Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (67 photos). Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: causes and consequences Atomic bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

According to a survey conducted in Japan by Populus for the international news agency and radio Sputnik as part of the Sputnik.Opinions project, the majority of Japanese respondents (61%) believe that the US should apologize for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the same time, 74% of respondents believe that these bombings cannot be justified by war, since many civilians died.

Only 11% believe that it is not necessary to apologize. Almost 30% were unable to answer the question; the share of doubters is especially high among young people aged 18 to 24: more than 40% of respondents of this particular age found it difficult to answer the question.

The survey was conducted by Populus for the Sputnik news agency and radio from July 29 to August 2, 2015, the methodology is online interviews. The sample was 1004 people in Japan from 18 to 64 years old. The sample represents the population by gender, age, and geography. Confidence interval for the data as a whole for the country +/- 3.1% at a confidence level of 95%.

The head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Kistanov, commenting on the results of the survey on Sputnik radio, noted that in the United States the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still justified by military necessity.

"It was a completely inhuman, barbaric act - dropping nuclear bombs on civilian cities. And, of course, there is no justification for this. As for the US attitude to this historical fact: unfortunately, the prevailing opinion in the United States is that these bombings were "are caused by military necessity. They allegedly saved tens of thousands of lives of American soldiers. Since the landing of the American army on Japanese territory was planned," Valery Kistanov said on Sputnik radio.
In his opinion, one should not expect any apologies from the US leadership.

“America is always right, they never apologize for anything, and they will not apologize for the atomic bombings. spirit, mentality of the ruling American circles," the expert believes.

At the same time, in Japan itself, according to Valery Kistanov, the fact that it was the United States that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is being hushed up in every possible way.

"The Japanese media, when talking about these bombings, try not to pedal the question of who carried them out. You can look at the Japanese press and you will see such expressions as the atomic bombing of Japan, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But without specifying who "I did it. As if these terrible bombs came from the moon. But this is not done by chance. Japanese propaganda deliberately keeps silent about who dropped the atomic bombs," the expert said.

According to him, Japan is interested in cooperation with the United States and is unlikely to make claims to Washington.

"The Japanese are trying not to irritate their main military and political ally, older brother, patron. Because America is now extremely important for Japan in terms of ensuring its national interests. Japan clings to the United States. And the current Prime Minister (of Japan, Shinzo) Abe is heading for strengthening military cooperation with the Americans. Therefore, of course, the Japanese authorities will not pedal the question of who dropped these bombs and how justified it was. And ordinary residents, of course, have a different opinion, a different feeling. But, I think, there will be no changes in Japanese-American relations," Valery Kistanov concluded.

FILE - In this 1945 file photo, an area around the Sangyo-Shorei-Kan (Trade Promotion Hall) in Hiroshima is laid waste after an atomic bomb exploded within 100 meters of here in 1945. Hiroshima will mark the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 2012. Clifton Truman Daniel, a grandson of former U.S. President Harry Truman, who ordered the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II, is in Hiroshima to attend a memorial service for the victims. (AP Photo, File)

After the Interim Committee decided to drop the bomb, the Target Committee determined the locations to be hit, and President Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration as Japan's final warning. The world soon understood what "complete and utter annihilation" meant. The first and only two atomic bombs in history were dropped on Japan in early August 1945 at the end.

Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. It was called "Baby" - a uranium bomb with an explosive power equivalent to about 13 kilotons of TNT. During the bombing in Hiroshima there were 280-290 thousand civilians, as well as 43 thousand soldiers. Between 90,000 and 166,000 people are believed to have died within four months of the explosion. The US Department of Energy estimated that in five years at least 200,000 or more people were killed by the bombing, and in Hiroshima, 237,000 people were killed directly or indirectly by the bomb, including burns, radiation sickness, and cancer.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima, codenamed Operations Center I, was approved by Curtis LeMay on August 4, 1945. The B-29 aircraft carrying the Kid from Tinian Island in the Western Pacific to Hiroshima was called the Enola Gay, after the mother of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets. The crew consisted of 12 people, among whom were co-pilot Captain Robert Lewis, bombardier Major Tom Fereby, navigator Captain Theodore Van Kirk and tail gunner Robert Caron. Below are their stories about the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan.

