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The American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed a total of 214 thousand people, were the only cases in history of the use of nuclear weapons.
Let's see what those places look like then and now.
In August 1945, American pilots dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic explosion and its consequences killed 140 thousand people out of a population of 350 thousand in Hiroshima, and 74 thousand in Nagasaki. The vast majority of atomic bomb victims were civilians.
International analysts believe that it is unlikely that the United States will apologize to Japan for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2. Mushroom from the explosion of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. (Photo: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum):
3. Hiroshima in October 1945 and the same place on July 28, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayash | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
4. Hiroshima on August 20, 1945 and the same place on July 28, 2015. (Photo by Masami Oki | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
5. Hiroshima in October-November 1945 and the same place on July 29, 2015. By the way, this place is located 860 meters from the center of the nuclear bomb explosion. (Photo US Army | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
6. Hiroshima in October 1945 and the same place on July 28, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayash | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
7. Hiroshima in 1945 and the same place on July 29, 2015. (Photo US Army | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
8. Nagasaki August 9, 1945 and July 31, 2015. (Photo by Torahiko Ogawa | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
9. Nagasaki in 1945 and the same place on July 31, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayashi | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Retuers):
10. Nagasaki in 1945 and the same place on July 31, 2015. (Photo by Shigeo Hayashi | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Retuers):
11. Nagasaki Cathedral in 1945 and July 31, 2015. (Photo by Hisashi Ishida | Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Issei Kato | Reuters):
12. Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 2015. (Photo by Toru Hanai | Reuters):
13. Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. This is a park located on the territory of the former Nakajima district, which was completely destroyed as a result of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. On the territory of 12.2 hectares there is the Peace Memorial Museum, many monuments, a ritual bell and a cenotaph. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi):
14. Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 2015. (Photo by Kimimiasa Mayama):
16. Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki, built in memory of the atomic bombing of the city on August 9, 1945. (Photo by Toru Hanai | Reuters):
“The United States used atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki not to force Japan to surrender, but to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining geopolitical advantage after the end of the war in Asia.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples in the history of mankind of the combat use of nuclear weapons. Implemented by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II in order to accelerate the surrender of Japan within the Pacific theater of World War II.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber "Enola Gay", named after the mother (Enola Gay Haggard) of the crew commander, Colonel Paul Tibbetts, dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the "Fat Man" atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total number of deaths ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.
The shock of the US atomic bombings had a profound effect on Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and Japanese Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori, who were inclined to believe that the Japanese government should end the war.
On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender, formally ending World War II, was signed on September 2, 1945.
The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.
Prerequisites
In September 1944, at a meeting between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Hyde Park, an agreement was concluded that included the possibility of using atomic weapons against Japan.
By the summer of 1945, the United States of America, with the support of Great Britain and Canada, as part of the Manhattan Project, completed preparatory work to create the first operational nuclear weapons.
After three and a half years of direct US involvement in World War II, about 200 thousand Americans were killed, about half of them in the war against Japan. In April-June 1945, during the operation to capture the Japanese island of Okinawa, more than 12 thousand American soldiers died, 39 thousand were wounded (Japanese losses ranged from 93 to 110 thousand soldiers and over 100 thousand civilians). It was expected that an invasion of Japan itself would result in losses many times greater than those in Okinawan.
Model of the Little boy bomb dropped on HiroshimaMay 1945: selection of targets
During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Target Selection Committee recommended Kyoto (a major industrial center), Hiroshima (an army storage center and military port), and Yokohama (a military center) as targets for the use of atomic weapons. industry), Kokura (the largest military arsenal) and Niigata (a military port and mechanical engineering center). The committee rejected the idea of using this weapon against a purely military target, since there was a chance of overshooting a small area not surrounded by a large urban area.
When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:
achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,
the first use of a weapon must be significant enough for its importance to be recognized internationally. The committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was due to the fact that its population had a higher level of education and was thus better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima was of such a size and location that, taking into account the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, the force of the explosion could be increased.
US Secretary of War Henry Stimson removed Kyoto from the list due to the city's cultural significance. According to Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, Stimson "knew and appreciated Kyoto from his honeymoon there decades ago."
Hiroshima and Nagasaki on a map of Japan
On July 16, the world's first successful test of an atomic weapon was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons of TNT.
On July 24, during the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed Stalin that the United States had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Truman did not specify that he was referring specifically to atomic weapons. According to Truman's memoirs, Stalin showed little interest, saying only that he was glad and hoped that the United States could use it effectively against the Japanese. Churchill, who carefully observed Stalin's reaction, remained of the opinion that Stalin did not understand the true meaning of Truman's words and did not pay attention to him. At the same time, according to Zhukov’s memoirs, Stalin understood everything perfectly, but did not show it and, in a conversation with Molotov after the meeting, noted that “We will need to talk with Kurchatov about speeding up our work.” After the declassification of the American intelligence services' operation "Venona", it became known that Soviet agents had long been reporting on the development of nuclear weapons. According to some reports, agent Theodore Hall even announced the planned date of the first nuclear test a few days before the Potsdam Conference. This may explain why Stalin took Truman's message calmly. Hall had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1944.
On July 25, Truman approved an order, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as weather permits, and the following cities in the future as bombs become available.
On July 26, the governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China signed the Potsdam Declaration, which set out the demand for Japan's unconditional surrender. The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the declaration.
The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration, the text of which was broadcast on the radio and scattered in leaflets from airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government did not express any desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki said at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was nothing more than the old arguments of the Cairo Declaration in a new wrapper, and demanded that the government ignore it.
Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet response to the evasive diplomatic moves of the Japanese, did not change the government's decision. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that imperial power must be protected at all costs.
Preparing for the bombing
During May-June 1945, the American 509th Mixed Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was several miles from other units and was carefully guarded.
On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed an order for the combat use of nuclear weapons. This order, drafted by the head of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, ordered a nuclear strike "on any day after the third of August as soon as weather conditions permit." On July 29, the commander of US strategic aviation, General Carl Spaatz, arrived on Tinian, delivering Marshall's order to the island.
On July 28 and August 2, components of the Fat Man atomic bomb were brought to Tinian by plane.
Bombing of Hiroshima August 6, 1945 Hiroshima during World War II
Hiroshima was located on a flat area, slightly above sea level at the mouth of the Ota River, on 6 islands connected by 81 bridges. The city's population before the war was over 340 thousand people, making Hiroshima the seventh largest city in Japan. The city was the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Main Army of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, who commanded the defense of all of Southern Japan. Hiroshima was an important supply base for the Japanese army.
In Hiroshima (as well as in Nagasaki), most of the buildings were one- and two-story wooden buildings with tiled roofs. Factories were located on the outskirts of the city. Outdated firefighting equipment and insufficient training of personnel created a high fire danger even in peacetime.
Hiroshima's population peaked at 380,000 during the war, but before the bombing the population gradually declined due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack the population was about 245 thousand people.
Bombardment
The primary target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (the alternate targets were Kokura and Nagasaki). Although Truman's orders called for the atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.
