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The Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Essay

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The atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 is the most controversial military decision in the history of Air Power, and may even be the most controversial decision in history. The first of the bombings happened at Hiroshima, where the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped Little Boy, an Uranium-based atomic bomb. Structural damage estimates vary, with some sources claiming the blast and fires destroyed about 90% of the city (History.com Staff “Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”) and some estimating a little more than a third of the buildings were destroyed or severely damaged (“"The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."). Most sources estimate about a third of the population of the 300,000-person city died in the immediate explosion (Wright), with tens of thousands more dying in the subsequent days as a result of wounds and radiation. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led directly to the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Empire and the end of World War 2, and indirectly caused the Cold War between the United States and the USSR. Initially, historians took Churchill and Truman’s justifications that the bomb was dropped to end the war quickly, and that was the end of the argument. Throughout time, revisionists have challenged that notion and argued that the bombs were not necessary for ending the war in Japan in a timely fashion, and it was merely an unethical, immoral show of power to the Soviets at the expense of the Japanese

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