Pilot Paul Tibbets: “We turned to look at Hiroshima. The city was covered with this terrible cloud ... it boiled, growing, terribly and incredibly high. For a moment everyone was silent, then they all spoke at once. I remember Lewis (co-pilot) hitting me on the shoulder saying, “Look at this! Look at it! Look at it!" Tom Ferebby feared that radioactivity would make us all sterile. Lewis said that he felt the splitting of atoms. He said it tasted like lead."

Navigator Theodor Van Kirk recalls the shockwaves from the explosion: “It was like you were sitting on a pile of ash and someone hit it with a baseball bat… The plane was pushed, it jumped, and then a noise similar to the sound of sheet metal being cut. Those of us who have flown over Europe quite a bit thought it was anti-aircraft fire close to the plane." Seeing an atomic fireball: “I'm not sure any of us expected to see this. Where we had clearly seen the city two minutes ago, now it was no more. All we saw was smoke and fire crawling up the mountainside.”

Tail gunner Robert Caron: “The fungus itself was a stunning sight, a seething mass of purple-gray smoke, and you could see the red core, inside which everything was burning. Flying away, we saw the base of the fungus, and below a layer of debris several hundred feet and smoke, or whatever they have ... I saw fires starting in different places - flames swinging on a bed of coals.

"Enola Gay"

Six miles under the crew of the Enola Gay, the people of Hiroshima were waking up and getting ready for the day's work. It was 8:16 am. Until that day, the city had not been subjected to regular aerial bombardment like other Japanese cities. It was rumored that this was due to the fact that many residents of Hiroshima emigrated to where President Truman's mother lived. Nevertheless, citizens, including schoolchildren, were sent to fortify houses and dig fire-fighting ditches in preparation for future bombardments. This is exactly what the residents were doing, or else they were going to work on the morning of August 6. Just an hour earlier, the early warning system had gone off, detecting a single B-29 carrying the Kid towards Hiroshima. The Enola Gay was announced on the radio shortly after 8 o'clock in the morning.

The city of Hiroshima was destroyed by an explosion. Of the 76,000 buildings, 70,000 were damaged or destroyed, and 48,000 of them were razed to the ground. Those who survived recalled how impossible it is to describe and believe that in one minute the city ceased to exist.

College professor of history: “I went up Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared… I was shocked by the sight… What I felt then and still feel, now I simply cannot explain in words. Of course, after that I saw many more terrible things, but this moment when I looked down and did not see Hiroshima was so shocking that I simply could not express what I felt ... Hiroshima no longer exists - it is in general all I saw was that Hiroshima simply doesn't exist anymore.

Explosion over Hiroshima

Physician Michihiko Hachiya: “There was nothing left but a few reinforced concrete buildings…Acres and acres of the city was like a desert, with only scattered piles of bricks and tiles everywhere. I had to rethink my understanding of the word "destruction" or pick up some other word to describe what I saw. Devastation might be the right word, but I don't really know the word or words to describe what I saw."

Writer Yoko Ota: “I got to the bridge and saw that Hiroshima was completely razed to the ground, and my heart was trembling like a huge wave ... the grief that stepped over the corpses of history pressed on my heart.”

Those who were close to the epicenter of the explosion simply evaporated from the monstrous heat. From one person there was only a dark shadow on the steps of the bank, where he sat. Miyoko Osugi's mother, a 13-year-old schoolgirl who worked on fire-fighting ditches, did not find her foot in a sandal. The place where the foot had stood remained bright, and everything around was blackened from the explosion.

Those residents of Hiroshima who were far from the epicenter of the "Kid" survived the explosion, but were seriously injured and received very serious burns. These people were in uncontrollable panic, they were struggling to find food and water, medical care, friends and relatives and tried to escape from the firestorms that engulfed many residential areas.

Having lost all orientation in space and time, some survivors believed that they had already died and ended up in hell. The worlds of the living and the dead seemed to come together.

Protestant priest: “I had the feeling that everyone was dead. The whole city was destroyed… I thought it was the end of Hiroshima – the end of Japan – the end of humanity.”

Boy, 6 years old: “There were a lot of dead bodies near the bridge… Sometimes people came to us and asked for water to drink. Their heads, mouths, faces bled, pieces of glass stuck to their bodies. The bridge was on fire… It was all like hell.”

Sociologist: “I immediately thought that it was like hell, which I always read about ... I had never seen anything like this before, but I decided that this should be hell, here it is - fiery hell, where, as we thought, those who didn’t escape… And I thought that all these people that I saw were in the hell that I read about.”

