was the declaration of war by the USSR in the interval between the two bombings that caused the surrender. After the war, Admiral Soemu Toyoda said: “I think the participation of the USSR in the war against Japan, rather than the atomic bombings, did more to hasten the surrender.” Prime Minister Suzuki also stated that the USSR's entry into the war made "the continuation of the war impossible."

Moreover, the Americans themselves ultimately recognized the lack of need for atomic bombings.

According to the US Government's 1946 Study on the Effectiveness of Strategic Bombing, atomic bombs were not necessary to win the war. After examining numerous documents and conducting interviews with hundreds of Japanese military and civilian officials, the following conclusion was reached:

“Definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered, even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the USSR had not entered the war, even if the invasion of the Japanese islands had not been planned and prepared "

Here is the opinion of the general, then US President Dwight Eisenhower:

“In 1945, Secretary of War Stimson, while visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who believed that there were a number of compelling reasons to question the wisdom of such a decision. During his description... I became depressed and expressed to him my deep doubts, firstly, based on my belief that Japan had already been defeated and that the atomic bombing was completely unnecessary, and secondly, because I believed that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of weapons, the use of which, in my opinion, was no longer necessary as a means of saving the lives of American soldiers."

And here is the opinion of Admiral Ch. Nimitz:

“The Japanese have already actually asked for peace. From a purely military point of view, the atomic bomb did not play a decisive role in the defeat of Japan."

To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman

The atomic bombings were a great experiment on people who were not even considered human. To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman. Thus, American soldiers (in particular, the Marines) were engaged in a very unique collection of souvenirs: they dismembered the bodies of Japanese soldiers and civilians of the Pacific Islands, and their skulls, teeth, hands, skin, etc. sent home to their loved ones as gifts. There is no complete certainty that all the dismembered bodies were dead - the Americans did not disdain to pull out gold teeth from still living prisoners of war.

According to American historian James Weingartner, there is a direct connection between the atomic bombings and the collection of enemy body parts: both were the result of the dehumanization of the enemy:

“The widespread image of the Japanese as subhuman created an emotional context that provided further justification for decisions that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.”

But you will be indignant and say: they are rude foot soldiers. And the decision was ultimately made by the intelligent Christian Truman. Well, let's give the floor to him. On the second day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Truman declared that “the only language they understand is the language of bombing. When you have to deal with an animal, you have to treat it like an animal. It’s very sad, but nevertheless it’s true.”

Since September 1945 (after the surrender of Japan), American specialists, including doctors, worked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, they did not treat the unfortunate “hibakusha” - patients with radiation sickness, but with genuine research interest they watched how their hair fell out, their skin peeled off, then spots appeared on it, bleeding began, how they weakened and died. Not a drop of compassion. Vae victis (woe to the vanquished). And science is above all!

But I can already hear indignant voices: “Father Deacon, who do you feel sorry for? Is it the same Japanese who treacherously attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor? Isn’t it the same Japanese military that committed terrible crimes in China and Korea, killed millions of Chinese, Koreans, Malays, and at times in brutal ways?” I answer: the majority of those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had nothing to do with the military. These were civilians - women, children, old people. With all the crimes of Japan, one cannot but recognize the certain correctness of the official protest of the Japanese government on August 11, 1945:

“Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion... The said bombs used by the Americans far surpass in their cruelty and horrifying effects poison gases or any other weapons used which are prohibited. Japan protests the United States' violation of internationally recognized principles of warfare, both in the use of the atomic bomb and in earlier incendiary bombings that killed the elderly."

The most sober assessment of the atomic bombings was voiced by Indian judge Radhabinuth Pal. Recalling Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II's justification for his duty to end World War I as quickly as possible ("Everything must be given over to fire and sword. Men, women and children must be killed, and not a single tree or house must remain undestroyed"), Pahl remarked :

"This policy massacres carried out with the aim of ending the war as quickly as possible, was considered a crime. During the war on Pacific Ocean", which we are considering here, if there is anything approaching the letter from the German Emperor discussed above, it is the Allied decision to use the atomic bomb."

