Nagasaki nuclear weapons. The tragic atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: was it necessary, a crime of the Second World War. Life is like a struggle

Nuclear weapons have been used for combat purposes only twice in the entire history of mankind. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 showed how dangerous it could be. It was the real experience of using nuclear weapons that was able to keep two powerful powers (the USA and the USSR) from starting a third world war.

Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During World War II, millions of innocent people suffered. The leaders of world powers blindly put the lives of soldiers and civilians on the line, hoping to achieve superiority in the struggle for world domination. One of the worst disasters ever world history was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a result of which about 200 thousand people were killed, and the total number of people who died during and after the explosion (from radiation) reached 500 thousand.

There are still only speculations about what led the President of the United States of America to order the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Did he realize, did he know, what destruction and consequences a nuclear bomb would leave after the explosion? Or was this action intended to demonstrate combat power in front of the USSR in order to completely kill any thoughts of attacks on the United States?

History has not preserved the motives that motivated the 33rd US President Harry Truman when he ordered a nuclear attack on Japan, but only one thing can be said with certainty: it was the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that forced the Japanese emperor to sign surrender.

In order to try to understand the motives of the United States, one must carefully consider the situation that arose in the political arena in those years.

Emperor Hirohito of Japan

Japanese Emperor Hirohito had good leadership abilities. In order to expand his lands, in 1935 he decided to capture all of China, which at that time was a backward agrarian country. Following the example of Hitler (with whom Japan entered into a military alliance in 1941), Hirohito begins to conquer China using methods favored by the Nazis.

In order to clear China of its indigenous inhabitants, Japanese troops used chemical weapon which was banned. Inhumane experiments were carried out on the Chinese, with the goal of finding out the limits of the viability of the human body in various situations. In total, about 25 million Chinese died during Japanese expansion, most of whom were children and women.

It is possible that the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities might not have taken place if, after concluding a military pact with Hitler's Germany, the Emperor of Japan had not given the order to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor, thereby provoking the United States to enter World War II. After this event, the date of the nuclear attack begins to approach with inexorable speed.

When it became clear that Germany's defeat was inevitable, the question of Japan's surrender seemed to be a matter of time. However, the Japanese emperor, the embodiment of samurai arrogance and a true God for his subjects, ordered all residents of the country to fight to the last drop of blood. Everyone, without exception, had to resist the invader, from soldiers to women and children. Knowing the mentality of the Japanese, there was no doubt that the residents would carry out the will of their emperor.

In order to force Japan to capitulate, radical measures had to be taken. The atomic explosion, which occurred first in Hiroshima and then in Nagasaki, turned out to be precisely the impetus that convinced the emperor of the futility of resistance.

Why was a nuclear attack chosen?

Although the number of versions of why a nuclear attack was chosen to intimidate Japan is quite large, the following versions should be considered the main ones:

1. Most historians (especially American) insist that the damage caused by dropped bombs is several times less than what could have been caused by a bloody invasion of American troops. According to this version, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not sacrificed in vain, since it saved the lives of the remaining millions of Japanese;
2. According to the second version, the purpose of the nuclear attack was to show the USSR how advanced US military weapons were in order to intimidate a possible enemy. In 1945, the US President was informed that activity of Soviet troops had been noticed in the area of ​​the border with Turkey (which was an ally of England). Perhaps this is why Truman decided to intimidate the Soviet leader;
3. The third version says that the nuclear attack on Japan was American revenge for Pearl Harbor.

At the Potsdam Conference, which took place from July 17 to August 2, the fate of Japan was decided. Three states - the USA, England and the USSR, led by their leaders, signed the declaration. It spoke of a post-war sphere of influence, although World War II was not yet over. One of the points of this declaration spoke of the immediate surrender of Japan.

This document was sent to the Japanese government, which rejected this proposal. Following the example of their emperor, members of the government decided to continue the war to the end. After this, the fate of Japan was decided. Since the US military command was looking for where to use the latest atomic weapons, the President approved the atomic bombing of Japanese cities.

The coalition against Nazi Germany was on the verge of breaking (due to the fact that there was one month left before victory), the allied countries were unable to come to an agreement. The different policies of the USSR and the USA ultimately led these states to cold war.

The fact that US President Harry Truman was informed about the start of nuclear bomb testing on the eve of the meeting in Potsdam played an important role in the decision of the head of state. Wanting to intimidate Stalin, Truman hinted to the Generalissimo that he had a new weapon ready, which could leave huge casualties after the explosion.

Stalin ignored this statement, although he soon called Kurchatov and ordered the completion of work on the development of Soviet nuclear weapons.

Having not received Stalin's answer, the American president decides to launch atomic bombing at his own peril and risk.

Why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki chosen for nuclear attack?

In the spring of 1945, the US military had to select suitable sites for full-scale nuclear bomb testing. Even then, it was possible to notice the prerequisites that the last test of an American nuclear bomb was planned to be carried out at a civilian facility. The list of requirements created by scientists for the latest nuclear bomb test looked like this:

1. The object had to be on a plain so that the blast wave would not be hampered by uneven terrain;
2. Urban development should be made of wood as much as possible so that the destruction from fire is maximum;
3. The property must have maximum building density;
4. The size of the object must exceed 3 kilometers in diameter;
5. The selected city must be located as far as possible from enemy military bases in order to exclude the intervention of enemy military forces;
6. For a strike to bring maximum benefit, it must be delivered to a large industrial center.

These requirements indicate that nuclear attack, most likely, was something that had been planned for a long time, and Germany could well have been in Japan’s place.

The intended targets were 4 Japanese cities. These are Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto and Kokura. Of these, it was only necessary to select two real targets, since there were only two bombs. An American expert on Japan, Professor Reishower, begged to remove the city of Kyoto from the list, since it was of enormous historical value. It is unlikely that this request could have influenced the decision, but then the Minister of Defense, who was spending his honeymoon with his wife in Kyoto, intervened. They met the minister and Kyoto was saved from a nuclear strike.

Kyoto's place on the list was taken by the city of Kokura, which was chosen as a target along with Hiroshima (although later weather conditions made their own adjustments, and Nagasaki had to be bombed instead of Kokura). The cities had to be large and the destruction large-scale so that the Japanese people would be horrified and stop resisting. Of course, the main thing was to influence the position of the emperor.

Research by historians from around the world shows that the American side was not at all concerned about the moral side of the issue. Tens and hundreds of potential civilian casualties were of no concern to either the government or the military.

After looking through entire volumes of secret materials, historians came to the conclusion that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were doomed in advance. There were only two bombs, and these cities had a convenient geographical location. In addition, Hiroshima was a very densely built-up city, and an attack on it could unleash the full potential of a nuclear bomb. The city of Nagasaki was the largest industrial center working for the defense industry. A large number of guns and military equipment were produced there.

Details of the bombing of Hiroshima

The military strike on the Japanese city of Hiroshima was planned in advance and carried out in accordance with a clear plan. Each point of this plan was clearly implemented, which indicates careful preparation of this operation.

On July 26, 1945, a nuclear bomb named "Baby" was delivered to the island of Tinian. By the end of the month, all preparations were completed and the bomb was ready for combat operation. After checking meteorological readings, the date of the bombing was set - August 6. On this day the weather was excellent and the bomber, with a nuclear bomb on board, took off into the air. Its name (Enola Gay) was remembered for a long time not only by the victims of the nuclear attack, but also by all of Japan.

During the flight, the plane carrying death on board was accompanied by three planes, whose task was to determine the direction of the wind so that the atomic bomb would hit the target as accurately as possible. An airplane was flying behind the bomber, which was supposed to record all the data from the explosion using sensitive equipment. A bomber was flying at a safe distance with a photographer on board. Several aircraft flying towards the city did not cause any concern either to the Japanese air defense forces or to the civilian population.