Fifth grade boy: "I had the feeling that all the people on earth had disappeared, and only five of us (his family) remained in the other world of the dead."

Grocer: “People looked like… well, they all had skin blackened from burns… They had no hair, because the hair was burned, and at first glance it was not clear whether you were looking at them from the front or from behind… Many of them died on the road - I still see them in my mind - like ghosts ... They were not like people from this world.

Hiroshima destroyed

Many people wandered around the center - near hospitals, parks, along the river, trying to find relief from pain and suffering. Soon, agony and despair reigned here, as many injured and dying people could not get help.

Sixth-grader girl: “Swollen bodies floated on seven previously beautiful rivers, cruelly breaking into pieces the childish naivete of a little girl. The strange smell of burning human flesh pervaded the city, which had turned into a pile of ashes."

Boy, 14 years old: “Night came and I heard many voices crying and groaning in pain and begging for water. Someone shouted: “Damn it! War cripples so many innocent people!” Another said: “I am in pain! Give me water!" This man was so burned that we could not tell if he was a man or a woman. The sky was red with flames, it burned like heaven had been set on fire.”

Three days after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, on August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It was a 21-kiloton plutonium bomb, which was called "Fat Man". On the day of the bombing, about 263,000 people were in Nagasaki, including 240,000 civilians, 9,000 Japanese soldiers and 400 prisoners of war. Until August 9, Nagasaki was the target of US small-scale bombing. Although the damage from these explosions was relatively minor, it caused great concern in Nagasaki and many people were evacuated to the countryside, thus reducing the population in the city during the nuclear attack. It is estimated that between 40,000 and 75,000 people died immediately after the explosion, and another 60,000 people were seriously injured. In total, by the end of 1945, about 80 thousand people died, presumably.

The decision to use the second bomb was made on August 7, 1945 in Guam. By doing so, the US wanted to demonstrate that they had an endless supply of new weapons against Japan and that they would continue to drop atomic bombs on Japan until she surrendered unconditionally.

However, the original target of the second atomic bombing was not Nagasaki. The officials chose the city of Kokura, where Japan had one of the largest munitions factories.

On the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 Boxcar, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney, was supposed to deliver the Fat Man to the city of Kokura. Accompanying Sweeney were Lieutenant Charles Donald Albery and Lieutenant Fred Olivy, gunner Frederick Ashworth and bombardier Kermit Beahan. At 3:49 a.m., the Bockscar and five other B-29s left Tinian Island for Kokura.

Seven hours later, the plane flew up to the city. Thick clouds and smoke from fires following an air raid on the nearby city of Yawata obscured much of the sky over Kokura, obscuring the target. Over the next fifty minutes, pilot Charles Sweeney made three bombing runs, but bombardier Beehan failed to drop the bomb because he could not visually identify the target. By the time of the third approach, they were discovered by Japanese anti-aircraft guns, and Second Lieutenant Jacob Bezer, who was monitoring the Japanese radio, reported the approach of Japanese fighters.

Fuel was running out, and the crew of the Boxcar decided to attack the second target, Nagasaki. When the B-29 flew over the city 20 minutes later, the sky above it was also covered with dense clouds. Gunner Frederick Ashworth proposed bombing Nagasaki using radar. At this point, a small window in the clouds, discovered at the end of a three-minute bombing approach, allowed bombardier Kermit Behan to visually identify the target.

At 10:58 a.m. local time, Boxcar dropped Fat Man. 43 seconds later, at an altitude of 1650 feet, about 1.5 miles northwest of the intended aiming point, an explosion occurred, the yield of which was 21 kilotons of TNT.

The radius of complete destruction from the atomic explosion was about one mile, after which the fire spread throughout the northern part of the city - about two miles south of the bomb site. Unlike the buildings in Hiroshima, almost all of the buildings in Nagasaki were of traditional Japanese construction - wooden frames, wooden walls and tiled roofs. Many small industrial and commercial enterprises were also located in buildings that were not able to withstand explosions. As a result, the atomic explosion over Nagasaki leveled everything within its radius of destruction to the ground.

