Second World War was merciless. USA decided to use a weapon which quickly finished bloody war. Since 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the forces of the United States and her allies had been at war with Japan. Truman demanded their surrender, but Japan refused. Americans didn’t wanted any more deaths of their soldiers.  The U.S. B-29 bomber aircraft, dropped the nuclear bomb Little Boy in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Why Hiroshima?

Hiroshima had a civilian population of almost 300,000 and was an important military center, containing about 43,000 soldiers.  Tokyo had been struck from the list because it was already ruined. At least 70,000 people were killed in the initial blast, while approximately 70,000 more died from radiation exposure. Within minutes 9 out of 10 people half a mile or less from ground zero were dead. ‘Little Boy,’ dropped from the Enola Gay B-29 bomber, destroyed 90 percent of the city. The question was not “Will this weapon kill civilians?” but rather, “Will any civilians remain?”

The U.S. dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, killing up to 80,000 people. Japan unconditionally agreed to accept the terms of surrender on August 14. In minutes, half of the city vanished.  Winston Churchill estimated that the lives of a million Americans and two hundred and fifty thousand British soldiers and sailors had been saved by this sudden shortening of the war. Second World War was over.

Hiroshima remembering those, who died during bombing

Every year Japan pays tribute to those, who were killed during those bombings. People pray for the atomic bomb victims in front of the cenotaph at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. It is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack, and to the memories of the bomb’s direct and indirect victims. Dozens of doves are released into the air over a park in Hiroshima, which lies close to the epicentre of the 1945 attack.  Japanese gather  for peace ceremonies in the city. They stay in silence, pray.  Some 190,000 survivors of the nuclear attacks of World War II – the ‘hibakusha’ – still carry with them memories of death and destruction, radiation. It’s been more than 70 years but this kind of things people never forget.

Second World War vs. civilians

I hope after reading this article you will realize the cruelty of Second World War. The decision was to kill as many people as possible. Without loosing an army, with just one quick plane. Japan was really stubborn and honorable. No matter that enemy was stronger and more numerous, they kept fighting. Although Americans threatened them, left leaflets warning people to leave the city, nobody listened. Who could expect such a thing to happen?  Nuclear attack never happened before. The worst thing is that it’s civilians who suffered. Seniors, children… Those who survived were burned, their houses were destroyed and families were missing. After such an events they were living with traumatic memories. I hope their pain will remind us how does it ends, when we use nuclear weapon.