Why did the United States drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead of Tokyo? What is involved behind this?

In early August, 1945, Japan received two "super gifts" from the United States. Two atomic bombs codenamed "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Two cities were instantly destroyed, surface buildings disappeared, and countless soldiers and civilians were killed or injured. The smoke from the explosion flew into the sky, condensed into black rain, and dyed the earth red, just like the tears of death.

At that time, the United States spent nearly $2 billion on developing atomic bombs and employed more than 65.438+0.3 million workers. Why did you rush to throw them in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the successful development?

World War II broke out in September 1939, and then the war spread from Europe to Asia, and dozens of countries were involved in the largest war in human history. In this war, as one of the countries in the fascist camp, Japan quickly dominated the Asian battlefield and invaded China. The short-lived victory has bred a strong sense of national pride in the narrow island country of Japan, and militarism has spread, trying not only to dominate Asia, but also to control the world. 19411On February 7th, in order to temporarily destroy the main force of the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean, Japan attacked the military base of the US warship, creating the Pearl Harbor incident that shocked China and foreign countries. Isoroku Yamamoto, the planner of the incident, never dreamed that this incident would bring a huge blow to Japan in the future.

After the Pearl Harbor incident broke out, the United States can no longer sit idly by Japan as before. When its national interests were violated, the United States decided to declare war on Japan and the Pacific War broke out. During the period of 1942, the naval battle of midway broke out in June, and the US navy defeated the Japanese navy and won the initiative in the Pacific theater. Japan, which has been defeated one after another, has lost its original maritime superiority, which has also caused irreparable trauma to Japan's top management. However, the militarism that had previously dispersed within the Japanese army did not decline, and the blind self-confidence of Japanese soldiers and civilians made Japanese high-level officials make the wrong decision to continue the war. They don't consider what their country will pay.

From June 65438 to June 0944, the United States began to use the B-29 Super Battlestar bomber to carry a large number of incendiary bombs on major cities such as Tokyo, Japan, causing a large number of casualties and economic losses to Japan. Among several bombings, the most serious one was1March 9, 945 to1June 0. 334 B-29 *** dropped more than 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs. The instantaneous high temperature produced by the fire is enough to burn everything on the surface. The flame chases the fleeing people and burns their bodies and souls. According to a survivor who was a student at that time, the water in the river near the school evaporated and was crowded with bodies. The whole of Tokyo has become a huge morgue, and it took the Japanese government 25 days to clean up the bodies produced by the bombing. Until1May 26th, 945, Tokyo, Japan had become a dead city. After the bombing on such a scale, war-weariness has been generated among the soldiers and civilians, but Japanese military leaders, such as tojo hideki and Mizuno, who insisted on it for three generations, still intend to fight back.

As early as 1942, the United States began to secretly carry out the "Manhattan Project", which was led by General leslie richard groves of the US Army Corps of Engineers and headed by Robert Oppenheimer, a famous American physicist, with the ultimate goal of developing an atomic bomb. 1On July 5th, 945, the first test bomb of "Manhattan Project" was successfully tested and exploded in a desert in Mexico after a conservative estimate of nearly $2 billion at that time. This successful explosion has put the United States in a leading position in the possibility of devastating bombing other countries with weapons of mass destruction. After hearing Truman say that "the United States successfully tested a powerful bomb", Stalin said "I hope to make good use of it to deal with Japan."

On August 6th, 1945, a B-29 bomber flew over Hiroshima, Japan, triggering an air defense alarm. Some busy people in the street hid in the bomb shelter honestly like countless times before. Previous warnings have made people in this nation have an instinctive reaction to this. Others are already numb to the air raid alarm and are still doing the work at hand. After a while, the plane that triggered the alarm flew over Hiroshima without any attack on the ground, and everything seemed to be calm again. These busy Hiroshima citizens don't know that this is just the beginning, and what happens later will make the name Hiroshima a household name.

It turned out that the B-29 bomber that just triggered the air defense alarm was only responsible for investigating the weather in Hiroshima. The real bomber group flew to Hiroshima shortly after receiving the weather information and dropped the atomic bomb code-named "Little Boy" over the Xiangsheng Bridge in the city center.

After 43 seconds of falling, the ignition program was started, and a huge mushroom cloud took off. Nearly 4 tons of atomic bombs exploded, releasing huge energy, and the bottom temperature instantly reached 4000 degrees Celsius. At such a high temperature, people's flesh and blood will be directly liquefied and evaporated, and people who die directly will have no pain, because their lives have disappeared on the earth before they feel the pain. Judging from the photos left at that time, Hiroshima, Japan, after the bombing has become a flat land, and almost all life and buildings have disappeared within a mile from the explosion center. A mile away from the center of the explosion, some people survived, but for these unfortunate "survivors", the pain has just begun. The destructive power of the atomic bomb is mainly caused by nuclear fission. A nuclear explosion will produce a huge air billow, causing buildings to collapse and many people to be buried in it. At the same time, air churning, accompanied by high-intensity thermal radiation and radioactive dust, will burn people's skin and internal organs, and at the same time cause chemical changes in human cells, leading to the loss of cell regeneration ability. People exposed to nuclear radiation can only watch themselves die. Survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing are now called "victims" in Japan, and they will suffer from various diseases for life, even affecting future generations. According to a "bombed" Takakura Yatiko, "the playground is full of traces left by dead soldiers."

After receiving the death gift of the "little boy", the Japanese high-level officials did not immediately declare surrender, although they knew the result of the defeat. They think that the United States will not have a second atomic bomb, so as long as they resolutely and unconditionally surrender, they can stop the war instead of being forced to surrender.

However, only three days later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb code-named "Fat Man" in Nagasaki.

1August 945 15, the Japanese emperor announced Japan's unconditional surrender.

1944 10, Jiro Nishi organized Kamikaze death squads to carry out suicide attacks on the US fleet, which caused great losses to the US military. In order to end the war as soon as possible and reduce losses, the US military set up a special target committee and decided to drop atomic bombs in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki and Niigata.

There are three requirements for choosing the site for dropping atomic bombs: First, by bombing here, the Japanese army will give up resistance and surrender completely, which is the most important goal. Second, there should be military-related organizations and facilities here, such as important headquarters or military factories. Third, what has not been bombed or what has been bombed here should have little impact, so as to accurately measure the consequences of the atomic bomb explosion. There are a large number of Japanese Second Army soldiers stationed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the other is an important military port. Moreover, both cities have a population of over 200,000 and relatively complete industrial facilities. In addition, the previous big bombing also had a slight impact on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After comprehensive evaluation, the US military chose these two cities as the targets of atomic bombing. As a result, the names of Hiroshima and Nagasaki replaced Tokyo, which was bombed to the ground, and the news of Japan's unconditional surrender spread all over the world after August 1945.

Today, Hiroshima and Nagasaki have come back to life, and the traces of atomic bombings have basically disappeared. If it were not for the existence of some historical materials, it would be difficult to see them devastated and sorrowful more than 70 years ago.

Born in peacetime and raised in a stable country, we are undoubtedly lucky and happy. A peaceful life is hard-won. Countless people with lofty ideals, revolutionary martyrs and international friends have embarked on this road with their lives and blood, and we will go further and further.