Although Japanese radars detected the approaching enemy, they did not raise the alarm because of a small group of military aircraft. Residents were warned about a possible bombing, but they continued to work quietly. Since the nuclear strike was not like a conventional air raid, not a single Japanese fighter took off to intercept it. Even the artillery did not pay attention to the approaching planes.

At 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay bomber dropped a nuclear bomb. This release was carried out using a parachute to enable the group of attacking aircraft to move to a safe distance. Having dropped the bomb at an altitude of 9,000 meters, the battle group turned around and left.

Having flown about 8,500 meters, the bomb exploded at an altitude of 576 meters from the ground. A deafening explosion covered the city with an avalanche of fire, which destroyed everything in its path. Directly at the epicenter, people simply disappeared, leaving behind only the so-called “shadows of Hiroshima.” All that remained of the person was a dark silhouette imprinted on the floor or walls. At a distance from the epicenter, people were burning alive, turning into black firebrands. Those who were on the outskirts of the city were a little more fortunate; many of them survived, having received only terrible burns.

This day became a day of mourning not only in Japan, but throughout the world. About 100,000 people died that day, and the following years claimed the lives of several hundred thousand more. All of them died from radiation burns and radiation sickness. According to official statistics from the Japanese authorities as of January 2017, the number of deaths and injuries from the American uranium bomb is 308,724 people.

Hiroshima is today the largest city in the Chugoku region. The city has a memorial dedicated to the victims of the American atomic bombing.

What happened in Hiroshima on the day of the tragedy

First official sources Japan said that the city of Hiroshima was attacked by new bombs that were dropped from several American aircraft. People did not yet know that the new bombs destroyed tens of thousands of lives in an instant, and the consequences nuclear explosion will last for decades.

It is possible that even the American scientists who created atomic weapons did not imagine what consequences radiation would have for people. For 16 hours after the explosion, not a single signal was received from Hiroshima. Noticing this, the Broadcast Station operator began making attempts to contact the city, but the city remained silent.

After a short period of time, incomprehensible and confusing information came from the railway station, which was located not far from the city, from which the Japanese authorities understood only one thing: an enemy raid had been carried out on the city. It was decided to send the plane for reconnaissance, since the authorities knew for sure that no serious enemy combat air groups had broken through the front line.

Approaching the city at a distance of about 160 kilometers, the pilot and the officer accompanying him saw a huge dust cloud. As they flew closer, they saw a terrible picture of destruction: the entire city was ablaze with fires, and smoke and dust made it difficult to discern the details of the tragedy.

Having landed in a safe place, the Japanese officer reported to the command that the city of Hiroshima had been destroyed by US aircraft. After this, the military began to selflessly provide assistance to their wounded and shell-shocked compatriots from the bomb explosion.

This disaster united all the surviving people into one big family. Wounded people, barely able to stand, cleared the rubble and put out fires, trying to save as many compatriots as possible.

Washington made an official statement about the successful operation only 16 hours after the bombing.

Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

The city of Nagasaki, which was an industrial center, was never subjected to massive air strikes. They tried to preserve it to demonstrate the enormous power of the atomic bomb. Only a few high-explosive bombs damaged weapons factories, shipyards and medical hospitals a week before the terrible tragedy.

Now it seems incredible, but Nagasaki became the second Japanese city to be subjected to nuclear bombing, only by chance. The initial target was the city of Kokura.

The second bomb was delivered and loaded onto the plane, following the same plan as in the case of Hiroshima. The plane with the nuclear bomb took off and flew towards the city of Kokura. On approach to the island, three American planes had to meet to record the explosion of an atomic bomb.

Two planes met, but they did not wait for the third. Contrary to the forecast of meteorologists, the sky over Kokura became clouded, and visual dropping of the bomb became impossible. After circling over the island for 45 minutes and not waiting for the third plane, the commander of the plane, who was carrying a nuclear bomb on board, noticed problems in the fuel supply system. Since the weather had completely deteriorated, it was decided to fly to the reserve target area - the city of Nagasaki. The group, consisting of two aircraft, flew to an alternate target.

On August 9, 1945, at 7:50 a.m., the residents of Nagasaki woke up to an air raid signal and went down to shelters and bomb shelters. After 40 minutes, considering the alarm not worthy of attention, and classifying the two aircraft as reconnaissance aircraft, the military canceled it. People went about their normal business, not suspecting that an atomic explosion was about to occur.

The Nagasaki attack went exactly the same way as the Hiroshima attack, only high clouds almost ruined the Americans' bomb release. Literally in the last minutes, when the fuel supply was at its limit, the pilot noticed a “window” in the clouds and dropped a nuclear bomb at an altitude of 8,800 meters.

The carelessness of the Japanese air defense forces is striking, which, despite news of a similar attack on Hiroshima, did not take any measures to neutralize American military aircraft.

The atomic bomb, called “Fat Man,” exploded at 11:20 a.m. and within a few seconds turned a beautiful city into a kind of hell on earth. 40,000 people died in an instant, and another 70,000 suffered terrible burns and injuries.

Consequences of nuclear bombings of Japanese cities

The consequences of a nuclear attack on Japanese cities were unpredictable. In addition to those killed at the time of the explosion and during the first year after it, radiation continued to kill people for many years. As a result, the number of victims doubled.

Thus, the nuclear attack brought the United States a long-awaited victory, and Japan had to make concessions. The consequences of the nuclear bombing struck Emperor Hirohito so much that he unconditionally accepted the terms of the Potsdam Conference. Based on the official version, the nuclear attack carried out by the US military brought exactly what the American government wanted.

In addition, the USSR troops, which accumulated on the border with Turkey, were urgently transferred to Japan, to which the USSR declared war. According to members of the Soviet Politburo, upon learning of the consequences caused by nuclear explosions, Stalin said that the Turks were lucky because the Japanese had sacrificed themselves for them.

Only two weeks passed after the entry of Soviet troops into Japanese territory, and Emperor Hirohito had already signed an act of unconditional surrender. This day (September 2, 1945) went down in history as the day the Second World War ended.

Was there an urgent need to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Even in modern Japan, debate continues over whether the nuclear bombing was necessary or not. Scientists from all over the world are painstakingly studying secret documents and archives from the Second World War. Most researchers agree that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sacrificed to end the world war.

The famous Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa believes that the atomic bombing was launched to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union into Asian countries. This also allowed the United States to assert itself as a leader in military terms, which they succeeded brilliantly. After the nuclear explosion, arguing with the United States was very dangerous.

If you adhere to this theory, then Hiroshima and Nagasaki were simply sacrificed to the political ambitions of superpowers. Tens of thousands of victims were completely ignored.

One can guess what could have happened if the USSR had managed to complete the development of its nuclear bomb before the United States. It is possible that the atomic bombing would not have happened then.

Modern nuclear weapon exceeds the power of the bombs dropped on Japanese cities by thousands of times. It is difficult to even imagine what could happen if the world's two largest powers started a nuclear war.

