Name
The Final Blow
By Jane Runyon
Japan was being soundly beaten by the
Allies. More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers
had been killed on Okinawa. They held no
air bases, naval bases, or supply depots in the
Pacific Ocean. The only goal they had left
was to protect their home islands from
invasion. Civilian leaders of the country
wanted to discuss a peace treaty with the
United States and Europe. The military
vowed to fight until the last Japanese soldier
was dead. The people of Japan didn't know
what to do. They were frightened by the
thought of an invasion by Allied forces.
They would be put in the middle of a battle zone. Allied planes had
been firebombing Japanese cities since February of 1945. Over
100,000 Japanese citizens had lost their lives in these bombings.
They knew an invasion would be long and cost many more civilian
lives.
The Allied Forces, led by the United States, had to make a serious
decision. They were also aware of the high cost an invasion of the
Japanese islands would bring. It would prolong the war by perhaps
another year. Battles and a blockade of materials and food brought
into the islands could raise the Japanese death toll to well over one
million. They estimated that at least 100,000 more Allied soldiers
could lose their lives. No one wanted to see these possibilities take
place.
There was one option open to the Allies that was almost
unthinkable. The United States, with the help of the United
Kingdom and Canada, had been working on a secret project. This
was called the Manhattan Project. They had created a nuclear bomb.
Nuclear energy is formed when atoms are split apart and the energy
is released. When this was done in a very scientific way, massive
energy was released that was greater than any explosive that had
ever been known before. No one was quite sure what the
consequences of exploding such a bomb would be. Some people
feared that the heat would be so high that the atmosphere might be
set on fire. Some feared that the radiation released by the explosion
might kill all living things on Earth. The atomic bomb was tested
once. Scientists conducted this test in the desert in New Mexico.
A decision as to whether or not to use this weapon rested with
one man. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been the President of the
United States during most of World War II. When he died suddenly
in April of 1945, Vice President Harry S. Truman had become the
president. He was a store owner from Missouri. He had strong
values. He was left with one of the biggest decisions an American
president ever had to make. His options were fairly clear. If he
allowed the war to go on as it was, the Allies would invade Japan.
More soldiers would be killed. More civilians would be killed. The
Japanese talked about peace, but would they follow through? They
had been talking about peace at the very time they had attacked Pearl
Harbor.
If President Truman ordered the use of atomic weapons, it would
cause a devastating loss of life in Japan. Civilians would be killed.
There was a possibility that radiation would destroy the land for
years. Atomic weapons had never been used before. Would their
use open up a whole new warfare that could eventually destroy the
entire world?
President Truman was given an almost impossible choice to make.
He used every bit of information he could get before he finally gave
the order. On the morning of August 6, 1945, three planes took off
from a base about six hours away from Japan. The Enola Gay was
piloted by an American named Colonel Paul Tibbets. Navy Captain
William Parsons was on board to arm the bomb. At 8:15, an atomic
bomb with the same explosive power as thirteen kilotons of TNT
was dropped over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb exploded
about 2,000 feet above the city. The force of the blast pushed
downward toward the center of the city. The initial blast killed
approximately 80,000 Japanese citizens. Radiation poisoning and
cancer caused by radiation brought that total to over 140,000 people
by the end of 1945. The city of Hiroshima had been devastated.
Sixteen hours after the first atomic bomb was dropped, President
Truman announced to the world what had been done. He also gave
the Japanese an ultimatum. They would either surrender or the
United States would do the same to another Japanese city. A battle
of words erupted between the Japanese military and the Japanese
civilian leadership. The military refused to give in to the American
threat.
Name
On August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb was dropped on the sea
port city of Nagasaki. Nagasaki had not been the original target.
The plan was to drop the bomb on Kokura. Cloudy conditions had
kept the Americans from dropping their payload on that city. At two
minutes past eleven that morning, an atomic bomb smaller than the
one dropped on Hiroshima leveled the city of Nagasaki. Over 75,000
of its residents were killed immediately. More than 100,000 died by
the end of the year.
The Japanese military wanted to fight on. The emperor of Japan,
Hirohito, finally stepped in and declared a surrender by his country.
His people had had enough. Some civilian leaders even declared the
bombings a good thing. They had brought an end to a war some of
them had wanted for quite some time.
3. Who was the President of the United States when the atomic
bombs were dropped?
A. President Washington
B. President Roosevelt
C. President Truman
D. President Hirohito
4. Which city was hit by an atomic bomb first?
A. Hiroshima
B. Nagasaki
C. Kokura
D. Tokyo
5. What were people afraid might happen if an atomic bomb were
dropped?
Debate still rages as to whether such an extreme act was the right
thing to do or not. What do you think?
The Final Blow
Questions
1. The Allies were planning to invade China.
A. true
B. false
2. What were the military and civilian leadership of Japan
arguing about?
6. From where does an atomic bomb get its energy?
A. from TNT
B. from splitting atoms
C. from the sun
D. from gasoline
7. Nagasaki was not the first choice of targets the day it was
bombed.
A. false
B. true
8. Why did President Truman choose to drop the atomic bombs?
A. to shorten the war
B. to show the Japanese how powerful the United States was
C. to see how it worked
D. to destroy Japan
How powerful is an atomic bomb? What damage can it do?
Name
How do wars end? Does someone always have to win?