America became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when they decided to drop an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Although the dropping of this bomb marked the end of World War II many still debate whether America made the right decision. The construction of the nuclear bomb began when Albert Einstein warned the United States government that Nazi Germany had been conducting research into nuclear weapons. America has its first successful testing of the bomb on the 16th of July, 1945 at 5:29 am in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Although by the time the testing had finished Germany had already been defeated but the war against Japan continued to rage. Since America was convinced that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties President Harry S. Truman ordered that the new weapons, “little boy” and “fat man”, be used to bring the war to a speedy end. …show more content…
This bomb had horrifying effects on both Japan and its people and continues to affect the city today. The bomb was reported to be equal to 20,000 tons of T.N.T (Times, 2015) and anyone within 1.5 kilometres of the centre of the blasts were instantly killed. Burns and exposure to radiation resulted in many more deaths days after the weapon was dropped. An estimate of 140,000 deaths were counted, determined by body counts, missing persons, and neighbourhood surveys during the months after the bombing. As of how Japan is affected today, in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki the rates of various cancers and leukaemia have risen however no evidence of a “significant increase” in serious birth defects among survivors’ children has been found and the city of Hiroshima has rebounded vigorously and is now a thriving city holding 1.1 million