Series commemorating the victory of World War II: Choose Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This article was created exclusively by the author "A Yun of History" and may not be reproduced without permission. If there is any infringement of the image source and network, please contact to delete it. Thank you! Commemorating the Victory of World War II Series: Choosing Hiroshima and Nagasaki for World War II-Why did Hiroshima and Nagasaki choose the Pacific battlefield? 1On August 6, 945, the first atomic bomb (named "Little Boy") in the history of human war exploded 600 meters above Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima is shrouded in dazzling flashes and mushroom clouds. After the super shock wave, the city was swallowed up by fire. The nuclear explosion made this urbanization with a population of 400,000 in ruins, and more than 65,438+10,000 people were killed immediately. In the next few years, nearly 6.5438+0.2 million people died of nuclear radiation injury, and there will be more deaths in a longer period of time. In the face of the Hiroshima tragedy, some people are still asking, why did the US military use the atomic bomb? Why did the first nuclear bomb target Hiroshima, not Tokyo or other cities? ▲ Pacific War1June, 945, the first nuclear bomb "Big Boy" successfully exploded in the desert of New Mexico, USA, and the fate of Japan as the first nuclear strike object was determined. Groves, the chief nuclear engineer, declared that the explosion energy exceeded 15000-20000 tons of TNT. Its deputy, Brigadier General Rael, described the explosion effect as "unprecedented and creepy". He believes that no matter what will happen in the current war, the current means are enough to ensure its rapid end and save thousands of American lives. "Why use the atomic bomb? After the bloody battle in the Pacific War, the US military gradually approached Japan, and landing on the main island of Japan was no longer under discussion. However, in the long and bloody battle for islands, Americans deeply realized the madness and tenacity of the Japanese army and the death of members of the Kamikaze special attack team. In order to cope with the coming US military, Japan has organized as many as 7 million troops and tens of millions of militia, and die-hards in Japan even clamored for "100 million jade". The US High Command estimates that if Japan is captured, it must be prepared to pay at least one million American casualties. Undoubtedly, what a terrible thing it would be if American troops landed in Japan and faced tens of millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians who defended the imperial land at all costs. It is also the United States that cannot accept huge military sacrifices. In order to prevent more American soldiers from dying when attacking Japan, they had to let the Japanese face death first. The main reasons why the United States must use the atomic bomb are: first, to speed up the process of the Pacific War and make Japanese militarism surrender at an early date. Second, prevent thousands of American soldiers from dying in future battles. Third, ensure that the US military alone occupies the whole territory of Japan. Because the Soviet Union and Western allies jointly occupied Germany, Germany was divided into two parts, and East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. The United States does not want this to happen again in Japan. It wants to quickly occupy the whole territory of Japan before the arrival of Soviet troops, so it is bound to make the atomic bomb work. However, within the United States, the use of atomic bombs has also caused heated debates. ▲ The first focus of the Pacific War debate is: Can Japan be forced to surrender without using atomic bombs? Among the top generals of the US military, there have always been people who are opposed to bombing cities. They argue that the atomic bomb is unnecessary, and the representative figure is Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the European Allied Forces. General Ai's reason for opposing the use of the atomic bomb is that the defeat of the Japanese army is a foregone conclusion, and surrender is a matter of time, so there is no need to use such horrible means. This is one of them. Second, he is extremely unwilling to see the United States use this cruel tool of mass murder first. General Stimson, the secretary of the army, also hates bombing cities and insists that bombing should be limited to legitimate military targets. But in fact, the American 20/2 1 bomber wing has already carried out strategic bombing on Japan. Many densely populated cities in Japan are devastated, and the Tokyo bombing alone caused more than 654.38+10,000 deaths. However, this did not make Japan's will to war waver at all. The indomitable fighting spirit of the Japanese army in the battle for Pacific islands made American soldiers suffer a lot. It can be said that to fight in Japan, the Japanese soldiers and civilians will swear to resist, which will make the US military tremble. Japan is ready for "100 million pieces of jade", which undoubtedly makes the US military face the cost of hundreds of thousands or even millions of soldiers' lives to occupy Japan. It is hard for the United States to bear such a big sacrifice. Therefore, the American government thinks it is necessary to bomb Japan and choose a city that has a great psychological impact on Japanese soldiers and civilians as the target. The bombing forced the Japanese to make the choice of surrender. ▲ The second focus of the atomic bomb debate is that if a city is bombed, it will inevitably cause a large number of civilian casualties, which not only violates the principle of humanity, but also does not meet the