The most little-known facts regarding the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Although the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is known throughout the world, there are facts that only a few know:

1. A man who managed to survive in hell. Although everyone near the epicenter of the explosion died during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, one person, who was in a basement 200 meters from the epicenter, managed to survive;
   
2. War is war, but the tournament must continue. At a distance of less than 5 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion in Hiroshima, a tournament in the ancient Chinese game “Go” was taking place. Although the explosion destroyed the building and many participants were injured, the tournament continued that day;
3. Capable of withstanding even a nuclear explosion. Although the explosion in Hiroshima destroyed most of the buildings, a safe in one bank was not damaged. After the end of the war, the American company that produced these safes received a letter of gratitude from the manager of a bank in Hiroshima;
4. Extraordinary luck. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was the only person on earth who officially survived two atomic explosions. After the explosion in Hiroshima, he went to work in Nagasaki, where he again managed to survive;
5. Pumpkin bombs. Before the atomic bombing began, the United States dropped 50 “Pumpkin” bombs on Japan, so named for their resemblance to a pumpkin;
6. An attempt to overthrow the emperor. The Emperor of Japan mobilized all the country's citizens for "total war." This meant that every Japanese, including women and children, had to defend their country to the last drop of blood. After the emperor, frightened by atomic explosions, accepted all the terms of the Potsdam Conference and later capitulated, Japanese generals tried to carry out a coup d'etat, which failed;
7. Those who encountered a nuclear explosion and survived. Japanese Gingko biloba trees are amazingly resilient. After the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, 6 of these trees survived and continue to grow to this day;
   
8. People who dreamed of salvation. After the explosion in Hiroshima, hundreds of survivors fled to Nagasaki. Of these, 164 people managed to survive, although only Tsutomu Yamaguchi is considered an official survivor;
9. Not a single police officer was killed in the atomic explosion in Nagasaki. The surviving law enforcement officers from Hiroshima were sent to Nagasaki in order to train their colleagues in the basics of behavior after a nuclear explosion. As a result of these actions, not a single police officer was killed in the Nagasaki explosion;
10. 25 percent of Japan's dead were Koreans. Although it is believed that all those killed in the atomic explosions were Japanese, a quarter of them were actually Koreans who were conscripted by the Japanese government to fight in the war;
11. Radiation is like fairy tales for children. After atomic explosion American government for a long time hid the fact of the presence of radioactive contamination;
12. Meetinghouse. Few people know that the US authorities did not limit themselves to nuclear bombing of two Japanese cities. Before this, using carpet bombing tactics, they destroyed several Japanese cities. During Operation Meetinghouse, the city of Tokyo was virtually destroyed and 300,000 of its inhabitants died;
13. They didn't know what they were doing. The crew of the plane that dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was 12 people. Of these, only three knew what a nuclear bomb was;
14. On one of the anniversaries of the tragedy (in 1964), an eternal flame was lit in Hiroshima, which should burn as long as there is at least one nuclear warhead left in the world;
    
15. Lost connection. After the destruction of Hiroshima, communication with the city was completely lost. Only three hours later the capital learned that Hiroshima had been destroyed;
16. Deadly poison. The crew of the Enola Gay were given ampoules of potassium cyanide, which they were to take if the task was not completed;
17. Radioactive mutants. The famous Japanese monster “Godzilla” was invented as a mutation due to radioactive contamination after a nuclear bomb;
18. Shadows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions of nuclear bombs were so powerful that people literally evaporated, leaving only dark imprints on the walls and floor as a reminder of themselves;
19. Symbol of Hiroshima. The first plant to bloom after the nuclear attack in Hiroshima was the oleander. It is he who is now the official symbol of the city of Hiroshima;
20. Warning before a nuclear attack. Before the nuclear attack began, US aircraft dropped millions of leaflets warning of impending bombing on 33 Japanese cities;
21. Radio signals. Until recently, an American radio station in Saipan broadcast warnings of a nuclear attack throughout Japan. The signals were repeated every 15 minutes.

The tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened 72 years ago, but it still serves as a reminder that humanity should not mindlessly destroy its own kind.

During World War II, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., a U.S. B-29 Enola Gay bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. About 140,000 people were killed in the explosion and died in the following months. Three days later, when the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, an estimated 80,000 people were killed. On August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. To this day, this bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case of the use of nuclear weapons in human history. The US government decided to drop the bombs, believing that this would hasten the end of the war and would not require prolonged bloody fighting on the main island of Japan. Japan was strenuously trying to control two islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as the Allies approached.

1. This wristwatch, found among the ruins, stopped at 8.15 am on August 6, 1945 - during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

2. The flying fortress Enola Gay lands on August 6, 1945 at a base on Tinian Island after bombing Hiroshima.

3. This photo, which was released in 1960 by the US government, shows the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb size is 73 cm in diameter, 3.2 m in length. It weighed 4 tons, and the explosion power reached 20,000 tons of TNT.

4. This photo provided by the US Air Force shows the main crew of the B-29 Enola Gay bomber that dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts stands in the center. The photo was taken in the Mariana Islands. This was the first time nuclear weapons were used during military operations in human history.

5. Smoke rises 20,000 feet high over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, after an atomic bomb was dropped during the war.

6. This photograph taken on August 6, 1945, from the city of Yoshiura, across the mountains north of Hiroshima, shows smoke rising from the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The photo was taken by an Australian engineer from Kure, Japan. The stains left on the negative by radiation almost destroyed the photograph.

7. Survivors of the explosion of the atomic bomb, first used in military action on August 6, 1945, are waiting medical care in Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion killed 60,000 people at the same moment, and tens of thousands died later due to radiation exposure.

8. August 6, 1945. In the photo: military medics provide first aid to the surviving residents of Hiroshima shortly after an atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, used in military action for the first time in history.

9. After the explosion of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, only ruins remained in Hiroshima. Nuclear weapons were used to hasten Japan's surrender and end World War II, for which US President Harry Truman ordered the use of nuclear weapons with a capacity of 20,000 tons of TNT. The surrender of Japan took place on August 14, 1945.

10. August 7, 1945, the day after the explosion of the atomic bomb, smoke billows over the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.

11. President Harry Truman (pictured left) sits at his desk in the White House next to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson after returning from the Potsdam Conference. They discuss the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

13. Survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki among the ruins, with raging fire in the background, August 9, 1945.

14. Crew members of the B-29 bomber " The Great Artiste, who dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, surrounded Major Charles W. Swinney in North Quincy, Massachusetts. All crew members participated in the historic bombing. From left to right: Sergeant R. Gallagher, Chicago; Staff Sergeant A. M. Spitzer, Bronx, New York; Capt. S. D. Albury, Miami, Florida; Captain J.F. Van Pelt Jr., Oak Hill, West Virginia; Lieutenant F. J. Olivi, Chicago; Staff Sergeant E.K. Buckley, Lisbon, Ohio; Sergeant A. T. Degart, Plainview, Texas, and Staff Sergeant J. D. Kucharek, Columbus, Nebraska.

15. This photograph of an atomic bomb exploding over Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II was released by the Commission on nuclear energy and the US Department of Defense in Washington on December 6, 1960. The Fat Man bomb was 3.25 m long, 1.54 m in diameter, and weighed 4.6 tons. The power of the explosion reached about 20 kilotons of TNT.

16. A huge column of smoke rises into the air after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The explosion of a bomb dropped by a US Army Air Force B-29 Bockscar bomber immediately killed more than 70 thousand people, with tens of thousands more subsequently dying as a result of radiation exposure.

17. A huge nuclear mushroom above Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, after a US bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city. The nuclear explosion over Nagasaki occurred three days after the United States dropped the first-ever atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

18. A boy carries his burned brother on his back on August 10, 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Such photos were not published by the Japanese side, but after the end of the war they were shown to the world media by UN employees.

19. The arrow was installed at the site of the fall of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki on August 10, 1945. Most of the affected area remains empty to this day, the trees remained charred and mutilated, and almost no reconstruction was carried out.

20. Japanese workers remove rubble from damaged areas in Nagasaki, an industrial city in the southwest of Kyushu island, after an atomic bomb was dropped on it on August 9. A chimney and a lonely building are visible in the background, while ruins are visible in the foreground. The photo was taken from the archives of the Japanese news agency Domei.

22. As seen in this photo taken on September 5, 1945, several concrete and steel buildings and bridges remained intact after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.

23. A month after the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945, a journalist inspects the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.

24. Victim of the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the department of the first military hospital in Udzina in September 1945. The thermal radiation generated by the explosion burned a design from the kimono fabric onto the woman's back.

25. Most of the territory of Hiroshima was wiped off the face of the earth by the explosion of an atomic bomb. This is the first aerial photograph after the explosion, taken on September 1, 1945.

26. The area around the Sanyo Shoray Kan (Trade Promotion Center) in Hiroshima was reduced to rubble after an atomic bomb exploded 100 meters away in 1945.

