Both Nagasaki and Hiroshima were extremely vibrant cities in the pre-World War II era.  Both contained a host of brothers, fathers, daughters, nieces, and grandparents.  Nagasaki was known as the largest sea port in the South of Japan.  It was one of the strongest financial market in the entire nation and its ship building industry made it a prime host for the majority of Japan’s naval fleet.  Right before the war began, Nagasaki actually reached an all-time high in population of 310,000 people.  Hiroshima was also a vibrant Japanese city of the time.  It contained a strong industrial center and many troops, and was considered the main defense center for all of Southern Japan.  Hiroshima reached a peak population of 381,000 people in the earliest years of the war, thought after evacuations its total inhabitants would dip to about 255,000 people by 1945.  Both Nagasaki and Hiroshima were obviously thriving Japanese cities heading into the second Great War, and they were full of hard-working blue collar Japanese citizens, most of whom had nothing to do with Japan’s involvement in the war. 

           The bomb known as “fat man” hit Nagasaki at about 11:01 a.m. on 1945.  The explosion had a blast yield of nearly 21-kilotons of TNT and generated temperatures reaching an approximate 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit and winds reaching a whopping 624 miles per hour.  The destruction covered a total area of about 43 square miles, with everything up to one half-mile from ground zero (the dropping site of the bomb) was completely incinerated and essentially wiped from the face of the earth as it had never existed there.  There were an estimated 52,000 homes in the city of Nagasaki and it’s immediate suburbs prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb, however only 12 percent of those homes were able to escape unharmed, as 14,000 were completely destroyed and 5,400 were more seriously damaged. 

 Hiroshima’s bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” had already hit in the city of Hiroshima at 8:15 that morning.  Its blast was comparable to about 13-kilotons of TNT, and nearly every single structure within a mile of ground zero (the dropping point) had been completely destroyed.  The bomb also significantly damaged every structure within approximately three miles of ground zero, and less than 10 percent of all of the homes in the entire vibrant city of Hiroshima escaped unharmed.  Glass and windows in suburbs nearly twelve miles away from the city just shattered, and a firestorm consumed nearly 4.4 square miles of the city.  Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained mere shells of their former selves with a fraction of their structures even remaining intact (cfo.doe.gov).  The hustle and bustle of the early morning city activities now gave way for a very eerie silence. 

  The impact of the bomb in both cities was felt not only in its initial blast, but also well after the dust and fires had settled along the Japanese countryside.  In Nagasaki, it is estimated that approximately 40,000 people died at the initial moment of the bomb’s detonation.  That’s nearly 15 percent of the entire population of the city gone in a matter of seconds, an awesome amount of power.  To put it into perspective, if the bomb were dropped on New York City today, and the same proportion of residents were killed immediately, that would be 2,822,398 instant deaths.  Nearly 3 million people killed in a matter of seconds!  On top of this, nearly 60,000 other Nagasaki residents were injured by the explosion.  Though the atomic bomb did not just bring death and devastating destruction with its initial blow alone.  Instead, and perhaps its most devastating effect, the radiation emitted from the bomb caused an overwhelming amount of disease and deformation, serving as a grim reminder to the tragedy for many days following the attack. By January 1946, the total death count in Nagasaki climbed to about 70,000.

In Hiroshima, things were not much better, where 70,000 victims fell to the initial blast.  Many of the survivors suffered from fractured legs as a result of the sheer force of the explosion projected by the atomic bomb, and it is believed that this must have happened to many of the citizens, preventing them from escaping the immense firestorms.  Just when the members of the city thought they were recovering, and survivors seemed to improve, the mysterious radiation sicknesses began to appear.  The death rate actually began to climb three weeks after the attack, as the casualty count reached 100, 000 people.  Actually, a full five years after the initial bombing of Hiroshima reached over 200,000 people as cancer, leukemia, and other diseases directly linked to the radiation of the atomic bomb began to set in. 

For those who did survive either of the attacks, their quality of life was decreased significantly.  Many suffered from cataracts and severe scars and burns from the post-explosion radiation.  Other symptoms included chronic fatigue, daily headaches, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, abnormally low white blood cell count, bloody discharge, anemia, and loss of hair (mothra.rerf.or.jp).  Women survivors who were pregnant at the time gave birth to numerous stillborn babies or babies with major deformities, if they were able to give birth at all.

            I believe that the data above is more than enough evidence that the use of atomic weapons in warfare is absolutely wrong.  The killing from soldier to soldier is one thing, and of course it is nearly impossible to not harm a single civilian in warfare, especially a war of this magnitude, however how can the mass murdering of nearly 200,000 innocent civilians in a single city be justified?  In fact, it is the long-term damage of the use of the atomic bomb that is perhaps the loudest evidence as to the atrocity that was committed.  After only 5 years since Japan had surrendered, the death rates in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima had nearly doubled.  The disease that killed years after the war was over, and the generations of Japanese that were lost or deformed is simply inexcusable.  Not to mention the loss of nearly the entire cultures that existed in these two cities.  For when all of the papers on which you documented your history and all of the art and architecture which displayed your customs and way of life are incinerated in seconds, that part of a society can never be brought back.  It’s seems impossible to me that one would be able to advocate the slaughtering of nearly half a million innocent civilians, and the complete destruction of an entire city and its history and culture.