On August 6 at 1:45 a.m., an American B-29 bomber under the command of the commander of the 509th Combined Aviation Regiment, Colonel Paul Tibbetts, carrying the “Baby” atomic bomb on board, took off from the island of Tinian, which was about 6 hours flight from Hiroshima. Tibbetts' plane (Enola Gay) was flying as part of a formation that included six other planes: a reserve plane (Top Secret), two controllers and three reconnaissance aircraft (Jebit III, Full House and Street Flash). The commanders of reconnaissance aircraft sent to Nagasaki and Kokura reported significant cloudiness over these cities. The pilot of the third reconnaissance aircraft, Major Iserli, found that the sky over Hiroshima was clear and sent the signal “Bomb the first target.”
Around seven o'clock in the morning, the Japanese early warning radar network detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid warning was announced and radio broadcasts were stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At approximately 08:00, the radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of incoming aircraft was very small - perhaps no more than three - and the air raid alert was canceled. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard radio message was that it would be wise to head to bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually spotted, and that it was not a raid but just some form of reconnaissance that was expected.
At 08:15 local time, the B-29, being at an altitude of over 9 km, dropped an atomic bomb on the center of Hiroshima.
The first public report of the event came from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on the Japanese city.
The shadow of a man who was sitting on the steps of the stairs in front of the bank at the time of the explosion, 250 meters from the epicenter
Explosion effect
Those closest to the epicenter of the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to coal. Birds flying past burned up in the air, and dry, flammable materials such as paper ignited up to 2 km from the epicenter. The light radiation burned the dark pattern of clothing into the skin and left silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside their houses described a blinding flash of light, which was simultaneously accompanied by a wave of stifling heat. The blast wave followed almost immediately for everyone near the epicenter, often knocking them off their feet. Occupants of the buildings generally avoided exposure to the light radiation from the explosion, but not the blast wave - glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed. One teenager was thrown from his house across the street by the blast wave, while the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were 800 meters or less from the epicenter died.
The blast wave shattered glass at a distance of up to 19 km. For those in the buildings, the typical first reaction was the thought of a direct hit from an aerial bomb.
Numerous small fires that simultaneously broke out in the city soon merged into one large fire tornado, creating a strong wind (at a speed of 50-60 km/h) directed towards the epicenter. The firestorm captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not manage to get out within the first few minutes after the explosion.
According to the recollections of Akiko Takakura, one of the few survivors who were at a distance of 300 m from the epicenter at the time of the explosion,
Three colors characterize for me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black because the explosion cut off the sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood flowing from wounded and broken people. It was also the color of the fires that burned everything in the city. Brown was the color of burnt skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.
A few days after the explosion, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of radiation among the survivors. Soon, the number of deaths among the survivors began to rise again, as patients who had seemed to be recovering began to suffer from this strange new disease. Deaths from radiation sickness peaked 3-4 weeks after the explosion and began to decline only 7-8 weeks later. Japanese doctors considered vomiting and diarrhea characteristic of radiation sickness to be symptoms of dysentery. Long-term health effects associated with exposure, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the blast.
The first person in the world whose cause of death was officially listed as a disease caused by the consequences of a nuclear explosion (radiation poisoning) was actress Midori Naka, who survived the Hiroshima explosion but died on August 24, 1945. Journalist Robert Jung believes that it was Midori’s disease and its popularity among ordinary people allowed people to find out the truth about the emerging “new disease”. Until Midori's death, no one attached any importance to the mysterious deaths of people who survived the explosion and died under circumstances unknown to science at that time. Jung believes that Midori's death was the impetus for accelerating research in nuclear physics and medicine, which soon managed to save the lives of many people from radiation exposure.
Japanese awareness of the consequences of the attack
A Tokyo operator from the Japan Broadcasting Corporation noticed that the Hiroshima station had stopped broadcasting. He tried to re-establish the broadcast using another telephone line, but this also failed. About twenty minutes later, the Tokyo railway telegraph control center realized that the main telegraph line had stopped working just north of Hiroshima. From a stop 16 km from Hiroshima, unofficial and confused reports came about a terrible explosion. All these messages were forwarded to the headquarters of the Japanese General Staff.
Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Hiroshima Command and Control Center. The complete silence from there baffled the General Staff, since they knew that there was no major enemy raid in Hiroshima and there was no significant stockpile of explosives. A young officer from headquarters was instructed to immediately fly to Hiroshima, land, assess the damage and return to Tokyo with reliable information. The headquarters generally believed that nothing serious happened there, and the messages were explained by rumors.
An officer from headquarters went to the airport, from where he flew to the southwest. After a three-hour flight, while still 160 km from Hiroshima, he and his pilot noticed a large cloud of smoke from the bomb. It was a bright day and the ruins of Hiroshima were burning. Their plane soon reached the city, around which they circled, not believing their eyes. All that was left of the city was a zone of complete destruction, still burning and covered in a thick cloud of smoke. They landed south of the city, and the officer, reporting the incident to Tokyo, immediately began organizing rescue measures.
The Japanese's first real understanding of what actually caused the disaster came from a public announcement from Washington, sixteen hours after the atomic attack on Hiroshima.
Hiroshima after the atomic explosionLosses and destruction
The number of deaths from the direct impact of the explosion ranged from 70 to 80 thousand people. By the end of 1945, due to radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200 thousand people.
According to official Japanese data, as of March 31, 2013, there were 201,779 “hibakusha” alive - people who suffered from the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This number includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions (mostly living in Japan at the time of the calculation). Of these, 1%, according to the Japanese government, had serious cancer caused by radiation exposure after the bombings. The number of deaths as of August 31, 2013 is about 450 thousand: 286,818 in Hiroshima and 162,083 in Nagasaki.
Nuclear pollution
The concept of “radioactive contamination” did not yet exist in those years, and therefore this issue was not even raised then. People continued to live and rebuild destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality rate of the population in subsequent years, as well as diseases and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. Evacuation of the population from contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.
It is quite difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since the first atomic bombs were technically relatively low-power and imperfect (the Baby bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only about 700 g reacted division), the level of contamination of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, there were several tons of fission products and transuranium elements in the reactor core - various radioactive isotopes that accumulated during the operation of the reactor.
Comparative preservation of some buildings
Some reinforced concrete buildings in Hiroshima were very stable (due to the risk of earthquakes) and their frames did not collapse, despite being quite close to the center of destruction in the city (the epicenter of the explosion). This is how the brick building of the Hiroshima Chamber of Industry (now commonly known as the "Genbaku Dome", or "Atomic Dome"), designed and built by the Czech architect Jan Letzel, survived, which was only 160 meters from the epicenter of the explosion (at the height of the bomb detonation 600 m above the surface). The ruins became the most famous artifact of the Hiroshima atomic explosion and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, despite objections from the US and Chinese governments.
On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that
We are now ready to destroy, even faster and more completely than before, all Japanese land-based production facilities in any city. We will destroy their docks, their factories and their communications. Let there be no misunderstanding - we will completely destroy Japan's ability to wage war.