Due to the fact that it was not possible to drop the Fat Man right on target, the atomic explosion was limited to the Urakami Valley. As a result, most of the city was not affected. The Fat Man fell into the industrial valley of the city between Mitsubishi's steel and arms works to the south and Mitsubishi-Urakami's torpedo works to the north. The resulting explosion had a yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, about the same as the explosion of the Trinity bomb. Almost half of the city was completely destroyed.

Olivi: “Suddenly, the light of a thousand suns flashed in the cockpit. Even with my tinted welding goggles on, I flinched and closed my eyes for a couple of seconds. I assumed we were about seven miles from ground zero and flying in the direction away from the target, but the light blinded me for a moment. I have never seen such a strong blue light, maybe three or four times brighter than the sun above us.”

“I have never seen anything like it! The biggest explosion I have ever seen... This column of smoke is hard to describe. A huge white mass of flame boils in a mushroom cloud. It is salmon pink. The base is black and slightly separated from the fungus.

“The mushroom cloud was moving straight towards us, I immediately looked up and saw how it was approaching the Boxcar. We were told not to fly through the atomic cloud because it was extremely dangerous for the crew and aircraft. Knowing this, Sweeney swerved the Boxcar sharply to starboard, away from the cloud, with the throttles wide open. For a few moments we could not understand whether we had escaped from the ominous cloud or whether it had captured us, but gradually we separated from it, much to our relief.

Tatsuichiro Akizuki: “All the buildings that I saw were on fire ... Electric poles were shrouded in flames, like many huge matches ... It seemed that the earth itself was spewing fire and smoke - the flames twisted and ejected right from the ground. The sky was dark, the ground was scarlet, and clouds of yellowish smoke hung between them. Three colors - black, yellow and scarlet - swept ominously over people who rushed about like ants trying to escape ... It seemed that the end of the world had come.

Consequences

On August 14, Japan surrendered. Journalist George Weller was "the first on Nagasaki" and described a mysterious "atomic sickness" (the onset of radiation sickness) that killed patients who outwardly appeared to have escaped the bomb. Controversial at the time and for many years to come, Weller's papers were not allowed for publication until 2006.

controversy

The debate over the bomb—whether a test demonstration was necessary, whether the Nagasaki bomb was necessary, and much more—continues to this day.

During World War II, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, a US B-29 Enola Gay bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Approximately 140,000 people died in the explosion and died over the following months. Three days later, when the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, about 80,000 people were killed. On August 15, Japan capitulated, thus ending World War II. Until now, this bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case of the use of nuclear weapons in the history of mankind. The US government decided to drop the bombs, believing that this would hasten the end of the war and there would be no need for prolonged bloody fighting on the main island of Japan. Japan was strenuously trying to control the two islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as the Allies closed in.

1. This wrist watch, found among the ruins, stopped at 8.15 am on August 6, 1945 - during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

2. The flying fortress "Enola Gay" comes in for landing on August 6, 1945 at the base on the island of Tinian after the bombing of Hiroshima.

3. This photo, released in 1960 by the US government, shows the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The size of the bomb is 73 cm in diameter, 3.2 m in length. It weighed 4 tons, and the explosion power reached 20,000 tons of TNT.

4. In this image provided by the US Air Force, the main crew of the B-29 Enola Gay bomber, from which the Baby nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Tibbets stands center. The photo was taken in the Mariana Islands. This was the first time in the history of mankind that nuclear weapons were used during military operations.

5. Smoke 20,000 feet high rises over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 after an atomic bomb was dropped on it during the hostilities.

6. This photograph, taken August 6, 1945 from the city of Yoshiura, located on the other side of the mountains north of Hiroshima, shows smoke rising from the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The picture was taken by an Australian engineer from Kure, Japan. The spots left on the negative by radiation almost destroyed the picture.

7. Survivors of the atomic bomb explosion, first used during hostilities on August 6, 1945, await medical attention in Hiroshima, Japan. As a result of the explosion, 60,000 people died at the same time, tens of thousands died later due to exposure.

8. August 6, 1945. Pictured: Survivors of Hiroshima are given first aid by military medics shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, used in military operations for the first time in history.

9. After the explosion of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, only ruins remained in Hiroshima. Nuclear weapons were used to hasten the surrender of Japan and end World War II, for which US President Harry Truman ordered the use of nuclear weapons with a capacity of 20,000 tons of TNT. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

10. August 7, 1945, the day after the explosion of the atomic bomb, smoke spreads over the ruins of Hiroshima, Japan.

11. President Harry Truman (pictured left) at his desk in the White House next to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson after returning from the Potsdam Conference. They discuss the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

13. The survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki people among the ruins, against the backdrop of a raging fire in the background, August 9, 1945.