27. A reporter stands among the rubble in front of the shell of what was once the city theater in Hiroshima on September 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States to hasten Japan's surrender.

28. Ruins and a lonely frame of a building after the explosion of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Photo taken on September 8, 1945.

29. Very few buildings remain in the devastated Hiroshima, a Japanese city that was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb, as seen in this photograph taken on September 8, 1945. (AP Photo)

30. September 8, 1945. People walk along a cleared road among the ruins created after the explosion of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6 of the same year.

31. A Japanese man discovered the remains of a child's tricycle among the ruins in Nagasaki, September 17, 1945. The nuclear bomb dropped on the city on August 9 wiped out almost everything within a 6-kilometer radius and took the lives of thousands of civilians.

32. This photo, which was provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, shows a victim of the atomic explosion. The man is in quarantine on Ninoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan, 9 kilometers from the blast's epicenter, a day after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.

33. A tram (top center) and its dead passengers after a bomb exploded over Nagasaki on August 9. The photo was taken on September 1, 1945.

34. People pass a tram lying on the tracks at the Kamiyasho intersection in Hiroshima some time after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city.

35. This photo provided by the Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima shows victims of the atomic explosion at the tented care center of the 2nd Hiroshima Military Hospital, located on the bank of the Ota River, 1150 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, August 7, 1945. The photo was taken the day after the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in history on the city.

36. View of Hachobori Street in Hiroshima shortly after a bomb was dropped on the Japanese city.

37. Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, photographed on September 13, 1945, was destroyed by an atomic bomb.

38. A Japanese soldier wanders among the ruins in search of recyclable materials in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, just over a month after the atomic bomb exploded over the city.

39. A man with a loaded bicycle on a road cleared of ruins in Nagasaki on September 13, 1945, a month after the explosion of the atomic bomb.

40. September 14, 1945, the Japanese are trying to drive through a street littered with ruins on the outskirts of the city of Nagasaki, over which a nuclear bomb exploded.

41. This area of ​​Nagasaki was once filled with industrial buildings and small residential buildings. In the background are the ruins of the Mitsubishi factory and the concrete school building located at the foot of the hill.

42. The top photo shows the bustling city of Nagasaki before the explosion, and the bottom photo shows the wasteland after the explosion of the atomic bomb. The circles measure the distance from the explosion point.

43. A Japanese family eats rice in a hut built from the rubble of what was once their home in Nagasaki, September 14, 1945.

44. These huts, photographed on September 14, 1945, were built from the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

45. In the Ginza district of Nagasaki, which was an analogue of New York's Fifth Avenue, store owners destroyed by a nuclear bomb sell their goods on the sidewalks, September 30, 1945.

46. ​​The sacred Torii gate at the entrance to a completely destroyed Shinto shrine in Nagasaki in October 1945.

47. Service in Protestant Church Nagarekawa after the atomic bomb destroyed a church in Hiroshima, 1945.

48. A young man injured after the explosion of the second atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki.

49. Major Thomas Ferebee, left, from Moscow, and Captain Kermit Behan, right, from Houston, talk at a hotel in Washington, February 6, 1946. Ferebee is the man who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and his interlocutor dropped the bomb on Nagasaki.

52. Ikimi Kikkawa shows his keloid scars left after treatment for burns received during the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Photo taken at the Red Cross hospital on June 5, 1947.

53. Akira Yamaguchi shows his scars left after treatment for burns received during the nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima.

54. Jinpe Terawama, a survivor of the first atomic bomb in history, had numerous burn scars on his body, Hiroshima, June 1947.

55. Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts waves from the cockpit of his bomber at the Tinian Island base on August 6, 1945, before his mission to drop the first atomic bomb in history on Hiroshima, Japan. The day before, Tibbetts named the B-29 flying fortress "Enola Gay" in honor of his mother.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, carried out on August 6 and 9, 1945, are the only two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons.

Prerequisites for the use of atomic weapons

Long before the events described above, in the fall of 1944, US leaders discussed the issue of the possible use of atomic bombs against Japan.

From that moment on, the famous Manhattan Project was launched, as a result of which it was possible to create super-powerful nuclear weapons.

Reasons for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

After the end of the war, the United States became the sole owner of nuclear weapons. Wanting to show their military power to the Soviet Union, they began to develop a project for a future bombing.

Nuclear mushroom over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

Japan was in this regard an ideal target for a strike, since, despite its defeats at the front, it was not going to capitulate.

According to the official US version, they dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki only because they did not want to sacrifice the lives of their own and allied soldiers in the event of a land invasion of .

In their opinion, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the only way to quickly end the military conflict.

However, this is hardly true, since shortly before the Potsdam Conference he claimed that, according to data, the Japanese want to establish a peaceful dialogue with the countries of the anti-fascist coalition.

Therefore, why attack a country that intends to negotiate?

However, apparently, the Americans really wanted to demonstrate their military potential and show the whole world the weapons of mass destruction that they have.

The symptoms of the unknown illness resembled diarrhea. The surviving people suffered from various diseases all their lives, and were also unable to reproduce full-fledged children.

Photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Here are some photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombing:

View of the cloud of the Nagasaki atomic explosion from a distance of 15 km from Koyaji-Jima, August 9, 1945.

According to experts, 5 years after the tragedy, the total number of deaths from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was about 200 thousand people.

In 2013, after a revision of the data, this figure more than doubled and was already 450,000 people.

Results of the atomic attack on Japan

Immediately after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced immediate surrender. In his letter, Hirohito mentioned that the enemy had “terrible weapons” that could completely destroy the Japanese people.

More than half a century has passed since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the consequences of that terrible tragedy are still felt today. The radioactive background, which people did not yet know about, claimed many lives and caused various pathologies in newborns.

The role of atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves still cause heated debate among experts.

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The other day the world celebrated a sad anniversary - the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, a US Air Force B-29 Enola Gay, under the command of Colonel Tibbetts, dropped the Baby bomb on Hiroshima. And three days later, on August 9, 1945, a B-29 Boxcar aircraft under the command of Colonel Charles Sweeney dropped a bomb on Nagasaki. The total number of deaths in the explosion alone ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. And that’s not all - about 200 thousand people died from radiation sickness.

After the bombing, real hell reigned in Hiroshima. Witness Akiko Takahura, who miraculously survived, recalls:

“Three colors for me characterize the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: black, red and brown. Black - because the explosion cut off the sunlight and plunged the world into darkness. Red was the color of blood flowing from wounded and broken people. It was also the color of the fires that burned everything in the city. Brown was the color of burnt skin falling off the body, exposed to the light radiation from the explosion.”

Some Japanese people instantly evaporated from the heat radiation, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt

The heat radiation caused some Japanese to instantly evaporate, leaving shadows on the walls or asphalt. The shock wave swept away buildings and killed thousands of people. A real fire tornado raged in Hiroshima, in which thousands of civilians burned alive.

In the name of what was all this horror and why were the peaceful cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed?

It's official: to hasten the fall of Japan. But she lived out her life anyway last days, especially when, on August 8, Soviet troops began to defeat the Kwantung Army. But unofficially these were tests of super-powerful weapons, ultimately directed against the USSR. As US President Truman cynically said: “If this bomb goes off, I’ll have a good club against those Russian boys.” So forcing the Japanese to peace was far from the most important thing in this action. And the effectiveness of atomic bombings in this regard was small. It was not they, but the successes of the Soviet troops in Manchuria that were the final impetus for surrender.

It is significant that Japanese Emperor Hirohito's Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, issued on August 17, 1945, notes the significance of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, but does not say a word about the atomic bombings.

According to Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, it was the declaration of war by the USSR in the interval between the two bombings that caused the surrender. After the war, Admiral Soemu Toyoda said: “I think the participation of the USSR in the war against Japan, rather than the atomic bombings, did more to hasten the surrender.” Prime Minister Suzuki also stated that the USSR's entry into the war made "the continuation of the war impossible."