It was with the aim of preventing the destruction of Japan that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued in Potsdam. Their leadership immediately rejected his terms. If they do not accept our terms now, let them expect a rain of destruction from the air, the likes of which have never been seen on this planet.
After receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government met to discuss its response. Beginning in June, the Emperor advocated peace negotiations, but the Minister of Defense and Army and Navy leaders believed that Japan should wait to see whether attempts at peace negotiations through the Soviet Union would produce results better than unconditional surrender. The military leadership also believed that if they could hold out until the invasion of the Japanese islands, it would be possible to inflict such casualties on the Allied forces that Japan could win peace terms other than unconditional surrender.
On August 9, the USSR declared war on Japan and Soviet troops launched an invasion of Manchuria. Hopes for USSR mediation in the negotiations collapsed. The Japanese army's senior leadership began preparing to declare martial law in order to prevent any attempts at peace negotiations.
The second atomic bombing (Kokury) was scheduled for 11 August, but was moved up 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather forecast to begin on 10 August.
Bombing of Nagasaki August 9, 1945 Nagasaki during World War II
Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, along which two rivers flowed. A mountain range separated the city's districts.
The development was chaotic: out of a total city area of 90 km², 12 were built up with residential areas.
During World War II, the city, which was a major seaport, also acquired special significance as an industrial center, where steel production and the Mitsubishi shipyard, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo production were concentrated. Guns, ships and other military equipment were manufactured in the city.
Nagasaki was not subjected to large-scale bombing before the explosion of the atomic bomb, but on August 1, 1945, several high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city, damaging shipyards and docks in the southwestern part of the city. Bombs also hit the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories. The result of the raid on August 1 was the partial evacuation of the population, especially schoolchildren. However, at the time of the bombing the city's population was still about 200 thousand people.
Nagasaki before and after the atomic explosionBombardment
The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the secondary target was Nagasaki.
At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.
Unlike the first bombing, the second was fraught with numerous technical problems. Even before takeoff, a problem with the fuel pump in one of the spare fuel tanks was discovered. Despite this, the crew decided to carry out the flight as planned.
At approximately 7:50 a.m., an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 a.m.
At 8:10, after reaching the rendezvous point with the other B-29s participating in the mission, one of them was discovered missing. For 40 minutes, Sweeney's B-29 circled around the rendezvous point, but did not wait for the missing aircraft to appear. At the same time, reconnaissance aircraft reported that cloudiness over Kokura and Nagasaki, although present, still made it possible to carry out bombing under visual control.
At 8:50 a.m., a B-29 carrying the atomic bomb headed for Kokura, where it arrived at 9:20 a.m. By this time, however, there was already 70% cloud cover over the city, which did not allow visual bombing. After three unsuccessful approaches to the target, at 10:32 the B-29 headed for Nagasaki. At this point, due to a problem with the fuel pump, there was only enough fuel for one pass over Nagasaki.
At 10:53, two B-29s came within sight of the air defense, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance missions and did not declare a new alarm.
At 10:56, the B-29 arrived at Nagasaki, which, as it turned out, was also obscured by clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach. At the last moment, however, bombardier-gunner Captain Kermit Behan (English) noticed the silhouette of the city stadium in the gap between the clouds, focusing on which he dropped an atomic bomb.
The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.
Explosion effect
Japanese boy whose upper body was not covered during the explosion
The hastily aimed bomb exploded almost halfway between the two main targets in Nagasaki, the Mitsubishi steel and gun works in the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo factory in the north. If the bomb had been dropped further south, between business and residential areas, the damage would have been much greater.
In general, although the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect of the explosion was less. This was facilitated by a combination of factors - the presence of hills in Nagasaki, as well as the fact that the epicenter of the explosion was located over an industrial area - all this helped protect some areas of the city from the consequences of the explosion.
From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:
I was knocked to the ground (off the bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to it so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw a child being carried away by the blast wave. Large stones flew in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again...
When everything seemed to have calmed down, I tried to get up and found that the skin on my left arm, from my shoulder to my fingertips, was hanging like tattered rags.
Losses and destruction
The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of approximately 110 km², of which 22 were water surfaces and 84 were only partially inhabited.
According to a report from Nagasaki Prefecture, "people and animals died almost instantly" at a distance of up to 1 km from the epicenter. Almost all houses within a 2 km radius were destroyed, and dry, flammable materials such as paper ignited up to 3 km from the epicenter. Of the 52,000 buildings in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and another 5,400 were seriously damaged. Only 12% of buildings remained undamaged. Although no firestorm occurred in the city, numerous local fires were observed.
The number of deaths by the end of 1945 ranged from 60 to 80 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 140 thousand people.
Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan
The US government expected another atomic bomb to be ready for use in mid-August, and three more in September and October. On August 10, Leslie Groves, the military director of the Manhattan Project, sent a memorandum to George Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff, in which he wrote that "the next bomb... should be ready for use after August 17-18." That same day, Marshall signed a memorandum with the comment that "it should not be used against Japan until the express approval of the President has been obtained." At the same time, the US Department of Defense has already begun discussing the advisability of postponing the use of bombs until the start of Operation Downfall, the expected invasion of the Japanese Islands.
The problem we now face is whether, assuming the Japanese do not capitulate, we should continue to drop bombs as they are produced, or stockpile them and then drop them all in a short period of time. Not all in one day, but in a fairly short time. This also relates to the question of what goals we are pursuing. In other words, shouldn't we be concentrating on the targets that will most help the invasion, rather than on industry, morale, psychology, etc.? To a greater extent, tactical goals, and not any others.
Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation
Until August 9, the war cabinet continued to insist on 4 conditions of surrender. On August 9, news arrived of the Soviet Union's declaration of war late in the evening of August 8 and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at 11 p.m. At a meeting of the “Big Six”, held on the night of August 10, the votes on the issue of capitulation were equally divided (3 “for”, 3 “against”), after which the emperor intervened in the discussion, speaking in favor of capitulation. On August 10, 1945, Japan submitted a proposal for surrender to the Allies, the only condition of which was that the Emperor remain the nominal head of state.
Since the terms of the surrender allowed for the continuation of imperial power in Japan, Hirohito recorded his surrender statement on August 14, which was distributed by the Japanese media the next day, despite an attempted military coup by opponents of the surrender.
In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:
... in addition, the enemy has at his disposal a new terrible weapon that can take many innocent lives and cause immeasurable material damage. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the collapse and destruction of the Japanese nation, but also to the complete disappearance of human civilization.
In such a situation, how can we save millions of our subjects or justify ourselves to the sacred spirit of our ancestors? For this reason, we ordered the terms of the joint declaration of our opponents to be accepted.
Within a year after the end of the bombing, a contingent of American troops numbering 40,000 people was stationed in Hiroshima, and 27,000 in Nagasaki.