14. Crew members of the B-29 "The Great Artiste" bomber, which dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, surrounded Major Charles W. Sweeney in North Quincy, Massachusetts. All crew members participated in the historic bombing. Left to right: Sgt. R. Gallagher, Chicago; Staff Sergeant A. M. Spitzer, Bronx, New York; Captain S. D. Albury, Miami, Florida; Captain J.F. Van Pelt Jr., Oak Hill, WV; Lt. F. J. Olivy, Chicago; staff sergeant E.K. Buckley, Lisbon, Ohio; Sgt. A. T. Degart, Plainview, Texas; and Staff Sgt. J. D. Kucharek, Columbus, Nebraska.

15. This photograph of the atomic bomb that exploded over Nagasaki, Japan during World War II was released by the Atomic Energy Commission and the US Department of Defense in Washington on December 6, 1960. The Fat Man bomb was 3.25 m long and 1.54 m in diameter, and weighed 4.6 tons. The power of the explosion reached about 20 kilotons of TNT.

16. A huge column of smoke rises into the air after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. A US Army Air Force B-29 Bockscar bomber killed more than 70,000 people immediately, and tens of thousands more died later as a result of exposure.

17. A huge nuclear mushroom over Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, after a US bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city. The nuclear explosion over Nagasaki occurred three days after the US dropped the first ever atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

18. A boy carries his burnt brother on his back on August 10, 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Such photos were not made public by the Japanese side, but after the end of the war they were shown to the world media by UN staff.

19. The arrow was installed at the site of the fall of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki on August 10, 1945. Most of the affected area is empty to this day, the trees remained charred and mutilated, and almost no reconstruction was carried out.

20. Japanese workers dismantle the rubble in the affected area in Nagasaki, an industrial city located in the southwest of Kyushu, after an atomic bomb was dropped on it on August 9. A chimney and a lone building can be seen in the background, ruins in the foreground. The picture is taken from the archives of the Japanese news agency Domei.

22. As can be seen in this photo, which was taken on September 5, 1945, several concrete and steel buildings and bridges remained intact after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.

23. A month after the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945, a journalist inspects the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.

24. Victim of the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the department of the first military hospital in Ujina in September 1945. The thermal radiation generated by the explosion burned the pattern from the kimono fabric on the woman's back.

25. Most of the territory of Hiroshima was wiped off the face of the earth by the explosion of the atomic bomb. This is the first aerial photograph after the explosion, taken on September 1, 1945.

26. The area around the Sanyo-Shorai-Kan (Trade Promotion Center) in Hiroshima was left in ruins after the atomic bomb exploded 100 meters away in 1945.

27. A correspondent stands among the ruins in front of the skeleton of the building that was the city theater in Hiroshima on September 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States to hasten the surrender of Japan.

28. The ruins and lone frame of the building after the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima. The photo was taken on September 8, 1945.

29. Very few buildings remain in the devastated Hiroshima, a Japanese city that was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb, as seen in this photograph taken on September 8, 1945. (AP Photo)

30. September 8, 1945. People walk along a cleared road among the ruins left by the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6 of the same year.

31. The Japanese found among the ruins of the wreckage of a children's tricycle in Nagasaki, September 17, 1945. The nuclear bomb dropped on the city on August 9 wiped out almost everything within a radius of 6 kilometers from the face of the earth and took the lives of thousands of civilians.

32. This photo, courtesy of the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, is a victim of the atomic explosion. A man is in quarantine on the island of Ninoshima in Hiroshima, Japan, 9 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, a day after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.

33. Tram (top center) and its dead passengers after the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9. The photo was taken on September 1, 1945.

34. People pass a tram lying on the tracks at the Kamiyasho intersection in Hiroshima some time after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city.

35. In this photo provided by the Japan Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, victims of the atomic explosion are in the tent care center of the 2nd Military Hospital of Hiroshima, located on the banks of the Ota River, 1150 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, August 7, 1945. The photo was taken the day after the United States dropped the first ever atomic bomb on the city.

