HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI
Unit II – World War II
THE YALTA CONFERENCE
■ The Big Three
– Winston Churchill (Britain), Franklin Roosevelt (United States), and
Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
■ February 1945
– Discuss postwar reconstruction
– Different ideas on end of war treatment and government
■ April 1945
– President Roosevelt dies
– Harry S. Truman becomes President
THE PACIFIC THEATER■ The European Theater
– Hitler’s death - April 30, 1945
– Germany surrenders May 7
– Who is still fighting?
■ Iwo Jima (Feb. 1945)
– Essential to air war on Japan
– Aid the invasion of the mainland
■ Okinawa (April-June 1945)
– Final battle of World War II
THE MANHATTEN PROJECT
■ German Scientists
– Albert Einstein and others
– Warned of German advances
– What if the Nazis get it first?
■ Top Secret
– Harness nuclear energy
– Formed under Roosevelt
■ J. Robert Oppenheimer
– Father of the atomic bomb
– "Now I am become Death, the
destroyer of worlds.”
THE ATOMIC BOMB
■ Two Types
– Uranium gun-type fission bomb (“Little Boy”)
– Plutonium implosion-type fission bomb (“Fat Man”)
■ Power
– Average – Equals 20,000 tons of TNT
– Modern Nukes – Equals 1.2 million tons of TNT
– “Little Boy” – 16 kilotons of TNT
– “Fat Man” – 21 kilotons of TNT
– VIDEO – Nuclear Explosions
THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE■ The “New” Big Three
– Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin
■ July – August 1945
– How to deal with Germany’s surrender (V-E Day)
– Worried about Stalin’s growing power
■ “The Baby is born…”
– "a new weapon of unusually destructive force."
■ Potsdam Declaration
– Japan – Surrender now or face total destruction
– If Japan had only known…
Nuclear Dilemma
■ Pacific War Continuing
– Casualties high
– Japanese mindset
■ If war continues, how much longer
until the end? How many more people
need to die?
– Convinced Japan will fight until
the last person
■ How else might we benefit from
dropping the atomic bomb?
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN
■ Truman Decides to Use the Bomb
– Strategic targets selected
– Japan continues to ignore Potsdam
Declaration
■ August 6th, 1945
– First nuclear bomb in history is
dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
– “Little Boy”
EFFECTS OF THE BOMB
NAGASAKI, JAPAN■ Still No Response from Japan
– Emperor Hirohito does not respond to demands
– Why might he not respond immediately?
■ Three Days Later
– August 9th, 1945
– Second nuclear bomb in history detonated in Nagasaki, Japan
– “Fat Man”
■ Why do you think we do this?
– Problem? We only have 2…
EFFECTS OF THE BOMB
■ First Two to Four Months
– 90,000 to 166,000 people dead (Hiroshima)
– 60,000 to 80,000 people dead (Nagasaki)
– Half of those deaths occurred the very first day…
– Most were civilians
■ Following Months and Years
– Effects of the burns, radiation poisoning, and other injuries
– Total – Over 246,000 deaths
– But compared to a longer war…
WORLD WAR II FINALLY ENDS…
■ V-J Day
– 5 days after Nagasaki
– August 14, 1945
– Celebration!
■ Total Losses
– 17 million dead from battle
– At least 20 million civilians
– Some estimates place total losses at
60 million
YOU DECIDE…
■ Should the United States have dropped the nuclear bomb on
Hiroshima? Was it necessary to drop the second bomb on
Nagasaki?