Commission for the Study of the Consequences of Atomic Explosions
In the spring of 1948, to study the long-term effects of radiation on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Truman ordered the creation of the Commission to Study the Effects of Atomic Explosions at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. The bombing casualties included many non-war casualties, including prisoners of war, forced conscripts of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya, and approximately 3,200 US citizens of Japanese descent.
In 1975, the Commission was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the newly created Radiation Effects Research Foundation.
Discussion about the advisability of atomic bombings
The role of atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical justification are still the subject of scientific and public debate. In a 2005 review of the historiography on the issue, American historian Samuel Walker wrote that “the debate about the wisdom of bombing will certainly continue.” Walker also noted that "the fundamental question that has been debated for over 40 years is whether these atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the Pacific War on terms acceptable to the United States."
Proponents of the bombing usually argue that it was the reason for Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant casualties on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the rapid conclusion of the war saved many lives in other Asian countries (primarily China); that Japan was fighting a total war in which the distinction between military and civilians was erased; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombing argue that it was simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus had no military necessity, that it was fundamentally immoral, a war crime, or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 no there were international agreements or treaties that directly or indirectly prohibited the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).
A number of researchers express the opinion that the main purpose of the atomic bombings was to influence the USSR before its entry into the war with Japan in the Far East and to demonstrate the atomic power of the United States.
Impact on culture
In the 1950s, the story of a Japanese girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from the effects of radiation (leukemia), became widely known. While already in the hospital, Sadako learned about a legend according to which a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will certainly come true. Wanting to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands. According to the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Canadian children's writer Eleanor Coher, Sadako managed to fold only 644 cranes before she died in October 1955. Her friends finished the rest of the figures. According to the book Sadako's 4,675 Days of Life, Sadako folded a thousand cranes and continued folding more, but later died. Several books have been written based on her story.
The other day the world celebrated a sad anniversary - the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, a US Air Force B-29 Enola Gay, under the command of Colonel Tibbetts, dropped the Baby bomb on Hiroshima. And three days later, on August 9, 1945, a B-29 Boxcar aircraft under the command of Colonel Charles Sweeney dropped a bomb on Nagasaki. The total number of deaths in the explosion alone ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. And that’s not all - about 200 thousand people died from radiation sickness.
After the bombing, real hell reigned in Hiroshima. Witness Akiko Takahura, who miraculously survived, recalls:
“Three colors for me characterize the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black - because the explosion cut off the sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood flowing from wounded and broken people. It was also the color of the fires that burned everything in the city. Brown was the color of burnt skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.”
Some Japanese people instantly evaporated from the heat radiation, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt
The heat radiation caused some Japanese to instantly evaporate, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt. The shock wave swept away buildings and killed thousands of people. A real fire tornado raged in Hiroshima, in which thousands of civilians burned alive.
In the name of what was all this horror and why were the peaceful cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed?
It's official: to hasten the fall of Japan. But she was already living out her last days, especially when, on August 8, Soviet troops began the defeat of the Kwantung Army. But unofficially these were tests of super-powerful weapons, ultimately directed against the USSR. As US President Truman cynically said: “If this bomb goes off, I’ll have a good club against those Russian boys.” So forcing the Japanese to peace was far from the most important thing in this action. And the effectiveness of atomic bombings in this regard was small. It was not they, but the successes of the Soviet troops in Manchuria that were the final impetus for surrender.
It is significant that Japanese Emperor Hirohito's Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, issued on August 17, 1945, notes the significance of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, but does not say a word about the atomic bombings.
According to Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, it was the declaration of war by the USSR in the interval between the two bombings that caused the surrender. After the war, Admiral Soemu Toyoda said: “I think the participation of the USSR in the war against Japan, rather than the atomic bombings, did more to hasten the surrender.” Prime Minister Suzuki also stated that the USSR's entry into the war made "the continuation of the war impossible."
Moreover, the Americans themselves ultimately admitted that there was no need for atomic bombings.
According to the US Government's 1946 Study on the Effectiveness of Strategic Bombing, atomic bombs were not necessary to win the war. After examining numerous documents and conducting interviews with hundreds of Japanese military and civilian officials, the following conclusion was reached:
“Definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered, even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the USSR had not entered the war, even if the invasion of the Japanese islands had not been planned and prepared "
Here is the opinion of the general, then US President Dwight Eisenhower:
“In 1945, Secretary of War Stimson, while visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who believed that there were a number of compelling reasons to question the wisdom of such a decision. During his description... I became depressed and expressed to him my deep doubts, firstly, based on my belief that Japan had already been defeated and that the atomic bombing was completely unnecessary, and secondly, because I believed that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of weapons, the use of which, in my opinion, was no longer necessary as a means of saving the lives of American soldiers."
And here is the opinion of Admiral Ch. Nimitz:
“The Japanese have already actually asked for peace. From a purely military point of view, the atomic bomb did not play a decisive role in the defeat of Japan."
To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman
The atomic bombings were a great experiment on people who were not even considered human. To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman. Thus, American soldiers (in particular, the Marines) were engaged in a very unique collection of souvenirs: they dismembered the bodies of Japanese soldiers and civilians of the Pacific Islands, and their skulls, teeth, hands, skin, etc. sent home to their loved ones as gifts. There is no complete certainty that all the dismembered bodies were dead - the Americans did not disdain to pull out gold teeth from still living prisoners of war.
According to American historian James Weingartner, there is a direct connection between the atomic bombings and the collection of enemy body parts: both were the result of the dehumanization of the enemy:
“The widespread image of the Japanese as subhuman created an emotional context that provided further justification for decisions that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.”
But you will be indignant and say: they are rude foot soldiers. And the decision was ultimately made by the intelligent Christian Truman. Well, let's give the floor to him. On the second day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Truman declared that “the only language they understand is the language of bombing. When you have to deal with an animal, you have to treat it like an animal. It’s very sad, but nevertheless it’s true.”
Since September 1945 (after the surrender of Japan), American specialists, including doctors, worked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, they did not treat the unfortunate “hibakusha” - patients with radiation sickness, but with genuine research interest they watched how their hair fell out, their skin peeled, then spots appeared on it, bleeding began, how they weakened and died. Not a drop of compassion. Vae victis (woe to the vanquished). And science is above all!
But I can already hear indignant voices: “Father Deacon, who do you feel sorry for? Is it the same Japanese who treacherously attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor? Isn’t it the same Japanese military that committed terrible crimes in China and Korea, killed millions of Chinese, Koreans, Malays, and at times in brutal ways?” I answer: the majority of those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had nothing to do with the military. These were civilians - women, children, old people. With all the crimes of Japan, one cannot but recognize the certain correctness of the official protest of the Japanese government on August 11, 1945:
“Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion... The said bombs used by the Americans far surpass in their cruelty and horrifying effects poison gases or any other weapons used which are prohibited. Japan protests the United States' violation of internationally recognized principles of warfare, both in the use of the atomic bomb and in earlier incendiary bombings that killed the elderly."