36. View of Hachobori Street in Hiroshima shortly after a bomb was dropped on the Japanese city.

37. The Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, photographed on September 13, 1945, was destroyed by an atomic bomb.

38. A Japanese soldier wanders among the ruins in search of recyclable materials in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, just over a month after the atomic bomb exploded over the city.

39. A man with a loaded bicycle on a road cleared of ruins in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, a month after the atomic bomb exploded.

40. September 14, 1945, the Japanese are trying to drive through a ruined street on the outskirts of the city of Nagasaki, over which a nuclear bomb exploded.

41. This area of ​​Nagasaki was once built up with industrial buildings and small residential buildings. In the background are the ruins of the Mitsubishi factory and the concrete school building at the foot of the hill.

42. The top image shows the busy city of Nagasaki before the explosion, and the bottom image shows the wasteland after the atomic bomb. The circles measure the distance from the explosion point.

43. A Japanese family eats rice in a hut built from the rubble left on the site where their house once stood in Nagasaki, September 14, 1945.

44. These huts, photographed on September 14, 1945, were built from the wreckage of buildings that were destroyed as a result of the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

45. In the Ginza district of Nagasaki, which was an analogue of New York's Fifth Avenue, the owners of shops destroyed by a nuclear bomb sell their goods on the sidewalks, September 30, 1945.

46. ​​Sacred Torii gate at the entrance to the completely destroyed Shinto shrine in Nagasaki in October 1945.

47. Service at the Nagarekawa Protestant Church after the atomic bomb destroyed the church in Hiroshima, 1945.

48. A young man injured after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki.

49. Major Thomas Fereby, left, from Moscowville and Captain Kermit Beahan, right, from Houston, talking in a hotel in Washington, February 6, 1946. Ferebi is the man who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and his interlocutor dropped the bomb on Nagasaki.

52. Ikimi Kikkawa shows his keloid scars left after the treatment of burns received during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima at the end of World War II. The photo was taken at the Red Cross Hospital on June 5, 1947.

53. Akira Yamaguchi shows his scars left after the treatment of burns received during the explosion of a nuclear bomb in Hiroshima.

54. On the body of Jinpe Terawama, the survivor of the explosion of the first atomic bomb in history, there were numerous burn scars, Hiroshima, June 1947.

55. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbets waves from the cockpit of his bomber at a base located on the island of Tinian, August 6, 1945, before taking off, the purpose of which was to drop the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The day before, Tibbets had named the B-29 flying fortress "Enola Gay" after his mother.

The prerequisites for a major war in the Pacific region began to emerge as early as the middle of the 19th century, when the American Commodore Matthew Perry, on the instructions of the US government at gunpoint, forced the Japanese authorities to stop the policy of isolationism, open their ports to American ships and sign an unequal treaty with the United States, giving serious economic and political advantages to Washington.

In conditions when most of the Asian countries found themselves in full or partial dependence on Western powers, Japan had to carry out lightning-fast technical modernization in order to maintain its sovereignty. At the same time, a feeling of resentment against those who forced them to one-sided "openness" took root among the Japanese.

By its own example, America demonstrated to Japan that with the help of brute force it is supposedly possible to solve any international problems. As a result, the Japanese, who for centuries practically did not go anywhere outside their islands, began an active expansionist policy directed against other Far Eastern countries. Korea, China and Russia became its victims.

Pacific Theater of Operations

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria from the territory of Korea, occupied it and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. In the summer of 1937, Tokyo launched a full-scale war against China. In the same year, Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing fell. On the territory of the latter, the Japanese army staged one of the most heinous massacres in world history. From December 1937 to January 1938, the Japanese military killed, using mostly edged weapons, up to 500 thousand civilians and disarmed soldiers. The murders were accompanied by monstrous torture and rape. Rape victims, from young children to older women, were then brutally murdered as well. The total number of deaths as a result of Japanese aggression in China amounted to 30 million people.

• Pearl Harbor
• globallookpress.com
• Scherl

In 1940, Japan began to expand into Indochina, in 1941 it attacked British and American military bases (Hong Kong, Pearl Harbor, Guam and Wake), Malaysia, Burma and the Philippines. In 1942, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, the American Aleutian Islands, India and the islands of Micronesia became victims of Tokyo aggression.

