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    The document provides background information on the development and testing of the atomic bomb and the context leading up to the United States' decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. It describes how the United States had been firebombing Japanese cities for months, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, but Japanese resolve remained strong. After the successful test of the first atomic bomb at White Sands, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, President Truman had to choose how to end the war as invading Japan was expected to result in thousands of additional US and Allied casualties. On August 6th and 9th, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing over 90

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    The document provides background information on the development and testing of the atomic bomb and the context leading up to the United States' decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. It describes how the United States had been firebombing Japanese cities for months, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, but Japanese resolve remained strong. After the successful test of the first atomic bomb at White Sands, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, President Truman had to choose how to end the war as invading Japan was expected to result in thousands of additional US and Allied casualties. On August 6th and 9th, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing over 90

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    The document provides background information on the development and testing of the atomic bomb and the context leading up to the United States' decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. It describes how the United States had been firebombing Japanese cities for months, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, but Japanese resolve remained strong. After the successful test of the first atomic bomb at White Sands, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, President Truman had to choose how to end the war as invading Japan was expected to result in thousands of additional US and Allied casualties. On August 6th and 9th, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing over 90

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    26 views10 pages

    Untitled

    Uploaded by

    Foggy
    The document provides background information on the development and testing of the atomic bomb and the context leading up to the United States' decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. It describes how the United States had been firebombing Japanese cities for months, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, but Japanese resolve remained strong. After the successful test of the first atomic bomb at White Sands, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, President Truman had to choose how to end the war as invading Japan was expected to result in thousands of additional US and Allied casualties. On August 6th and 9th, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing over 90

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 10

    over 8 million people live in New York City.

    More than 800 languages are spoken in New York City

    The statue was shipped as 351 pieces in 214 crates and took 4 months to assemble at its current home on Ellis
    Island.

    New York City’s Federal Reserve Bank has the largest gold storage in the world. The vault is 80 feet below street
    level and contains $90 billion in gold.

    New York Public Library has over 50 million books and other items and is the second largest library system in
    the nation after the Library of Congress. It is also the 3rd largest library in the world.
    The first pizzeria in the United States opened in NYC in 1895.

    New York City became the first capital of the United States in 1789.
    Urban park lawn statue Bethesda terrace Boats Fountain Castle Model boats Memorial

    Urban park lawn statue Bethesda terrace Boats Fountain Castle Model boats Memorial

    Sea lion Stork Penguin Red panda Snake Lemure Parrot


    Sea lion Stork Penguin Red panda Snake Lemure Parrot

    Staten Island The Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn


    Staten Island The Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn
    I
    The Japanese resolve to fight had been seriously hampered in the preceding months. Their losses at Iwo Jima and
    Okinawa had been staggering. Their navy had ceased to exist as an effective fighting force and the air corps had been
    decimated. American B-29's made bombing runs over military targets on the Japanese mainland an integral part of
    their air campaign. Japan's lack of air power hindered their ability to fight. The imprecision of bombing and the use of
    devastating city bombing in Europe eventually swayed United States Pacific theater military leaders to authorize
    bombing of Japanese mainland cities. Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe all were decimated by incendiary and other
    bombs.
    In all, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in these air strikes meant to deter the resolve of the Japanese
    people. Yet, Japanese resolve stayed strong and the idea of a bloody "house to house" invasion of the Japanese
    mainland would produce thousands more American and Allied casualties. The Allies in late July 1945 declared at
    Potsdam that the Japanese must unconditionally surrender.
    After Japanese leaders flatly rejected the Potsdam Declaration, President Truman authorized use of the atomic
    bomb anytime after August 3, 1945. On the clear morning of August 6, the first atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy,
    was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Leveling over 60 percent of the city, 70,000 residents died instantaneously in
    a searing flash of heat. Three days later, on August 9, a second bomb, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki. Over
    20,000 people died instantly. In the successive weeks, thousands more Japanese died from the after effects of the
    radiation exposure of the blast.
    In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, great anticipation and fear ran rampant at White Sands Missile Range
    near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, could hardly breathe.
    Years of secrecy, research, and tests were riding on this moment. "For the last few seconds, he stared directly
    ahead and when the announcer shouted Now!' and there came this tremendous burst of light followed abruptly
    there after by the deep growling of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous
    relief," recalled General L. R. Groves of Oppenheimer, in a memorandum for Secretary of War Stimson. The
    explosion carrying more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and visible for more than 200 miles succeeded. The
    world's first atomic bomb had been detonated.
    With the advent of the nuclear age, new dilemmas in the art of warfare arose. The war in Europe had concluded
    in May.
    The Pacific war would receive full attention from the United States War Department. As late as May 1945, the U.S. was
    engaged in heavy fighting with the Japanese at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In these most bloody conflicts, the United
    States had sustained more than 75,000 casualties. These victories insured the United States was within air striking
    distance of the Japanese mainland. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese to initiate United States entrance
    into the war, just four years before, was still fresh on the minds of many Americans.
    A feeling of vindication and a desire to end the war strengthened the resolve of the United States to quickly
    and decisively conclude it. President Harry Truman had many alternatives at his disposal for ending the war:
    invade the Japanese mainland, hold a demonstration of the destructive power of the atomic bomb for
    Japanese dignitaries, drop an atomic bomb on selected industrial Japanese cities, bomb and blockade the islands,
    wait for Soviet entry into the war on August 15, or mediate a compromised peace. Operation Olympia, a full scale
    landing of United States armed forces, was already planned for Kyushu on November 1, 1945 and a bomb and
    blockade plan had already been instituted over the Japanese mainland for several months.

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