Indeed, we see here a clear continuity between the German racism of the First and Second World Wars and Anglo-Saxon racism.

The creation of atomic weapons and especially their use revealed a terrible disease of the European spirit - its hyper-intellectualism, cruelty, will to violence, contempt for man. And contempt for God and His commandments. It is significant that the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki exploded near a Christian church. Since the 16th century, Nagasaki has been the gateway for Christianity to Japan. And so the Protestant Truman gave the order for its barbaric destruction.

The ancient Greek word ατομον means both an indivisible particle and a person. This is no coincidence. The decomposition of the personality of European man and the decomposition of the atom went hand in hand. And even such godless intellectuals as A. Camus understood this:

“Mechanized civilization has just reached the final stage of barbarism. In the not-too-distant future we will have to choose between mass suicide and the wise use of scientific advances [...] This should not be just a request; it must be a command that comes from the bottom up, from ordinary citizens to governments, a command to make a firm choice between hell and reason.”

But, alas, the governments, just as they did not listen to reason, still do not listen.

Saint Nicholas (Velimirovich) rightly said:

“Europe is smart at taking away, but it doesn’t know how to give. She knows how to kill, but she doesn’t know how to value other people’s lives. She knows how to create weapons of destruction, but she does not know how to be humble before God and merciful towards weaker peoples. She is smart to be selfish and carry her “creed” of selfishness everywhere, but she does not know how to be God-loving and humane.”

These words capture the enormous and terrible experience of the Serbs, the experience of the last two centuries. But this is also the experience of the whole world, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The definition of Europe as a “white demon” was deeply correct. In many ways, the prophecy of St. Nicholas (Velimirović) about the nature of the future war came true: “It will be a war that is completely devoid of mercy, honor and nobility [...] For the coming war will have as its goal not only victory over the enemy, but also the destruction of the enemy. Complete destruction of not only the combatants, but everything that makes up their rear: parents, children, sick, wounded and prisoners, their villages and cities, livestock and pastures, railways and all the ways!” With the exception of the Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War, where the Russian Soviet soldier still tried to show mercy, honor and nobility, the prophecy of St. Nicholas came true.

Where does such cruelty come from? Saint Nicholas sees its cause in militant materialism and the plane of consciousness:

“And Europe once began in spirit, but now ends in flesh, i.e. carnal vision, judgment, desires and conquests. As if enchanted! Her whole life flows along two paths: in length and in width, i.e. along the plane. She knows neither depth nor height, that is why she fights for the earth, for space, for the expansion of the plane and only for this! Hence war after war, horror after horror. For God created man not only so that he would be simply a living being, an animal, but also so that he would penetrate into the depths of mysteries with his mind, and ascend with his heart to the heights of God. The war for the land is a war against the truth, against God’s and human nature.”

But it was not only the flatness of consciousness that led Europe to military disaster, but also carnal lust and a godless mind:

“What is Europe? It's lust and intelligence. And these properties are embodied in the Pope and Luther. The European Pope is the human lust for power. The European Luther is the human audacity to explain everything with his own mind. Dad as the ruler of the world and the smart guy as the ruler of the world.”

The most important thing is that these properties do not know any external restrictions, they strive for infinity - “fulfillment of human lust to the limit and the mind to the limit.” Such properties, elevated to an absolute, must inevitably give rise to constant conflicts and bloody wars of destruction: “Because of human lust, every nation and every person seeks power, sweetness and glory, imitating the Pope. Because of the human mind, every nation and every person finds that he is smarter than others and more powerful than others. In this case, how can there not be madness, revolutions and wars between people?