The most sober assessment of the atomic bombings was voiced by Indian judge Radhabinuth Pal. Recalling Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II's justification for his duty to end World War I as quickly as possible ("Everything must be given over to fire and sword. Men, women and children must be killed, and not a single tree or house must remain undestroyed"), Pahl remarked :
"This policy massacres carried out with the aim of ending the war as quickly as possible, was considered a crime. During the Pacific War, which we are considering here, if there was anything approaching the letter from the German Emperor discussed above, it was the Allied decision to use the atomic bomb.”
Indeed, we see here a clear continuity between the German racism of the First and Second World Wars and Anglo-Saxon racism.
The creation of atomic weapons and especially their use revealed a terrible disease of the European spirit - its hyper-intellectualism, cruelty, will to violence, contempt for man. And contempt for God and His commandments. It is significant that the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki exploded near a Christian church. Since the 16th century, Nagasaki has been the gateway for Christianity to Japan. And so the Protestant Truman gave the order for its barbaric destruction.
The ancient Greek word ατομον means both an indivisible particle and a person. This is no coincidence. The decomposition of the personality of European man and the decomposition of the atom went hand in hand. And even such godless intellectuals as A. Camus understood this:
“Mechanized civilization has just reached the final stage of barbarism. In the not-too-distant future we will have to choose between mass suicide and the wise use of scientific advances [...] This should not be just a request; it must be a command that comes from the bottom up, from ordinary citizens to governments, a command to make a firm choice between hell and reason.”
But, alas, the governments, just as they did not listen to reason, still do not listen.
Saint Nicholas (Velimirovich) rightly said:
“Europe is smart at taking away, but it doesn’t know how to give. She knows how to kill, but she doesn’t know how to value other people’s lives. She knows how to create weapons of destruction, but she does not know how to be humble before God and merciful towards weaker peoples. She is smart to be selfish and carry her “creed” of selfishness everywhere, but she does not know how to be God-loving and humane.”
These words capture the enormous and terrible experience of the Serbs, the experience of the last two centuries. But this is also the experience of the whole world, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The definition of Europe as a “white demon” was deeply correct. In many ways, the prophecy of St. Nicholas (Velimirović) about the nature of the future war came true: “It will be a war that is completely devoid of mercy, honor and nobility [...] For the coming war will have as its goal not only victory over the enemy, but also the destruction of the enemy. Complete destruction of not only the combatants, but everything that makes up their rear: parents, children, sick, wounded and prisoners, their villages and cities, livestock and pastures, railways and all routes!” With the exception of the Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War, where the Russian Soviet soldier still tried to show mercy, honor and nobility, the prophecy of St. Nicholas came true.
Where does such cruelty come from? Saint Nicholas sees its cause in militant materialism and the plane of consciousness:
“And Europe once began in spirit, but now ends in flesh, i.e. carnal vision, judgment, desires and conquests. As if enchanted! Her whole life flows along two paths: in length and in width, i.e. along the plane. She knows neither depth nor height, that is why she fights for the earth, for space, for the expansion of the plane and only for this! Hence war after war, horror after horror. For God created man not only so that he would be simply a living being, an animal, but also so that he would penetrate into the depths of mysteries with his mind, and ascend with his heart to the heights of God. The war for the land is a war against the truth, against God’s and human nature.”
But it was not only the flatness of consciousness that led Europe to military disaster, but also carnal lust and a godless mind:
“What is Europe? It's lust and intelligence. And these properties are embodied in the Pope and Luther. The European Pope is the human lust for power. The European Luther is the human audacity to explain everything with his own mind. Dad as the ruler of the world and the smart guy as the ruler of the world.”
The most important thing is that these properties do not know any external limitations, they tend to infinity - “fulfillment of human lust to the limit and the mind to the limit.” Such properties, elevated to an absolute, must inevitably give rise to constant conflicts and bloody wars of destruction: “Because of human lust, every nation and every person seeks power, sweetness and glory, imitating the Pope. Because of the human mind, every nation and every person finds that he is smarter than others and more powerful than others. In this case, how can there not be madness, revolutions and wars between people?
Many Christians (and not only Orthodox Christians) were horrified by what happened in Hiroshima. In 1946, a report by the US National Council of Churches was released entitled “Atomic Weapons and Christianity,” which stated, in part:
“As American Christians, we deeply repent of the irresponsible use of atomic weapons. We all agree on the idea that, whatever our opinion of the war as a whole, the surprise bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is morally vulnerable."
Of course, many inventors of atomic weapons and executors of inhuman orders recoiled in horror from their brainchild. The inventor of the American atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, after testing in Alamogorodo, when a terrible flash lit up the sky, remembered the words of an ancient Indian poem:
If the shine of a thousand suns
It will flash in the sky at once,
Man will become death
A threat to the earth.After the war, Oppenheimer began to fight for the limitation and prohibition of nuclear weapons, for which he was removed from the Uranium Project. His successor Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, was much less scrupulous.
Iserly, the spy plane pilot who reported good weather over Hiroshima, then sent aid to the victims of the bombing and demanded that he be imprisoned as a criminal. His request was fulfilled, although he was put in... a psychiatric hospital.
But alas, many were much less scrupulous.
After the war, a very revealing brochure was published with documentary memories of the crew of the Enola Gay bomber, which delivered the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” to Hiroshima. How did these twelve people feel when they saw the city below them that they had turned to ashes?
“STIBORIK: Before, our 509th Composite Aviation Regiment was constantly teased. When the neighbors left for flights before dawn, they threw stones at our barracks. But when we dropped the bomb, everyone saw that we were dashing guys.
LEWIS: The entire crew was briefed before the flight. Tibbetts later claimed that he alone was aware of the matter. This is nonsense: everyone knew.
JEPPSON: About an hour and a half after takeoff, I went down to the bomb bay. It was pleasantly cool there. Parsons and I had to arm everything and remove the fuses. I still keep them as souvenirs. Then again we could admire the ocean. Everyone was busy with their own business. Someone was humming “Sentimental Journey,” the most popular song of August 1945.
LEWIS: The commander was dozing. Sometimes I left my chair. The autopilot kept the car on course. Our main target was Hiroshima, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternate targets.
VAN KIRK: The weather would have decided which of these cities we would choose to bomb.
CARON: The radio operator was waiting for a signal from three “superfortresses” flying ahead for weather reconnaissance. And from the tail compartment I could see two B-29s accompanying us from behind. One of them was supposed to take photographs, and the other was supposed to deliver measuring equipment to the explosion site.
FERIBEE: We very successfully reached the target on the first pass. I saw her from afar, so my task was simple.
NELSON: As soon as the bomb separated, the plane turned 160 degrees and began to descend sharply to gain speed. Everyone put on dark glasses.
JEPPSON: This wait was the most anxious moment of the flight. I knew the bomb would take 47 seconds to fall, and I started counting in my head, but when I got to 47, nothing happened. Then I remembered that the shock wave would still need time to catch up with us, and that’s when it came.