However, already in 1942, the Japanese offensive began to stall, and in 1943 Japan lost the initiative, although its armed forces were still quite strong. The counteroffensive of British and American troops in the Pacific theater of operations progressed relatively slowly. Only in June 1945, after bloody battles, the Americans were able to occupy the island of Okinawa, annexed to Japan in 1879.

As for the position of the USSR, in 1938-1939, Japanese troops tried to attack Soviet units in the area of ​​​​Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, but were defeated.

Official Tokyo was convinced that it was facing too strong an opponent, and in 1941 a neutrality pact was concluded between Japan and the USSR.

Adolf Hitler tried to force his Japanese allies to break the pact and attack the USSR from the east, but Soviet intelligence officers and diplomats managed to convince Tokyo that this could cost Japan too much, and the treaty remained in de facto force until August 1945. The United States and Great Britain received the fundamental consent to Moscow's entry into the war with Japan from Joseph Stalin in February 1945 at the Yalta Conference.

Manhattan Project

In 1939, a group of physicists, enlisting the support of Albert Einstein, handed over a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt, which stated that Nazi Germany in the foreseeable future could create a weapon of terrible destructive power - the atomic bomb. The American authorities became interested in the nuclear issue. In the same 1939, the Uranium Committee was created as part of the US National Defense Research Committee, which first assessed the potential threat, and then began preparations for the United States to create its own nuclear weapons.

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The Americans attracted emigrants from Germany, as well as representatives of Great Britain and Canada. In 1941, a special Bureau of Scientific Research and Development was created in the United States, and in 1943, work began under the so-called Manhattan Project, the purpose of which was to create ready-to-use nuclear weapons.

In the USSR, nuclear research has been going on since the 1930s. Thanks to the activities of Soviet intelligence and Western scientists who had left-wing views, information about the preparations for the creation of nuclear weapons in the West, starting in 1941, began to massively flock to Moscow.

Despite all the difficulties of wartime, in 1942-1943, nuclear research in the Soviet Union was intensified, and representatives of the NKVD and the GRU actively engaged in the search for agents in American scientific centers.

By the summer of 1945, the United States had three nuclear bombs - the plutonium "Thing" and "Fat Man", as well as the uranium "Kid". On July 16, 1945, a test explosion of the Stuchka was carried out at the test site in New Mexico. The American leadership was satisfied with his results. True, according to the memoirs of Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov, just 12 days after the first atomic bomb was assembled in the United States, its scheme was already in Moscow.

On July 24, 1945, when US President Harry Truman, most likely for the purpose of blackmail, told Stalin in Potsdam that America had weapons of "extraordinary destructive power," the Soviet leader only smiled in response. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was present at the conversation, then concluded that Stalin did not understand at all what was at stake. However, the Supreme Commander was well aware of the Manhattan project and, after parting with the American president, told Vyacheslav Molotov (USSR Foreign Minister in 1939-1949): “It will be necessary today to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work.”

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Already in September 1944, an agreement in principle was reached between the United States and Great Britain on the possibility of using the nuclear weapons being created against Japan. In May 1945, the Los Alamos committee on target selection rejected the idea of ​​launching nuclear strikes on military targets because of the "miss possibility" and the "psychological effect" that was not strong enough. They decided to hit the cities.

Initially, the city of Kyoto was also on this list, but US Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted on choosing other targets, since he had fond memories of Kyoto - he spent his honeymoon in this city.

• Atomic bomb "Baby"
• Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

On July 25, Truman approved a list of cities for potential nuclear strikes, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The next day, the Indianapolis cruiser delivered the Baby bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, to the location of the 509th mixed aviation group. On July 28, the then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the combat order on the use of atomic weapons. Four days later, on August 2, 1945, all the components needed to assemble the Fat Man were delivered to Tinian.

The target of the first strike was the seventh most populous city in Japan - Hiroshima, where at that time about 245 thousand people lived. On the territory of the city was the headquarters of the fifth division and the second main army. On August 6, a US Air Force B-29 bomber under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets took off from Tinian and headed for Japan. Around 08:00, the plane was over Hiroshima and dropped the "Baby" bomb, which exploded 576 meters above the ground. At 08:15, all clocks in Hiroshima stopped.

The temperature under the plasma ball formed as a result of the explosion reached 4000 °C. About 80 thousand inhabitants of the city died instantly. Many of them turned to ashes in a split second.

