Hiroshima

            On the quiet morning of August 6, 1945, the United States shocked the world by dropping an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. (www.grolier.com) Hiroshima was a major industrial city with an estimated population of almost 400,000 people. A B-29 bomber was loaded with the Atomic Bomb and left the United States Pacific air base at 2:45 a.m. local time and dropped the bomb at 8:15 a.m. .
             The bomb was detonated one minute after being dropped. The atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy", which was dropped on the Hiroshima City, exploded at an altitude of 580 meters above a hospital close to the present A-bomb Dome. (Brown, p.38) The mushroom cloud resulting from the explosion reached an estimated altitude of five hundred and twenty meters over Central Hiroshima. The atomic bomb blast obliterated three-fifths of the city within seconds. The atomic bomb gave off uranium-235 and was equivalent in power to approximately 15 kilotons of TNT gunpowder. (www.enviroweb.org) The fireball resulting from the explosion emitted an intense thermal heat, which caused severe burns and loss of eyesight. Most of the people exposed to thermal rays died. In addition, the impact of the bomb landing on the ground created an enormous shock wave closely followed a quick expansion of air. The result was the immediate death of 75,000 people. (www.grolier.com) .
             The long-term effects of the bomb on the environment and children are horrible. Atomic blasts cause many prolonged injuries such as, keloids, cataracts, leukemia and other cancers. (earthbase.org) The total death count for the atomic bombing is estimated at 140,000. This means that almost as many people died from the long-term effects as were killed in the initial explosion.
             People who think that dropping the bomb was right say that the bomb was the one event that ended the war. Americans believed that the Japanese would fight until the very last man even if there were a dropping of the atomic bomb.