human rights standards of the United States. Therefore, it is suggested that the cities to be bombed should be clearly warned in advance. But this brings a big problem. If Japan is told that an atomic bomb has been used in a certain place, they may transfer prisoners of war from various countries to the area as "hostage shields". Some experts and scholars also warned that the success of the first nuclear device explosion does not mean that the atomic bomb will certainly explode successfully. If the dropped atomic bomb happens not to explode, then Japanese militarism will be greatly encouraged and the hope of ending the war at an early date will be dashed. When atomic bombs bombed cities, they should have chosen areas with a large number of factories and important military targets. But this is not found in Japan. Under the Japanese militaristic policy, industry was dispersed to ordinary families, and men, women and children all over the country were mobilized to produce weapons and ammunition in the form of family workshops. The purpose of American strategic bombing is to greatly weaken Japan's war potential. A large number of casualties are actually destroying their own war resources. Therefore, despite knowing that nuclear bombing will kill many women and children, the US military can only do so. Although the U.S. military has been reluctant to bear the notoriety of cruel slaughter, if the nuclear bombing is delayed, the conventional bombing will also destroy all cities in Japan, and then the atomic bomb will lose the favorable opportunity to show its power. After President Truman's approval, after many times of weighing, he finally reached an agreement: use the atomic bomb as soon as possible, which will give the Japanese soldiers and civilians the greatest psychological shock. The bombing target should be a big city with both military and political values. ▲ The scene after the atomic bomb explosion In order to select the target city for the nuclear bomb bombing, the Pentagon set up a "target committee" headed by groves, with Farrell, two other officers and five scientists as members. The research contents of the Committee include the explosion height of atomic bombs, throwing and landing devices, weather and flight reports, target situation, psychological factors in selecting targets, air flight coordination, bombing drills, formulation of flight rules, coordination between air crews performing nuclear bombing missions and conventional bombing, and so on. The task of carrying out the nuclear bombing mission inevitably falls on the 20th bomber wing with B-29 bombers. The bombing time was determined at the end of July and the beginning of August, and the weather conditions were good. The selection of the target by the Target Committee is that the target city is within the range of B-29 bomber 1500 km, and the untested expensive bombs can be aimed at the target. The bombing mission selected a main target and two backup targets. The principle of target selection is that bombing can seriously affect the Japanese army's will to fight, and it is an important headquarters and force concentration place or military equipment and production and supply center. The target should be a city that has not been bombed by air strikes before, and its size is best to limit the damage of nuclear explosion within the city range, so as to accurately evaluate the bombing, power and effect of atomic bombs. However, few industrial cities in Japan have not been destroyed by bombing, and many urban industries have become ruins. While the target committee was meeting, the US plane was bombing Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Daban, Kobe and Hachiba. The Target Committee hopes that the aviation team will show mercy and leave a city that has not been ruthlessly destroyed by incendiary bombs and can still spend the cherry blossom season safely. The Target Committee found that only Hiroshima, Kyoto, Yokohama, Ogura, Fukuoka, Niigata, Nagasaki and Zuo Shibao were not included in the priority bombing list. Finally, the selected valuable targets must be in these cities. Hiroshima is the biggest target that has never been bombed. Among the research objectives, the selection requirements focus on three items: 1, and the diameter of the central city is more than 3 miles. 2, can be effectively destroyed by shock waves. It hasn't been bombed before March 8th. To this end, the air force agreed to leave five such targets for the atomic bomb, including: 1, Kyoto, concentrated industrial zone, population 1 10,000. The former capital and cultural center of Japan, where many residents and industries moved during the war. As a goal, it is of great significance to the psychological influence of the Japanese. 2, Hiroshima, there are arsenals and ports in the city center. The city is moderate in scale, which is convenient for radar search and can make the atomic bomb exert its power. The other three recommended targets are Nagasaki, Ogura and Niigata. As a result of the study by the Target Committee, Kyoto is the preferred target because it has all the above conditions. But a powerful man saved Kyoto. He is General Stimson. American professors and scholars have long asked him not to destroy the ancient buildings and cultural monuments in Kyoto. He also went to Kyoto before the war and liked it very much. When he learned that Kyoto was the target of a nuclear attack, he strongly opposed that Kyoto could not be destroyed. " To this end, Stimson persuaded General Marshall, the army chief of staff who led the Air Force. Kyoto is the national center of Buddhism and Taoism in Japan, with a history of more than 65,438+0,000 years and hundreds of temples and shrines of historical and cultural value. At Stimson's