TIBBETS: The plane suddenly fell down, it rattled like a tin roof. The tail gunner saw the shock wave approaching us like a light. He didn't know what it was. He warned us about the approaching wave with a signal. The plane sank even further, and it seemed to me that an anti-aircraft shell had exploded above us.
CARON: I took pictures. It was a breathtaking sight. Ash-gray smoke mushroom with a red core. It was clear that everything inside was on fire. I was ordered to count the fires. Damn it, I immediately realized that this was unthinkable! A swirling, boiling haze, like lava, covered the city and spread out to the sides towards the foot of the hills.
SHUMARD: Everything in that cloud was death. Some black debris flew upward along with the smoke. One of us said: “It is the souls of the Japanese who ascend to heaven.”
BESSER: Yes, everything in the city that could burn was on fire. “You guys just dropped the first atomic bomb in history!” - Colonel Tibbetts' voice was heard in the headsets. I recorded everything on tape, but then someone put all these recordings under lock and key.
CARON: On the way back, the commander asked me what I thought about the flight. “That’s worse than driving your own ass down the mountain in Coney Island Park for a quarter of a dollar,” I joked. “Then I’ll collect a quarter from you when we sit down!” - the colonel laughed. “We’ll have to wait until payday!” - we answered in unison.
VAN KIRK: The main thought was, of course, about myself: to get out of all this as quickly as possible and return intact.
FERIBEE: Captain Parsons and I had to write a report to send to the President via Guam.
TIBBETS: None of the conventions that had been agreed upon would do, and we decided to transmit the telegram in clear text. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it said that the results of the bombing exceeded all expectations.”
On August 6, 2015, on the anniversary of the bombings, President Truman's grandson Clifton Truman Daniel said that "to the end of his life, my grandfather believed that the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right one, and the United States would never apologize for it."
It seems that everything is clear here: ordinary fascism, even more terrible in its vulgarity.
Let's now look at what the first eyewitnesses saw from the ground. Here is a report from Birt Bratchett, who visited Hiroshima in September 1945. On the morning of September 3, Burtchett stepped off the train in Hiroshima, becoming the first foreign correspondent to see the city since the atomic explosion. Together with the Japanese journalist Nakamura from the Kyodo Tsushin telegraph agency, Burchett walked around the endless reddish ashes and visited street first aid stations. And there, among the ruins and groans, he typed out his report, entitled: “I am writing about this to warn the world...”:
“Almost a month after the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, people continue to die in the city - mysteriously and horribly. The townspeople who were not affected on the day of the disaster die from an unknown disease, which I cannot call anything other than the atomic plague. For no apparent reason, their health begins to deteriorate. Their hair falls out, spots appear on their bodies, and they begin to bleed from their ears, nose, and mouth. Hiroshima, Burchett wrote, does not look like a city that has suffered from a conventional bombing. The impression is as if a giant ice skating rink passed along the street, crushing all living things. At this first living test site where the power of the atomic bomb was tested, I saw a nightmarish devastation indescribable in words, such as I had not seen anywhere else in four years of war.”
And that is not all. Let us remember the tragedy of those exposed and their children. The whole world has heard the poignant story of a girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from leukemia, one of the consequences of radiation exposure. While already in the hospital, Sadako learned about a legend according to which a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will certainly come true. Wanting to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands, but she only managed to fold 644 cranes. There was a song about her:
Returning from Japan, having walked many miles,
A friend brought me a paper crane.
There is a story connected with it, there is only one story -
About a girl who was irradiated.Chorus:
I'll spread paper wings for you,
Fly, don't disturb this world, this world,
Crane, crane, Japanese crane,
You are an ever-living souvenir.“When will I see the sun?” - asked the doctor
(And life burned thinly, like a candle in the wind).
And the doctor answered the girl: “When the winter passes
And you will make a thousand cranes yourself.”But the girl did not survive and soon died,
And she didn’t make a thousand cranes.
The last little crane fell from dead hands -
And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her.Let us note that all this would have awaited you and me if it had not been for the Soviet uranium project, which began in 1943, accelerated after 1945 and completed in 1949. Of course, the crimes committed under Stalin were terrible. And above all - persecution of the Church, exile and execution of clergy and laity, destruction and desecration of churches, collectivization, the all-Russian (and not just Ukrainian) famine of 1933, which broke people's life, and finally the repressions of 1937. However, let's not forget that now we are living the fruits of that very industrialization. And if the Russian state is now independent and so far invulnerable to external aggression, if the tragedies of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria are not repeated in our open spaces, then this is largely thanks to the military-industrial complex and the nuclear missile shield laid down under Stalin.
Meanwhile, there were enough people who wanted to burn us. Here is at least one - the emigrant poet Georgy Ivanov:
Russia has been living in prison for thirty years.
On Solovki or Kolyma.
And only in Kolyma and Solovki
Russia is the one that will live for centuries.Everything else is planetary hell:
Damn Kremlin, crazy Stalingrad.
They deserve only one thing -
Fire that burns him.These are poems written in 1949 by Georgy Ivanov, “a wonderful Russian patriot,” according to a certain publicist who self-identified as a “church Vlasovite.” Professor Alexey Svetozarsky aptly spoke about these verses: “What can we expect from this glorious son of the Silver Age? The swords are cardboard and the blood for them, especially foreign blood, is “cranberry juice,” including the one that flowed at Stalingrad. Well, the fact that both the Kremlin and Stalingrad are worthy of “incinerating” fire, then the “patriot”, who himself successfully sat out both the war and the occupation in a quiet French outback, was, alas, not alone in his desire. The “cleansing” fire of nuclear war was spoken of in the 1948 Easter Message of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.”
By the way, it’s worth reading it more carefully. Here is what Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) wrote in 1948:
“Our time has invented its own special means of exterminating people and all life on earth: they have such destructive power that in an instant they can turn large spaces into a complete desert. Everything is ready to be incinerated by this hellish fire, caused by man himself from the abyss, and we again hear the prophet’s complaint addressed to God: “How long will the earth weep and all the grass of the village dry up from the malice of those who live on it” (Jeremiah 12:4). But this terrible, devastating fire has not only a destructive, but also a cleansing effect: for in it those who ignite it are burned, and with it all the vices, crimes and passions with which they defile the earth. [...] Atomic bombs and all other destructive means invented by modern technology are truly less dangerous for our Fatherland than the moral decay that the highest representatives of civil and church authorities bring into the Russian soul through their example. The decomposition of the atom brings with it only physical devastation and destruction, and the corruption of the mind, heart and will entails the spiritual death of an entire people, after which there is no resurrection” (“Holy Rus'”. Stuttgart, 1948).
In other words, not only Stalin, Zhukov, Voroshilov, but also His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov), Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) - the then “highest representatives of church authority” - were doomed to be burned. And millions of our compatriots, including millions of believing Orthodox Christians, who suffered persecution and the Great Patriotic War. Only Metropolitan Anastasy chastely keeps silent about the moral decay and example that was shown by the highest representatives of Western civil and church authorities. And I forgot the great words of the Gospel: “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
A. Solzhenitsyn’s novel “In the First Circle” goes back to a similar ideology. It glorifies the traitor Innocent Volodin, who tried to hand over to the Americans the Russian intelligence officer Yuri Koval, who was hunting for atomic secrets. It also contains a call to drop an atomic bomb on the USSR, “so that people don’t suffer.” No matter how much they “suffer,” we can see in the example of Sadako Sasaki and tens of thousands like her.