Many Christians (and not only Orthodox Christians) were horrified by what happened in Hiroshima. In 1946, a report by the US National Council of Churches was released entitled “Atomic Weapons and Christianity,” which stated, in part:

“As American Christians, we deeply repent of the irresponsible use of atomic weapons. We all agree on the idea that, whatever our opinion of the war as a whole, the surprise bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is morally vulnerable."

Of course, many inventors of atomic weapons and executors of inhuman orders recoiled in horror from their brainchild. The inventor of the American atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, after testing at Alamogorodo, when a terrible flash lit up the sky, remembered the words of an ancient Indian poem:

If the shine of a thousand suns
It will flash in the sky at once,
Man will become death
A threat to the earth.

After the war, Oppenheimer began to fight for the limitation and prohibition of nuclear weapons, for which he was removed from the Uranium Project. His successor Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, was much less scrupulous.

Iserly, the spy plane pilot who reported good weather over Hiroshima, then sent aid to the victims of the bombing and demanded that he be imprisoned as a criminal. His request was fulfilled, although he was put in... a psychiatric hospital.

But alas, many were much less scrupulous.

After the war, a very revealing brochure was published with documentary memories of the crew of the Enola Gay bomber, which delivered the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” to Hiroshima. How did these twelve people feel when they saw the city below them that they had turned to ashes?

“STIBORIK: Before, our 509th Composite Aviation Regiment was constantly teased. When the neighbors left for flights before dawn, they threw stones at our barracks. But when we dropped the bomb, everyone saw that we were dashing guys.

LEWIS: The entire crew was briefed before the flight. Tibbetts later claimed that he alone was aware of the matter. This is nonsense: everyone knew.

JEPPSON: About an hour and a half after takeoff, I went down to the bomb bay. It was pleasantly cool there. Parsons and I had to arm everything and remove the fuses. I still keep them as souvenirs. Then again we could admire the ocean. Everyone was busy with their own business. Someone was humming “Sentimental Journey,” the most popular song of August 1945.

LEWIS: The commander was dozing. Sometimes I left my chair. The autopilot kept the car on course. Our main target was Hiroshima, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternate targets.

VAN KIRK: The weather would have decided which of these cities we would choose to bomb.

CARON: The radio operator was waiting for a signal from three “superfortresses” flying ahead for weather reconnaissance. And from the tail compartment I could see two B-29s accompanying us from behind. One of them was supposed to take photographs, and the other was supposed to deliver measuring equipment to the explosion site.

FERIBEE: We very successfully reached the target on the first pass. I saw her from afar, so my task was simple.

NELSON: As soon as the bomb separated, the plane turned 160 degrees and sharply descended to gain speed. Everyone put on dark glasses.

JEPPSON: This wait was the most anxious moment of the flight. I knew the bomb would take 47 seconds to fall, and I started counting in my head, but when I got to 47, nothing happened. Then I remembered that the shock wave would still need time to catch up with us, and that’s when it came.

TIBBETS: The plane suddenly fell down, it rattled like a tin roof. The tail gunner saw the shock wave approaching us like a light. He didn't know what it was. He warned us about the approaching wave with a signal. The plane sank even further, and it seemed to me that an anti-aircraft shell had exploded above us.

CARON: I took pictures. It was a breathtaking sight. Ash-gray smoke mushroom with a red core. It was clear that everything inside was on fire. I was ordered to count the fires. Damn it, I immediately realized that this was unthinkable! A swirling, boiling haze, like lava, covered the city and spread out to the sides towards the foot of the hills.

SHUMARD: Everything in that cloud was death. Some black debris flew upward along with the smoke. One of us said: “It is the souls of the Japanese who ascend to heaven.”

BESSER: Yes, everything in the city that could burn was on fire. “You guys just dropped the first atomic bomb in history!” - the voice of Colonel Tibbetts was heard in the headsets. I recorded everything on tape, but then someone put all these recordings under lock and key.