Moreover, the Americans themselves ultimately admitted that there was no need for atomic bombings.

According to the US Government's 1946 Study on the Effectiveness of Strategic Bombing, atomic bombs were not necessary to win the war. After examining numerous documents and conducting interviews with hundreds of Japanese military and civilian officials, the following conclusion was reached:

“Definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered, even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the USSR had not entered the war, even if the invasion of the Japanese islands had not been planned and prepared "

Here is the opinion of the general, then US President Dwight Eisenhower:

“In 1945, Secretary of War Stimson, while visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who believed that there were a number of compelling reasons to question the wisdom of such a decision. During his description... I became depressed and expressed to him my deep doubts, firstly, based on my belief that Japan had already been defeated and that the atomic bombing was completely unnecessary, and secondly, because I believed that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of weapons, the use of which, in my opinion, was no longer necessary as a means of saving the lives of American soldiers."

And here is the opinion of Admiral Ch. Nimitz:

“The Japanese have already actually asked for peace. From a purely military point of view, the atomic bomb did not play a decisive role in the defeat of Japan."

To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman

The atomic bombings were a great experiment on people who were not even considered human. To those who planned the bombing, the Japanese were something like yellow monkeys, subhuman. Thus, American soldiers (in particular, the Marines) were engaged in a very unique collection of souvenirs: they dismembered the bodies of Japanese soldiers and civilians of the Pacific Islands, and their skulls, teeth, hands, skin, etc. sent home to their loved ones as gifts. There is no complete certainty that all the dismembered bodies were dead - the Americans did not disdain to pull out gold teeth from still living prisoners of war.

According to American historian James Weingartner, there is a direct connection between the atomic bombings and the collection of enemy body parts: both were the result of the dehumanization of the enemy:

“The widespread image of the Japanese as subhuman created an emotional context that provided further justification for decisions that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.”

But you will be indignant and say: they are rude foot soldiers. And the decision was ultimately made by the intelligent Christian Truman. Well, let's give the floor to him. On the second day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Truman declared that “the only language they understand is the language of bombing. When you have to deal with an animal, you have to treat it like an animal. It’s very sad, but nevertheless it’s true.”

Since September 1945 (after the surrender of Japan), American specialists, including doctors, worked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, they did not treat the unfortunate “hibakusha” - patients with radiation sickness, but with genuine research interest they watched how their hair fell out, their skin peeled off, then spots appeared on it, bleeding began, how they weakened and died. Not a drop of compassion. Vae victis (woe to the vanquished). And science is above all!

But I can already hear indignant voices: “Father Deacon, who do you feel sorry for? Is it the same Japanese who treacherously attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor? Isn’t it the same Japanese military that committed terrible crimes in China and Korea, killed millions of Chinese, Koreans, Malays, and at times in brutal ways?” I answer: the majority of those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had nothing to do with the military. These were civilians - women, children, old people. With all the crimes of Japan, one cannot but recognize the certain correctness of the official protest of the Japanese government on August 11, 1945:

“Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion... The said bombs used by the Americans far surpass in their cruelty and horrifying effects poison gases or any other weapons used which are prohibited. Japan protests the United States' violation of internationally recognized principles of warfare, both in the use of the atomic bomb and in earlier incendiary bombings that killed the elderly."

The most sober assessment of the atomic bombings was voiced by Indian judge Radhabinuth Pal. Recalling Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II's justification for his duty to end World War I as quickly as possible ("Everything must be given over to fire and sword. Men, women and children must be killed, and not a single tree or house must remain undestroyed"), Pahl remarked :

"This policy massacres carried out with the aim of ending the war as quickly as possible, was considered a crime. During the war on Pacific Ocean", which we are considering here, if there is anything approaching the letter from the German Emperor discussed above, it is the Allied decision to use the atomic bomb."

Indeed, we see here a clear continuity between the German racism of the First and Second World Wars and Anglo-Saxon racism.

The creation of atomic weapons and especially their use revealed a terrible disease of the European spirit - its hyper-intellectualism, cruelty, will to violence, contempt for man. And contempt for God and His commandments. It is significant that the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki exploded near a Christian church. Since the 16th century, Nagasaki has been the gateway for Christianity to Japan. And so the Protestant Truman gave the order for its barbaric destruction.

The ancient Greek word ατομον means both an indivisible particle and a person. This is no coincidence. The decomposition of the personality of European man and the decomposition of the atom went hand in hand. And even such godless intellectuals as A. Camus understood this:

“Mechanized civilization has just reached the final stage of barbarism. In the not-too-distant future we will have to choose between mass suicide and the wise use of scientific advances [...] This should not be just a request; it must be a command that comes from the bottom up, from ordinary citizens to governments, a command to make a firm choice between hell and reason.”

But, alas, the governments, just as they did not listen to reason, still do not listen.

Saint Nicholas (Velimirovich) rightly said:

“Europe is smart at taking away, but it doesn’t know how to give. She knows how to kill, but she doesn’t know how to value other people’s lives. She knows how to create weapons of destruction, but she does not know how to be humble before God and merciful towards weaker peoples. She is smart to be selfish and carry her “creed” of selfishness everywhere, but she does not know how to be God-loving and humane.”

These words capture the enormous and terrible experience of the Serbs, the experience of the last two centuries. But this is also the experience of the whole world, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The definition of Europe as a “white demon” was deeply correct. In many ways, the prophecy of St. Nicholas (Velimirović) about the nature of the future war came true: “It will be a war that is completely devoid of mercy, honor and nobility [...] For the coming war will have as its goal not only victory over the enemy, but also the destruction of the enemy. Complete destruction of not only the combatants, but everything that makes up their rear: parents, children, sick, wounded and prisoners, their villages and cities, livestock and pastures, railways and all routes!” With the exception of the Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War, where the Russian soviet soldier Nevertheless, he tried to show mercy, honor and nobility, the prophecy of St. Nicholas came true.

Where does such cruelty come from? Saint Nicholas sees its cause in militant materialism and the plane of consciousness:

“And Europe once began in spirit, but now ends in flesh, i.e. carnal vision, judgment, desires and conquests. As if enchanted! Her whole life flows along two paths: in length and in width, i.e. along the plane. She knows neither depth nor height, that is why she fights for the earth, for space, for the expansion of the plane and only for this! Hence war after war, horror after horror. For God created man not only so that he would be simply a living being, an animal, but also so that he would penetrate into the depths of mysteries with his mind, and ascend with his heart to the heights of God. The war for the land is a war against the truth, against God’s and human nature.”

But it was not only the flatness of consciousness that led Europe to military disaster, but also carnal lust and a godless mind:

“What is Europe? It's lust and intelligence. And these properties are embodied in the Pope and Luther. The European Pope is the human lust for power. The European Luther is the human audacity to explain everything with his own mind. Dad as the ruler of the world and the smart guy as the ruler of the world.”

The most important thing is that these properties do not know any external restrictions, they strive for infinity - “fulfillment of human lust to the limit and the mind to the limit.” Such properties, elevated to an absolute, must inevitably give rise to constant conflicts and bloody wars of destruction: “Because of human lust, every nation and every person seeks power, sweetness and glory, imitating the Pope. Because of the human mind, every nation and every person finds that he is smarter than others and more powerful than others. In this case, how can there not be madness, revolutions and wars between people?

Many Christians (and not only Orthodox Christians) were horrified by what happened in Hiroshima. A report was issued in 1946 National Council churches in the United States, entitled “Atomic Weapons and Christianity,” which, in part, said:

“As American Christians, we deeply repent of the irresponsible use of atomic weapons. We all agree on the idea that, whatever our opinion of the war as a whole, the surprise bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is morally vulnerable."