And therefore, deep gratitude not only to our great scientists, workers and soldiers who created the Soviet atomic bomb, which was never put into use, but stopped the cannibalistic plans of American generals and politicians, but also to those of our soldiers who, after the Great Patriotic War, guarded the Russian sky and they did not allow the B-29 with nuclear bombs on board to break through. Among them is the now living Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Sergei Kramarenko, known to readers of the site. Sergei Makarovich fought in Korea and personally shot down 15 American aircraft. This is how he describes the significance of the activities of Soviet pilots in Korea:
“I consider our most important achievement to be that the division’s pilots caused significant damage to US strategic aviation armed with B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers. Our division managed to shoot down over 20 of them. As a result, the B-29s, which carried out carpet (area) bombing in large groups, stopped flying during the day north of the Pyongyang-Genzan line, that is, over most of the territory of North Korea. Thus, millions of Korean residents were saved - mostly women, children and the elderly. But even at night the B-29s suffered heavy losses. In total, during the three years of the Korean War, about a hundred B-29 bombers were shot down. Even more important was the fact that it became clear that in the event of a war with the Soviet Union, the “Superfortresses” carrying atomic bombs would not reach the large industrial centers and cities of the USSR, because they would be shot down. This played a huge role in the fact that World War III never started.”
93 year old Theodore Van Kirk, a bomber navigator, never expressed regret about his participation in the bombing of Hiroshima. “At that moment in history, the atomic bombing was necessary and saved the lives of thousands of American soldiers,” Van Kirk said.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were carried out on August 6 and 9, 1945, on personal orders US President Harry Truman.
The direct execution of the combat mission was entrusted to the B-29 strategic bombers of the 509th mixed aviation regiment, based on the island of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean.
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Enola Gay commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbetts dropped the “Little” uranium bomb, equivalent to 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 90 to 166 thousand people.
August 9, 1945 B-29 Boxcar under the command of Major Charles Sweeney dropped the Fat Man plutonium bomb with a yield of up to 21 kilotons of TNT on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing 60 to 80 thousand people.
Nuclear mushroom over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Charles Levy, Personel aboard Necessary Evil
There were 24 of them
The crew of the Enola Gay during the bombing on August 6th included 12 people, and the crew of the Boxcar on August 9th included 13 people. The only person who participated in both bombings was an anti-radar specialist lieutenant Jacob Beser. Thus, a total of 24 American pilots took part in the two bombings.
The crew of the Enola Gay included: Colonel Paul W. Tibbetts, Captain Robert Lewis, Major Thomas Ferebee, Captain Theodore Van Kirk, Lieutenant Jacob Beser, US Navy Captain William Sterling Parsons, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, Sergeant Joe Stiborik, Sergeant Robert Caron, Sergeant Robert Shumard, Code Talker First Class Richard Nelson, Sergeant Wayne Dusenburry.
The crew of the Boxcar included: Major Charles Sweeney, Lieutenant Charles Donald Albery, Lieutenant Fred Olivi, Sergeant Kermit Behan, Corporal Ibe Spitzer, Sergeant Ray Gallagher, Sergeant Edward Buckley, Sergeant Albert Dehart, Staff Sergeant John Kucharek, Captain James Van Pelt, Frederick Ashworth, Lieutenant Philip Barnes , Lieutenant Jacob Beser.
Theodore Van Kirk was not only the last living participant in the bombing of Hiroshima, but also the last living participant in both bombings - the last of the Boxcar crew died in 2009.
Boxcar crew. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Original uploader was Cfpresley at en.wikipedia
The Enola Gay commander turned the Hiroshima tragedy into a show
Most of the pilots who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not publicly active, but did not express regret about what they had done.
In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the three remaining Enola Gay crew members - Tibbetts, Van Kirk and Jeppson - said that they did not regret what happened. “The use of atomic weapons was necessary,” they said.
Paul Tibbetts before the attack, morning of August 6, 1945. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / US Air Force employee (unnamed)
The most famous of the bombing participants is Paul Warfield Tibbetts Jr., commander of the Enola Gay and the 509th Airlift Wing. Tibbetts, who was considered one of the best pilots in the US Air Force during World War II and was the personal pilot of Dwight Eisenhower, in 1944 was appointed commander of the 509th Airlift Wing, which carried out flights to transport components of atomic bombs, and then received the task of carrying out an atomic strike on Japan. The Enola Gay bomber was named after Tibbetts' mother.
Tibbetts, who served in the Air Force until 1966, rose to the rank of brigadier general. He subsequently worked for many years in private aviation companies. Throughout his life, he not only expressed confidence in the correctness of the atomic strike on Hiroshima, but also declared his readiness to do it again. In 1976, a scandal broke out between the United States and Japan because of Tibbetts - at one of the air shows in Texas, the pilot staged the bombing of Hiroshima. For this incident, the US government issued an official apology to Japan.
Tibbetts died in 2007, aged 92. In his will, he asked that there be no funeral or memorial plaque after his death, as anti-nuclear weapons demonstrators might use it as a protest site.
The pilots were not tormented by nightmares
Boxcar pilot Charles Sweeney graduated from aviation in 1976 with the rank of major general. After this, he wrote memoirs and gave lectures to students. Like Tibbetts, Sweeney insisted that the atomic attack on Japan was necessary and saved the lives of thousands of Americans. Charles Sweeney died in 2004 at the age of 84 in a Boston clinic.
The direct executor of the “sentence on Hiroshima” was the then 26-year-old bombardier Thomas Ferebee. He also never doubted that his mission was the right one, although he expressed regret about the high number of casualties: “I am sorry that so many people died from this bomb, and I hate to think that this was necessary in order to sooner end the war. We should now look back and remember what just one or two bombs can do. And then I think we should agree that something like this should never happen again.” Ferebee retired in 1970, lived quietly for another 30 years, and died at the age of 81 in Windemere, Florida, on the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Those who lived long and happy lives and never regretted what they did were Charles Albury (died 2009 aged 88), Fred Olivi (died 2004 aged 82) and Frederick Ashworth (died 2005 aged 93 years old).
B-29 over Osaka. June 1, 1945. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / United States Army Air Force
"Iserli Complex"
Over the years, there has been talk about the remorse felt by those involved in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In fact, none of the main characters actually felt any guilt. The pilot Claude Robert Iserly, who really soon went crazy, was part of the crew of one of the planes that performed auxiliary functions during the raid. He spent many years in a psychiatric clinic, and a new disease was even named in his honor, associated with damage to the psyche of people who used weapons of mass destruction - the “Iserli complex.”