insistence, Kyoto was finally excluded from the list of nuclear strike targets. American generals' understanding and respect for the history and culture of enemy countries saved Kyoto from destruction. ▲ Pacific War1July, 945, the technical preparation for nuclear bomb bombing was only a changing weather link. Stimson's target list only has three cities left, followed by Hiroshima, Kokura and Niigata. On July 26th, the United States distributed the Postan Proclamation, urging Japan to surrender unconditionally. However, there is no mention of Japan's leniency and humanity to its people after surrender, nor does it mention the warning that an atomic bomb will be used if it does not surrender. Under the pressure of Japanese auto hardliners, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki said that the Postan Proclamation was just a worthless copy of the "graduation manifesto". Japan has no choice but to carry out the war to the end. In the eyes of allies, Suzuki's attitude is to reject the Postan Proclamation. As a result, the conditions for the use of atomic bombs in the United States are fully mature. In early August, according to meteorological and other conditions, the final nuclear explosion targets were Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki. The bombing mission was carried out by the crew of Colonel Tibbits who flew the B-29 bomber No.82 and the crew of two other B-29 bombers. Everything is ready, just waiting for the historic moment. On August 6th, 1945, the weather plane reported that the weather in Hiroshima was in good condition, and Colonel Tibitz's fleet flew over Japan as scheduled. Hiroshima citizens who are used to fighter planes flying in the air don't care about this. At 8: 45, aiming at a bridge in the city center, the "little boy" popped out of the bomb bay and rushed to Hiroshima. As a result, Hiroshima was in ruins, and more than 65438+ 10,000 people died immediately. In the past few years, nearly 6.5438+0.2 million people died of nuclear radiation injury, and others will continue to die in the future. The little boy's angry postscript is that after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, it threatened Japan not to surrender, and it continued to bomb until it surrendered. This gives the Japanese an illusion that there are more atomic bombs in the United States. Sure enough, a few days later, the United States found that Japan had not surrendered, so on the 9 th, it dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" in Nagasaki. On that day, the main target of the planned nuclear attack was Kokura, but there were dark clouds, so Major sweeney's troops turned to Nagasaki, but the weather in Nagasaki was bad, so it was easy to think that they had found the target, but in fact they had deviated from the established target, and the atomic bomb was dropped into a valley. Therefore, the lethality of the atomic bomb is greatly weakened. But it also caused more than 60 thousand people to die immediately, and more than 654.38+10 thousand people gradually lost their lives in the future. Nagasaki suffered another nuclear attack after Hiroshima. This time, the Japanese authorities really believed the threat that the United States would continue its nuclear bombing. Finally made a decision to surrender. In fact, the United States produced three atomic bombs at that time, and the first "big boy" exploded in the experiment. It will take some time to assemble the fourth atomic bomb. This is a fact. 1On August 6th and 9th, 945, the US military dropped the latest two most lethal bombs in human history-the atomic bomb. More than 200,000 people died in Hiroshima, about170,000 people died in Nagasaki, and Japan was forced to surrender. This unprecedented century bombing finally came to an end. 1995, the 50th anniversary of the victory of the world anti-fascist war, US President Bill Clinton said in response to a reporter's question about the atomic bomb dropped in Japan that year: Although many people were killed at that time, it does not mean that President Truman's decision at that time was wrong, and this year does not mean that the United States should apologize now. Many Japanese protested against Clinton's speech, arguing that the dropping of atomic bombs by the United States was a serious violation of international law. ▲ The atomic bomb It is true that the atomic bomb killed nearly 300,000 people in Guangdong Island and Nagasaki, but how many people from other countries did Japan slaughter? In China alone, tens of millions of people died in the war. In Nanjing alone, the Japanese army slaughtered more than 300,000 people in China, killing, setting fire, looting and raping, and the capital of China became a hell on earth. This is a crime that truly violates international law and loses humanity. Fortunately, there is no atomic bomb in Japan. At that time, they used rifles and bayonets to kill civilians indiscriminately, but Nanjing suffered more casualties than Hiroshima and Nagasaki under the atomic bomb. Why doesn't Japan apologize for the crime of genocide? Today, although it has become common sense to ban nuclear weapons, most people do not think that dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a mistake. Without the atomic bomb, Japan will still fight back, the war will continue, and there will be more bloodshed in Asia. The tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were caused by Japanese militarism, which was the object of condemnation. For hundreds of millions of people groaning under the Japanese butcher's knife, the atomic bomb freed them from their pain as soon as possible. In addition, Japan, as the first country to violate human morality and international law, should not be protected by international law.