Of course, many inventors of atomic weapons and executors of inhuman orders recoiled in horror from their brainchild. The inventor of the American atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, after testing at Alamogorodo, when a terrible flash lit up the sky, remembered the words of an ancient Indian poem:

If the shine of a thousand suns
It will flash in the sky at once,
Man will become death
A threat to the earth.

After the war, Oppenheimer began to fight for the limitation and prohibition of nuclear weapons, for which he was removed from the Uranium Project. His successor Edward Teller, father hydrogen bomb, was much less scrupulous.

Iserly, the spy plane pilot who reported good weather over Hiroshima, then sent aid to the victims of the bombing and demanded that he be imprisoned as a criminal. His request was fulfilled, although he was put in... a psychiatric hospital.

But alas, many were much less scrupulous.

After the war, a very revealing brochure was published with documentary memories of the crew of the Enola Gay bomber, which delivered the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” to Hiroshima. How did these twelve people feel when they saw the city below them that they had turned to ashes?

“STIBORIK: Before, our 509th Composite Aviation Regiment was constantly teased. When the neighbors left for flights before dawn, they threw stones at our barracks. But when we dropped the bomb, everyone saw that we were dashing guys.

LEWIS: The entire crew was briefed before the flight. Tibbetts later claimed that he alone was aware of the matter. This is nonsense: everyone knew.

JEPPSON: About an hour and a half after takeoff, I went down to the bomb bay. It was pleasantly cool there. Parsons and I had to arm everything and remove the fuses. I still keep them as souvenirs. Then again we could admire the ocean. Everyone was busy with their own business. Someone was humming “Sentimental Journey,” the most popular song of August 1945.

LEWIS: The commander was dozing. Sometimes I left my chair. The autopilot kept the car on course. Our main target was Hiroshima, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternate targets.

VAN KIRK: The weather would have decided which of these cities we would choose to bomb.

CARON: The radio operator was waiting for a signal from three “superfortresses” flying ahead for weather reconnaissance. And from the tail compartment I could see two B-29s accompanying us from behind. One of them was supposed to take photographs, and the other was supposed to deliver measuring equipment to the explosion site.

FERIBEE: We very successfully reached the target on the first pass. I saw her from afar, so my task was simple.

NELSON: As soon as the bomb separated, the plane turned 160 degrees and sharply descended to gain speed. Everyone put on dark glasses.

JEPPSON: This wait was the most anxious moment of the flight. I knew the bomb would take 47 seconds to fall, and I started counting in my head, but when I got to 47, nothing happened. Then I remembered that the shock wave would still need time to catch up with us, and that’s when it came.

TIBBETS: The plane suddenly threw down, it rattled like a tin roof. The tail gunner saw the shock wave approaching us like a light. He didn't know what it was. He warned us about the approaching wave with a signal. The plane sank even further, and it seemed to me that an anti-aircraft shell had exploded above us.

CARON: I took pictures. It was a breathtaking sight. Ash-gray smoke mushroom with a red core. It was clear that everything inside was on fire. I was ordered to count the fires. Damn it, I immediately realized that this was unthinkable! A swirling, boiling haze, like lava, covered the city and spread out to the sides towards the foot of the hills.

SHUMARD: Everything in that cloud was death. Some black debris flew upward along with the smoke. One of us said: “It is the souls of the Japanese who ascend to heaven.”

BESSER: Yes, everything in the city that could burn was on fire. “You guys just dropped the first atomic bomb in history!” - the voice of Colonel Tibbetts was heard in the headsets. I recorded everything on tape, but then someone put all these recordings under lock and key.

CARON: On the way back, the commander asked me what I thought about the flight. “It’s worse than driving your own ass down the mountain in Coney Island Park for a quarter of a dollar,” I joked. “Then I’ll collect a quarter from you when we sit down!” - the colonel laughed. “We’ll have to wait until payday!” - we answered in unison.

VAN KIRK: The main thought was, of course, about myself: to get out of all this as quickly as possible and return intact.

FERIBEE: Captain Parsons and I had to write a report to send to the President via Guam.

TIBBETS: None of the conventions that had been agreed upon would do, and we decided to transmit the telegram in clear text. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it said that the results of the bombing exceeded all expectations.”

On August 6, 2015, on the anniversary of the bombings, President Truman's grandson Clifton Truman Daniel said that "to the end of his life, my grandfather believed that the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right one, and the United States would never apologize for it."

It seems that everything is clear here: ordinary fascism, even more terrible in its vulgarity.

Let's now look at what the first eyewitnesses saw from the ground. Here is a report from Birt Bratchett, who visited Hiroshima in September 1945. On the morning of September 3, Burtchett stepped off the train in Hiroshima, becoming the first foreign correspondent to see the city since the atomic explosion. Together with the Japanese journalist Nakamura from the Kyodo Tsushin telegraph agency, Burchett walked around the endless reddish ashes and visited street first aid stations. And there, among the ruins and groans, he typed out his report, entitled: “I am writing about this to warn the world...”:

“Almost a month after the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, people continue to die in the city - mysteriously and horribly. The townspeople who were not affected on the day of the disaster die from an unknown disease, which I cannot call anything other than the atomic plague. For no apparent reason, their health begins to deteriorate. Their hair falls out, spots appear on their bodies, and they begin to bleed from their ears, nose, and mouth. Hiroshima, Burchett wrote, does not look like a city that has suffered from conventional bombing. The impression is as if a giant ice skating rink passed along the street, crushing all living things. At this first living test site where the power of the atomic bomb was tested, I saw a nightmarish devastation indescribable in words, such as I had not seen anywhere else in four years of war.”

And that is not all. Let us remember the tragedy of those exposed and their children. Flown around the whole world poignant story a girl from Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from leukemia, one of the consequences of radiation exposure. While already in the hospital, Sadako learned about a legend according to which a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will certainly come true. Wanting to recover, Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands, but she only managed to fold 644 cranes. There was a song about her:

Returning from Japan, having walked many miles,
A friend brought me a paper crane.
There is a story connected with it, there is only one story -
About a girl who was irradiated.

Chorus:
I'll spread paper wings for you,
Fly, don't disturb this world, this world,
Crane, crane, Japanese crane,
You are an ever-living souvenir.

“When will I see the sun?” - asked the doctor
(And life burned thinly, like a candle in the wind).
And the doctor answered the girl: “When the winter passes
And you will make a thousand cranes yourself.”

But the girl did not survive and soon died,
And she didn’t make a thousand cranes.
The last little crane fell from dead hands -
And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her.

Let us note that all this would have awaited you and me if it had not been for the Soviet uranium project, which began in 1943, accelerated after 1945 and completed in 1949. Of course, the crimes committed under Stalin were terrible. And above all - persecution of the Church, exile and execution of clergy and laity, destruction and desecration of churches, collectivization, the all-Russian (and not just Ukrainian) famine of 1933, which broke people's life, and finally the repressions of 1937. However, let's not forget that we are now living the fruits of that same industrialization. And if the Russian state is now independent and so far invulnerable to external aggression, if the tragedies of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria are not repeated in our open spaces, then this is largely thanks to the military-industrial complex and the nuclear missile shield laid down under Stalin.

Meanwhile, there were enough people who wanted to burn us. Here is at least one - the emigrant poet Georgy Ivanov:

Russia has been living in prison for thirty years.
On Solovki or Kolyma.
And only in Kolyma and Solovki
Russia is the one that will live for centuries.

Everything else is planetary hell:
Damn Kremlin, crazy Stalingrad.
They deserve only one thing -
Fire that burns him.

These are poems written in 1949 by Georgy Ivanov, a “wonderful Russian patriot,” according to a certain publicist who self-identified as a “church Vlasovite.” Professor Alexei Svetozarsky aptly spoke about these verses: “What can we expect from this glorious son of the Silver Age? The swords are cardboard and the blood for them, especially foreign blood, is “cranberry juice”, including the one that flowed at Stalingrad. Well, the fact that both the Kremlin and Stalingrad are worthy of “incinerating” fire, then the “patriot”, who himself successfully sat out both the war and the occupation in a quiet French outback, was, alas, not alone in his desire. About “cleansing” fire nuclear war stated in the 1948 Easter Message of the Russian Synod of Bishops Orthodox Church Abroad".