Light emission left dark silhouettes from human bodies on the walls of buildings. In the houses located within a radius of 19 kilometers, glass was broken. The fires that arose in the city united into a fiery tornado that destroyed people who tried to escape immediately after the explosion.

On August 9, an American bomber headed for Kokura, but there was heavy cloud cover in the city area, and the pilots decided to strike at the alternate target - Nagasaki. The bomb was dropped by taking advantage of a gap in the clouds through which the city stadium was visible. The Fat Man exploded at an altitude of 500 meters, and although the explosion was more powerful than in Hiroshima, the damage from it was less due to the hilly terrain and the large industrial area, in which there was no residential development. Between 60 and 80 thousand people died during the bombing and immediately after it.

• Consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the American army on August 6, 1945

Some time after the attack, doctors began to notice that people who seemed to be recovering from wounds and psychological shock began to suffer from a new, previously unknown disease. The peak of the number of deaths from it came three to four weeks after the explosion. So the world learned about the consequences of exposure to radiation on the human body.

By 1950, the total number of victims of the bombing of Hiroshima as a result of the explosion and its consequences was estimated at about 200 thousand, and Nagasaki - at 140 thousand people.

Causes and consequences

In the mainland of Asia at that time there was a powerful Kwantung Army, on which official Tokyo had high hopes. Due to the rapid mobilization measures, its number was not reliably known even to the command itself. According to some estimates, the number of soldiers of the Kwantung Army exceeded 1 million people. In addition, Japan was supported by collaborationist forces, in the military formations of which there were several hundred thousand more soldiers and officers.

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. And the very next day, with the support of the Mongolian allies, the USSR advanced its troops against the forces of the Kwantung Army.

“At present, the West is trying to rewrite history and reconsider the contribution of the USSR to the victory over both fascist Germany and militaristic Japan. However, only the entry into the war on the night of August 8-9, the Soviet Union fulfilling its allied obligations, forced the leadership of Japan to announce surrender on August 15. The offensive of the Red Army on the forces of the Kwantung group developed rapidly, and this, by and large, led to the end of World War II, ”said Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist historian of the Victory Museum, in an interview with RT.

• Surrender of the Kwantung Army
• RIA News
• Evgeny Khaldei

According to the expert, over 600,000 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered to the Red Army, including 148 generals. The influence of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the end of the war Alexander Mikhailov urged not to overestimate. “The Japanese were initially determined to fight to the end against the United States and Great Britain,” he stressed.

As noted by Viktor Kuzminkov, senior researcher at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, associate professor at the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, the “military expediency” of launching a nuclear strike on Japan is only a version officially formulated by the leadership of the United States.

“The Americans said that in the summer of 1945 it was necessary to start a war with Japan on the territory of the metropolis itself. Here the Japanese, according to the US leadership, had to offer desperate resistance and could allegedly inflict unacceptable losses on the American army. And the nuclear bombing, they say, should have nevertheless persuaded Japan to surrender, ”the expert explained.

According to the head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Kistanov, the American version does not stand up to scrutiny. “There was no military necessity for this barbaric bombardment. Today, even some Western researchers recognize this. In fact, Truman wanted, firstly, to intimidate the USSR with the destructive power of a new weapon, and secondly, to justify the huge costs of developing it. But it was clear to everyone that the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan would put an end to it, ”he said.

Viktor Kuzminkov agrees with these conclusions: "Official Tokyo hoped that Moscow could become a mediator in the negotiations, and the entry of the USSR into the war left Japan no chance."

Kistanov stressed that ordinary people and members of the elite in Japan speak differently about the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Ordinary Japanese remember this disaster as it really was. But the authorities and the press are trying not to pedal some of its aspects. For example, in newspapers and on television, atomic bombings are very often spoken about without mentioning which particular country carried them out. The current American presidents for a long time did not visit the memorials dedicated to the victims of these bombings at all. The first was Barack Obama, but he never apologized to the descendants of the victims. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also did not apologize for Pearl Harbor, ”he said.

According to Kuzminkov, the atomic bombings changed Japan very much. “A huge group of “untouchables” appeared in the country - hibakusha, born to mothers exposed to radiation. They were shunned by many, the parents of young people and girls did not want hibakusha to marry their children. The consequences of the bombings penetrated people's lives. Therefore, today many Japanese are consistent supporters of a complete rejection of the use of atomic energy in principle,” the expert concluded.