His colleagues’ psyches turned out to be much stronger. Charles Sweeney and his crew, who bombed Nagasaki, were able to personally assess the scale of what they had done a month later. After Japan signed its surrender, American pilots brought physicists to Nagasaki, as well as medicines for the victims. The terrible pictures that they saw on what was left of the city streets made an impression on them, but did not shake their psyche. Although one of the pilots later admitted that it was good that the surviving residents did not know that these were the pilots who dropped the bomb on August 9, 1945...
©Commons.wikimedia.org
© Commons.wikimedia.org / Hiroshima before and after the explosion.
© Commons.wikimedia.org / The crew of the Enola Gay with Commander Paul Tibbetts in the center
© Commons.wikimedia.org / B-29 "Enola Gay" Bomber
© Commons.wikimedia.org / Atomic explosion over Hiroshima
©
During World War II, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., a U.S. B-29 Enola Gay bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. About 140,000 people were killed in the explosion and died in the following months. Three days later, when the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, an estimated 80,000 people were killed. On August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. To this day, this bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case of the use of nuclear weapons in human history. The US government decided to drop the bombs, believing that this would hasten the end of the war and would not require prolonged bloody fighting on the main island of Japan. Japan was strenuously trying to control two islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as the Allies approached.
1. This wristwatch, 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 lands on August 6, 1945 at a base on Tinian Island after bombing Hiroshima.
3. This photo, which was released in 1960 by the US government, shows the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb size 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. This photo provided by the US Air Force shows the main crew of the B-29 Enola Gay bomber that dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts stands in the center. The photo was taken in the Mariana Islands. This was the first time nuclear weapons were used during military operations in human history.
5. Smoke rises 20,000 feet high over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, after an atomic bomb was dropped during the war.
6. This photograph taken on August 6, 1945, from the city of Yoshiura, across the mountains north of Hiroshima, shows smoke rising from the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The photo was taken by an Australian engineer from Kure, Japan. The stains left on the negative by radiation almost destroyed the photograph.
7. Survivors of the atomic bomb, first used in warfare on August 6, 1945, await medical attention in Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion killed 60,000 people at the same moment, and tens of thousands died later due to radiation exposure.
8. August 6, 1945. In the photo: military medics provide first aid to the surviving residents of Hiroshima shortly after an atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, used in military action 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 Japan's surrender 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. The surrender of Japan took place on August 14, 1945.
10. August 7, 1945, the day after the explosion of the atomic bomb, smoke billows over the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.
11. President Harry Truman (pictured left) sits 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. Survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki among the ruins, with raging fire in the background, August 9, 1945.
14. Crew members of the B-29 bomber "The Great Artiste" that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki surrounded Major Charles W. Swinney in North Quincy, Massachusetts. All crew members participated in the historic bombing. From left to right: Sergeant R. Gallagher, Chicago; Staff Sergeant A. M. Spitzer, Bronx, New York; Capt. S. D. Albury, Miami, Florida; Captain J.F. Van Pelt Jr., Oak Hill, West Virginia; Lieutenant F. J. Olivi, Chicago; Staff Sergeant E.K. Buckley, Lisbon, Ohio; Sergeant A. T. Degart, Plainview, Texas, and Staff Sergeant J. D. Kucharek, Columbus, Nebraska.
15. This photograph of an atomic bomb exploding 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, 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. The explosion of a bomb dropped by a US Army Air Force B-29 Bockscar bomber immediately killed more than 70 thousand people, with tens of thousands more subsequently dying as a result of radiation 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 United States dropped the first-ever atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
18. A boy carries his burned brother on his back on August 10, 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Such photos were not published by the Japanese side, but after the end of the war they were shown to the world media by UN employees.
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 remains empty to this day, the trees remained charred and mutilated, and almost no reconstruction was carried out.
20. Japanese workers remove rubble from damaged areas in Nagasaki, an industrial city in the southwest of Kyushu island, after an atomic bomb was dropped on it on August 9. A chimney and a lonely building are visible in the background, while ruins are visible in the foreground. The photo was taken from the archives of the Japanese news agency Domei.
22. As seen in this photo taken on September 5, 1945, several concrete and steel buildings and bridges remained intact after the United States 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 Udzina in September 1945. The thermal radiation generated by the explosion burned a design from the kimono fabric onto the woman's back.
25. Most of the territory of Hiroshima was wiped off the face of the earth by the explosion of an atomic bomb. This is the first aerial photograph after the explosion, taken on September 1, 1945.
26. The area around the Sanyo Shoray Kan (Trade Promotion Center) in Hiroshima was reduced to rubble after an atomic bomb exploded 100 meters away in 1945.
27. A reporter stands among the rubble in front of the shell of what was once the city theater in Hiroshima on September 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States to hasten Japan's surrender.
28. Ruins and a lonely frame of a building after the explosion of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Photo 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 created after the explosion of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6 of the same year.
31. A Japanese man discovered the remains of a child's tricycle among the ruins in Nagasaki, September 17, 1945. The nuclear bomb dropped on the city on August 9 wiped out almost everything within a 6-kilometer radius and took the lives of thousands of civilians.
32. This photo, which was provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, shows a victim of the atomic explosion. The man is in quarantine on Ninoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan, 9 kilometers from the blast's epicenter, a day after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
33. A tram (top center) and its dead passengers after a bomb exploded over 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. This photo provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima shows victims of the atomic explosion at the tented care center of the 2nd Hiroshima Military Hospital, located on the bank 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 atomic bomb in history on the city.
36. View of Hachobori Street in Hiroshima shortly after a bomb was dropped on the Japanese city.
37. 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 explosion of the atomic bomb.
40. September 14, 1945, the Japanese are trying to drive through a street littered with ruins on the outskirts of the city of Nagasaki, over which a nuclear bomb exploded.
41. This area of Nagasaki was once filled with industrial buildings and small residential buildings. In the background are the ruins of the Mitsubishi factory and the concrete school building located at the foot of the hill.
42. The top photo shows the bustling city of Nagasaki before the explosion, and the bottom photo shows the wasteland after the explosion of 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 of what was once their home in Nagasaki, September 14, 1945.
44. These huts, photographed on September 14, 1945, were built from the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by 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, store owners destroyed by a nuclear bomb sell their goods on the sidewalks, September 30, 1945.
46. The sacred Torii gate at the entrance to a 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 Ferebee, left, from Moscow, and Captain Kermit Behan, right, from Houston, talk at a hotel in Washington, February 6, 1946. Ferebee 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 treatment for burns received during the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Photo taken at the Red Cross hospital on June 5, 1947.
53. Akira Yamaguchi shows his scars left after treatment for burns received during the nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima.
54. Jinpe Terawama, a survivor of the first atomic bomb in history, had numerous burn scars on his body, Hiroshima, June 1947.
55. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts waves from the cockpit of his bomber at the Tinian Island base on August 6, 1945, before his mission to drop the first atomic bomb in history on Hiroshima, Japan. The day before, Tibbetts named the B-29 flying fortress "Enola Gay" in honor of his mother.