By the way, it’s worth reading it more carefully. Here is what Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) wrote in 1948:

“Our time has invented its own special means of exterminating people and all life on earth: they have such destructive power that in an instant they can turn large spaces into a complete desert. Everything is ready to be incinerated by this hellish fire, caused by man himself from the abyss, and we again hear the prophet’s complaint addressed to God: “How long will the earth weep and all the grass of the village dry up from the malice of those who live on it” (Jeremiah 12:4). But this terrible, devastating fire has not only a destructive, but also a cleansing effect: for in it those who ignite it are burned, and with it all the vices, crimes and passions with which they defile the earth. [...] Atomic bombs and all other destructive means invented by modern technology are truly less dangerous for our Fatherland than the moral decay that the highest representatives of civil and church authorities bring into the Russian soul through their example. The decomposition of the atom brings with it only physical devastation and destruction, and the corruption of the mind, heart and will entails the spiritual death of an entire people, after which there is no resurrection” (“Holy Rus'”. Stuttgart, 1948).

In other words, not only Stalin, Zhukov, Voroshilov, but also His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov), Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) - the then “highest representatives of church authority” - were doomed to be burned. And millions of our compatriots, including millions of believing Orthodox Christians, who suffered persecution and the Great Patriotic War. Only Metropolitan Anastasy chastely keeps silent about the moral decay and example that was shown by the highest representatives of Western civil and church authorities. And I forgot the great words of the Gospel: “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

A. Solzhenitsyn’s novel “In the First Circle” goes back to a similar ideology. It glorifies the traitor Innokenty Volodin, who tried to hand over to the Americans the Russian intelligence officer Yuri Koval, who was hunting for atomic secrets. It also contains a call to drop an atomic bomb on the USSR, “so that people don’t suffer.” No matter how much they “suffer,” we can see in the example of Sadako Sasaki and tens of thousands like her.

And therefore, deep gratitude not only to our great scientists, workers and soldiers who created the Soviet atomic bomb, which was never put into use, but stopped the cannibalistic plans of American generals and politicians, but also to those of our soldiers who, after the Great Patriotic War, guarded the Russian sky and they did not allow the B-29 with nuclear bombs on board to break through. Among them is the now living Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Sergei Kramarenko, known to readers of the site. Sergei Makarovich fought in Korea and personally shot down 15 American aircraft. This is how he describes the meaning of activity Soviet pilots In Korea:

“I consider our most important achievement to be that the division’s pilots caused significant damage to US strategic aviation armed with B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers. Our division managed to shoot down over 20 of them. As a result, the B-29s, which carried out carpet (area) bombing in large groups, stopped flying during the day north of the Pyongyang-Genzan line, that is, over most of the territory North Korea. Thus, millions of Korean residents were saved - mostly women, children and the elderly. But even at night the B-29s suffered heavy losses. In total, during the three years of the Korean War, about a hundred B-29 bombers were shot down. Even more important was that it became clear that if war broke out with Soviet Union“Superfortresses” carrying atomic bombs will not reach large industrial centers and cities of the USSR, because they will be shot down. This played a huge role in the fact that World War III never started.”

The Second World War changed the world. The leaders of the powers played power games among themselves, where millions of innocent lives were at stake. One of the most terrible pages in human history, which largely determined the outcome of the entire war, was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese cities where ordinary civilians lived.

Why did these explosions occur, what consequences did the President of the United States of America expect when giving the order to bomb Japan with nuclear bombs, did he know about the global consequences of his decision? Historical researchers continue to seek answers to these and many other questions. There are many versions about what goals Truman pursued, but be that as it may, it was the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that became the decisive factor in ending the Second World War. To understand what served as the basis for such a global event, and why dropping a bomb on Hiroshima became possible, let’s look at its background.

Emperor Hirohito

Emperor Hirohito of Japan had grandiose ambitions. Following the example of Hitler, for whom things were going as well as possible at that time, in 1935 the head of the Japanese islands, on the advice of his generals, decided to seize backward China, not even suspecting that all his plans would be ruined by the atomic bombing of Japan. He hopes, with the help of the large population of China, to gain all of Asia into his possessions.

From 1937 to 1945, Japanese troops used chemical weapons prohibited by the Geneva Convention against the Chinese army. The Chinese were killed indiscriminately. As a result, Japan accounted for more than 25 million Chinese lives, almost half of which were women and children. The date of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was inexorably approaching thanks to the cruelty and fanaticism of the emperor.

In 1940, Hirohito concluded a pact with Hitler, and the following year he attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, thereby drawing the United States into World War II. But soon Japan began to lose ground. Then the emperor (who is also the embodiment of God for the people of Japan) ordered his subjects to die, but not to surrender. As a result, families of people died in the name of the emperor. Many more will die when American planes carry out the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

Emperor Hirohito, having already lost the war, was not going to give up. He had to be forced to capitulate, otherwise the consequences of a bloody invasion of Japan would be horrific, worse than the bombing of Hiroshima. Many experts believe that saving more lives was one of the main reasons why the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred.

Potsdam Conference

1945 was a turning point for everything in the world. From July 17 to August 2 of that year, the Potsdam Conference took place, the last in a series of meetings of the Big Three. As a result, many decisions were made that would help end the Second World War. Among other things, the USSR assumed obligations to conduct military operations with Japan.

The three world powers, led by Truman, Churchill and Stalin, came to a temporary agreement to redistribute post-war influence, although the conflicts were not resolved and the war was not over. The Potsdam Conference was marked by the signing of the Declaration. Within its framework, a demand was spelled out for Japan for unconditional and immediate surrender.

The Japanese government leadership indignantly rejected the “brazen proposal.” They intended to fight the war to the end. Failure to comply with the requirements of the Declaration, in fact, gave the countries that signed it a free hand. The American ruler considered that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had become possible.

The anti-Hitler coalition was living its last days. It was during the Potsdam Conference that sharp contradictions in the views of the participating countries emerged. The reluctance to reach a consensus, conceding on some issues to the “allies” to the detriment of oneself, will lead the world to a future cold war.

Harry Truman

On the eve of the Big Three meeting in Potsdam, American scientists are conducting pilot tests of a new type of weapon of mass destruction. And four days after the end of the conference, American President Harry Truman received a classified telegram saying that the testing of the atomic bomb had been completed.

The President decides to show Stalin that he has a winning card in his fist. He hints to the Generalissimo about this, but he is not at all surprised. Only a weak smile that appeared on his lips and another puff on his eternal pipe was the answer to Truman. Returning to his apartment, he will call Kurchatov and order him to speed up work on the atomic project. The arms race was in full swing.

American intelligence reports to Truman that Red Army troops are heading to the Turkish border. The President receives historic decision. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will soon become a reality.

Selecting a target or how the attack on Nagasaki and Hiroshima was prepared

Back in the spring of 1945, participants in the Manhattan Project were tasked with identifying potential sites for testing atomic weapons. Scientists from Oppenheimer's group compiled a list of requirements that the object must meet. It included the following points:

Four cities were chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Yokohama, Kyoto and Kokura. Only two of them were to become real targets. The weather had the last word. When this list caught the eye of professor and expert on Japan Edwin Reishauer, he tearfully asked the command to exclude Kyoto from it as a unique cultural value on a global scale.

Henry Stimson, who was then Secretary of Defense, supported the professor’s opinion despite pressure from General Groves, because he himself knew and loved this man well. Cultural Center. The city of Nagasaki took the vacant place on the list of potential targets. The developers of the plan believed that only large cities with civilian populations should be targeted, so that the moral effect would be as dramatic as possible, capable of breaking the opinion of the emperor and changing the views of the Japanese people on participating in the war.

