Consequences of Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On the morning of August the 6th 1945, an American bomber plane dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and then on August the 9th,President Truman announced “sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy” and then on August the 9th three days later another American bomber plane dropped the second bomb on the industrial section of the city of Nagasaki, these two bombed completely destroyed most of the cities. There were lots of consequences of the bomb being dropped the biggest one being the number of casualties caused from the bomb, also how it completely destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and lastly how it ended the war quickly and saved American lives. Whether the consequences were good or bad they had a massive impact on Japan.

One of the consequences of the dropping of the bomb was that the number of casualties was extremely high. This is one of the major consequences because many people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki died not only directly from the actual bomb, but also from the radiation released as a result of the explosion. The heat of the bomb was so intense that some people simply vanished in the explosion. The bomb destroyed mostly all the buildings so a lot of people were killed by falling debris.” I saw a bright blast, and I saw yellow and silver and orange and all sorts of colours that I can't explain.” as Mikiso Iwasa said. The radiation from the atomic bomb affected those within two to three kilometres of where the bomb hit and especially those within 900 meters, who received life-threatening amounts of radiation. Many of them died within a few days from symptoms such as a fever and nausea. The radiation was also a long term effect as it can cause the development of cancer later on in life and also babies were born for several generations with deformities due to the affects. The total casualties from the day of the explosion were 60% died from the flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other injuries. In the following months large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness and other injuries, leaving the total number of casualties to 90,000-166,000 from Hiroshima and 60,000-80,000 for Nagasaki. This was the biggest consequence of the US dropping the bomb. Because of the death toll, the destruction of the two cities was a massive consequence as well.

Another one of the consequences of the bomb was the destruction it caused to the two cities. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were almost all destroyed by the explosion. In Hiroshima the bomb exploded over the centre of the city destroying everything in a one mile radius, 92% of the buildings were either destructed or damaged by the blast and fire. In Nagasaki the bomb exploded in a valley surrounded by mountains so that the total destruction took place within a half mile and approximately 22.7% of the buildings were destroyed by the explosion itself and the fire caused by it. These damages to the cities left thousands of families homeless and utilities and transportation services were disrupted making hard ‘living’ conditions, this is why many people fled the devastated city. This explosion left Hiroshima and Nagasaki having to completely rebuild most of their cities to the places they are today. This is defiantly a big consequence because it left many people homeless and without any utilities.

Finally the last consequence is that the dropping of the bomb ended the war and saved many American lives. This consequence would be good if you were an American but doesn’t make a difference if you were Japanese as they still lost many innocent civilians. The decision to drop the bomb meant that it ended the World War 2 more quickly than expected because it brought immediate surrender of japan once the bomb in Nagasaki was dropped. According to the American military they estimate the bomb would have saved around 50,000 American soldiers lives, because it meant that America was no way involved in any armed attack on japan, causing none of their soldiers at that particular point to be killed. The American military also said that dropping the bombs saved Japanese lives because they didn’t have fight the Americans in an armed battle. this is a very big consequence because of the way it ended the war and this affected mostly the whole world.

In conclusion the dropping of the bomb by the U.S on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had many consequences. The biggest consequence being that there were thousands and thousands of casualties caused by the explosion and also the long term effects of radiation. The destruction of the city was another major consequence that left the cities with power and people with nowhere to go. The last consequence being that it ended the war quickly and also saved American soldiers live. Whether the consequence was bad or good for either japan or America, it had a massive effect on the future of japan.