CARON: On the way back, the commander asked me what I thought about the flight. “It’s worse than driving your own ass down the mountain in Coney Island Park for a quarter of a dollar,” I joked. “Then I’ll collect a quarter from you when we sit down!” - the colonel laughed. “We’ll have to wait until payday!” - we answered in unison.

VAN KIRK: The main thought was, of course, about myself: to get out of all this as quickly as possible and return intact.

FERIBEE: Captain Parsons and I had to write a report to send to the President via Guam.

TIBBETS: None of the conventions that had been agreed upon would do, and we decided to transmit the telegram in clear text. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it said that the results of the bombing exceeded all expectations.”

On August 6, 2015, on the anniversary of the bombings, President Truman's grandson Clifton Truman Daniel said that "to the end of his life, my grandfather believed that the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right one, and the United States would never apologize for it."

It seems that everything is clear here: ordinary fascism, even more terrible in its vulgarity.

Let's now look at what the first eyewitnesses saw from the ground. Here is a report from Birt Bratchett, who visited Hiroshima in September 1945. On the morning of September 3, Burtchett stepped off the train in Hiroshima, becoming the first foreign correspondent to see the city since the atomic explosion. Together with the Japanese journalist Nakamura from the Kyodo Tsushin telegraph agency, Burchett walked around the endless reddish ashes and visited street first aid stations. And there, among the ruins and groans, he typed out his report, entitled: “I am writing about this to warn the world...”:

“Almost a month after the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, people continue to die in the city - mysteriously and horribly. The townspeople who were not affected on the day of the disaster die from an unknown disease, which I cannot call anything other than the atomic plague. For no apparent reason, their health begins to deteriorate. Their hair falls out, spots appear on their bodies, and they begin to bleed from their ears, nose, and mouth. Hiroshima, Burchett wrote, does not look like a city that has suffered from conventional bombing. The impression is as if a giant ice skating rink passed along the street, crushing all living things. At this first living test site where the power of the atomic bomb was tested, I saw a nightmarish devastation indescribable in words, such as I had not seen anywhere else in four years of war.”

And that is not all. Let us remember the tragedy of those exposed and their children. The whole world has heard the poignant story of a girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from leukemia, one of the consequences of radiation exposure. While already in the hospital, Sadako learned about a legend according to which a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will certainly come true. Wanting to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands, but she only managed to fold 644 cranes. There was a song about her:

Returning from Japan, having walked many miles,
A friend brought me a paper crane.
There is a story connected with it, there is only one story -
About a girl who was irradiated.

Chorus:
I'll spread paper wings for you,
Fly, don't disturb this world, this world,
Crane, crane, Japanese crane,
You are an ever-living souvenir.

“When will I see the sun?” - asked the doctor
(And life burned thinly, like a candle in the wind).
And the doctor answered the girl: “When the winter passes
And you will make a thousand cranes yourself.”

But the girl did not survive and soon died,
And she didn’t make a thousand cranes.
The last little crane fell from dead hands -
And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her.

Let us note that all this would have awaited you and me if it had not been for the Soviet uranium project, which began in 1943, accelerated after 1945 and completed in 1949. Of course, the crimes committed under Stalin were terrible. And above all - persecution of the Church, exile and execution of clergy and laity, destruction and desecration of churches, collectivization, the all-Russian (and not just Ukrainian) famine of 1933, which broke people's life, and finally the repressions of 1937. However, let's not forget that we are now living the fruits of that same industrialization. And if the Russian state is now independent and so far invulnerable to external aggression, if the tragedies of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria are not repeated in our open spaces, then this is largely thanks to the military-industrial complex and the nuclear missile shield laid down under Stalin.

Meanwhile, there were enough people who wanted to burn us. Here is at least one - the emigrant poet Georgy Ivanov:

Russia has been living in prison for thirty years.
On Solovki or Kolyma.
And only in Kolyma and Solovki
Russia is the one that will live for centuries.

Everything else is planetary hell:
Damn Kremlin, crazy Stalingrad.
They deserve only one thing -
Fire that burns him.