History researchers turned over a single volume of materials and got acquainted with the secret data of the operation. They believe that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the date of which was predetermined long ago, was the only possible one, since there were only two atomic bombs and they were going to be used specifically on Japanese cities. At the same time, the fact that a nuclear attack on Hiroshima would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people was of little concern to both the military and politicians.

Why exactly did Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whose history will forever be overshadowed by the thousands of inhabitants who died on one day, accept the role of victims on the altar of War? Why should the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs force the entire population of Japan, and most importantly its emperor, to surrender? Hiroshima was a military target with dense buildings and many wooden structures. The city of Nagasaki was home to several important industries supplying guns, military equipment and elements of military shipbuilding. The choice of other goals was pragmatic - convenient location and built-up conditions.

Bombing of Hiroshima

The operation took place according to a clearly developed plan. All of his points were carried out exactly:

1. On July 26, 1945, the Little Boy atomic bomb arrived on the island of Tinian. By the end of July all preparations were completed. The final date for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima has been set. The weather did not disappoint.
2. On August 6, a bomber proudly named Enola Gay, carrying death on board, entered Japanese airspace.
3. Three warning planes flew ahead of him to determine the weather conditions under which the atomic bombing of Hiroshima would be accurate.
4. Behind the bomber was one plane with recording equipment on board, which was supposed to record all the data on how the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would take place.
5. The final part of the group was a bomber to photograph the results of the explosion that would be caused by the bombing of Hiroshima.

The small group of aircraft that carried out such a surprise attack, as a result of which the atomic bombing of Hiroshima became possible, did not cause concern either among representatives of the air defense or among the ordinary population.

The Japanese air defense system detected planes over the city, but the alarm was canceled because no more than three approaching objects were visible on the radar. Residents were warned about the possibility of a raid, but people were in no hurry to hide in shelters and continued to work. Neither artillery nor fighters were alerted to counter the appearing enemy aircraft. The bombing of Hiroshima was unlike any bombing that Japanese cities had experienced.

At 8.15 the carrier aircraft reached the city center and released a parachute. After this unusual attack on Hiroshima, the entire group immediately flew away. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima above 9,000 meters. It exploded at an altitude of 576 meters above the roofs of city houses. The deafening explosion that rang out tore apart the sky and earth with a powerful blast wave. A shower of fire burned everything in its path. At the epicenter of the explosion, people simply disappeared in a split second, and a little further they burned alive or were charred, still remaining alive.

August 6, 1945 (the date of the bombing of Hiroshima with nuclear weapons) became a dark day in the history of the whole world, the day of the murder of more than 80 thousand Japanese, a day that will lay a heavy burden of pain on the hearts of many generations.

The first hours after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima

For some time in the city itself and its environs, no one really knew what had happened. People did not understand that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had already claimed thousands of lives in an instant, and would continue to claim many thousands more for decades to come. As stated in the first official report, the city was attacked by an unknown type of bomb from several aircraft. What atomic weapons are and what consequences their use entails, no one, not even their developers, would have suspected.

For sixteen hours there was no definite information that Hiroshima had been bombed. The first person to notice the absence of any signals on air from the city was the operator of the Broadcasting Corporation. Multiple attempts to contact anyone were unsuccessful. After some time, vague, fragmentary information came from a small railway station 16 km from the city.

From these messages it became clear at what time the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima took place. A staff officer and a young pilot were sent to the Hiroshima military base. They were tasked with finding out why the Center was not responding to inquiries about the situation. After all, the General Headquarters were confident that no massive attacks on Hiroshima took place.

The military, located at quite a decent distance from the city (160 km), saw a cloud of dust that had not yet settled. As they approached and circled the ruins, just hours after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, they observed a horrifying sight. The city, destroyed to the ground, was blazing with fires, clouds of dust and smoke obscured the view, making it impossible to see details from above.

The plane landed at some distance from the buildings destroyed by the blast wave. The officer reported the status of affairs to Main Headquarters and began to provide all possible assistance to the victims. The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima claimed many lives and maimed many more. People helped each other as much as they could.

Only 16 hours after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was carried out, Washington made a public statement about what happened.

Atomic attack on Nagasaki

The picturesque and developed Japanese city of Nagasaki had not been subjected to massive bombing before, as it was kept as an object for a decisive blow. Only a few high explosive bombs had been dropped on shipyards, Mitsubishi weapons factories and medical facilities in the week before. decisive day, when American planes used an identical maneuver to deliver deadly weapons and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was carried out. After those minor strikes, the population of Nagasaki was partially evacuated.

Few people know that Nagasaki, only by chance, became the second city whose name will forever be inscribed in history as a victim of an atomic bomb explosion. Until the last minutes, the second approved site was the city of Kokura on the island of Yokushima.

Three planes on a bombing mission were supposed to meet on approach to the island. Radio silence prohibited operators from going on the air, so before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima occurred, visual contact between all participants in the operation had to take place. The plane carrying the nuclear bomb and the partner accompanying it to record the parameters of the explosion met and continued to circle in anticipation of the third plane. He was supposed to take photographs. But the third member of the group did not appear.

After forty-five minutes of waiting, with only fuel left to complete the return flight, operation commander Sweeney makes a fateful decision. The group will not wait for the third plane. The weather, which had been favorable for bombing half an hour earlier, had deteriorated. The group is forced to fly to a secondary target to defeat it.

On August 9, at 7.50 am, an air raid alarm sounded over the city of Nagasaki, but after 40 minutes it was canceled. People began to come out of hiding. At 10.53, considering two enemy aircraft that appeared over the city as reconnaissance aircraft, they did not raise the alarm at all. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made as carbon copies.

A group of American aircraft performed an absolutely identical maneuver. And this time, for unknown reasons, Japan’s air defense system did not respond properly. A small group of enemy aircraft, even after the attack on Hiroshima took place, did not arouse suspicion among the military. The atomic bomb “Fat Man” exploded over the city at 11:02 a.m., burned and destroyed it to the ground in a few seconds, instantly killing more than 40 thousand human lives. Another 70 thousand were on the verge of life and death.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Consequences

What did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki entail? In addition to the radiation poisoning that would continue to kill survivors for many years, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had global political significance. It influenced the opinions of the Japanese government and the Japanese army's determination to continue the war. According to the official version, this is exactly the result that Washington sought.

The bombing of Japan with atomic bombs stopped Emperor Hirohito and forced Japan to formally accept the demands of the Potsdam Conference. US President Harry Truman announced this five days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The date August 14, 1945 became a day of joy for many people on the planet. As a result, the Red Army troops stationed near the borders of Turkey did not continue their movement to Istanbul and were sent to Japan after the declaration of war by the Soviet Union.

Within two weeks, the Japanese army was crushingly defeated. As a result, on September 2, Japan signed an act of surrender. This day is a significant date for the entire population of the Earth. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did its job.

Today there is no consensus, even within Japan itself, about whether the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified and necessary. Many scientists, after 10 years of painstaking study of the secret archives of the Second World War, come to different opinions. The officially accepted version is that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the price the world paid for ending World War II. History professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa takes a slightly different view of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki problem. What is this, an attempt by the United States to become a world leader or a way to prevent the USSR from taking over all of Asia as a result of an alliance with Japan? He believes that both options are correct. And the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is something absolutely unimportant for global history from a political point of view.

There is an opinion that the plan developed by the Americans, according to which the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was to take place, was the United States' way of showing the Union its advantage in the arms race. But if the USSR had managed to declare that it had powerful nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the United States might not have decided to take extreme measures, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not have taken place. This development of events was also considered by specialists.

But the fact remains that it was at this stage that the largest military confrontation in human history formally ended, albeit at the cost of more than 100 thousand lives of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The yield of the bombs detonated in Japan was 18 and 21 kilotons of TNT. The whole world recognizes that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Second World War.