These are poems written in 1949 by Georgy Ivanov, a “wonderful Russian patriot,” according to a certain publicist who self-identified as a “church Vlasovite.” Professor Alexei Svetozarsky aptly spoke about these verses: “What can we expect from this glorious son of the Silver Age? The swords are cardboard and the blood for them, especially foreign blood, is “cranberry juice”, including the one that flowed at Stalingrad. Well, the fact that both the Kremlin and Stalingrad are worthy of “incinerating” fire, then the “patriot”, who himself successfully sat out both the war and the occupation in a quiet French outback, was, alas, not alone in his desire. The “cleansing” fire of nuclear war was spoken of in the 1948 Easter Message of the Russian Synod of Bishops. Orthodox Church Abroad".

By the way, it’s worth reading it more carefully. Here is what Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) wrote in 1948:

“Our time has invented its own special means of exterminating people and all life on earth: they have such destructive power that in an instant they can turn large spaces into a complete desert. Everything is ready to be incinerated by this hellish fire, caused by man himself from the abyss, and we again hear the prophet’s complaint addressed to God: “How long will the earth weep and all the grass of the village dry up from the malice of those who live on it” (Jeremiah 12:4). But this terrible, devastating fire has not only a destructive, but also a cleansing effect: for in it those who ignite it are burned, and with it all the vices, crimes and passions with which they defile the earth. [...] Atomic bombs and all other destructive means invented by modern technology are truly less dangerous for our Fatherland than the moral decay that the highest representatives of civil and church authorities bring into the Russian soul through their example. The decomposition of the atom brings with it only physical devastation and destruction, and the corruption of the mind, heart and will entails the spiritual death of an entire people, after which there is no resurrection” (“Holy Rus'”. Stuttgart, 1948).

In other words, not only Stalin, Zhukov, Voroshilov, but also His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov), Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) - the then “highest representatives of church authority” - were doomed to be burned. And millions of our compatriots, including millions of believing Orthodox Christians, who suffered persecution and the Great Patriotic War. Only Metropolitan Anastasy chastely keeps silent about the moral decay and example that was shown by the highest representatives of Western civil and church authorities. And I forgot the great words of the Gospel: “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

A. Solzhenitsyn’s novel “In the First Circle” goes back to a similar ideology. It glorifies the traitor Innocent Volodin, who tried to hand over to the Americans the Russian intelligence officer Yuri Koval, who was hunting for atomic secrets. It also contains a call to drop an atomic bomb on the USSR, “so that people don’t suffer.” No matter how much they “suffer,” we can see in the example of Sadako Sasaki and tens of thousands like her.

And therefore, deep gratitude not only to our great scientists, workers and soldiers who created the Soviet atomic bomb, which was never put into use, but stopped the cannibalistic plans of American generals and politicians, but also to those of our soldiers who, after the Great Patriotic War guarded the Russian sky and did not allow B-29s with nuclear bombs on board to break into it. Among them is the now living Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Sergei Kramarenko, known to readers of the site. Sergei Makarovich fought in Korea and personally shot down 15 American aircraft. This is how he describes the significance of the activities of Soviet pilots in Korea:

“I consider our most important achievement to be that the division’s pilots caused significant damage to US strategic aviation armed with B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers. Our division managed to shoot down over 20 of them. As a result, the B-29s, which carried out carpet (area) bombing in large groups, stopped flying during the day north of the Pyongyang-Genzan line, that is, over most of the territory of North Korea. Thus, millions of Korean residents were saved - mostly women, children and the elderly. But even at night the B-29s suffered heavy losses. In total, during the three years of the Korean War, about a hundred B-29 bombers were shot down. Even more important was the fact that it became clear that in the event of a war with the Soviet Union, the “Superfortresses” carrying atomic bombs would not reach the large industrial centers and cities of the USSR, because they would be shot down. This played a huge role in the fact that World War III never started.”