History UsefulNotes / AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki

The Japanese answer to '''Downfall''' was Operation '''Ketsugō'''. Because of the home islands' naturally mountainous geography, there were only a handful of beaches in the archipelago that would be suitable for a Normandy-esqe amphibious invasion. As such, it wasn't hard to guess where the invasion would take place, and Japan began moving more and more troops to southern Kyushu. While the Japanese knew they had no hope of winning the war, they hoped that they could make invasion of the Home Islands too costly for the Allies to attempt. Even at this late stage, Japan retained around 10,000 aircraft. Most would be used as Kamikazes, what the Japanese military then called "Special Attacks" -- if for no other reason than their inexperienced pilots weren't good for much else. The vast majority of Japan's aces had already been killed. Attempting to dog-fight with the Americans, who had greater experience, flew far more capable aircraft, and vastly outnumbered the Japanese, was useless. During the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese Navy had launched 1500 Special Attacks, achieving a hit-rate of around 11% and wounding or killing more than 10,000 U.S. Navy personnel. At Kyushu, due to more favorable terrain, the Japanese hoped for a hit rate of 17%. Furthermore, they would target troop carriers as they ferried men to the beaches, rather than the heavy navy ships, increasing casualties even further. Some Japanese planners optimistically hoped that the Kamikaze forces alone could destroy 1/3 or more of the invasion force ''en route'' to the beaches. [[note]]Unfortunately for the Japanese, the Americans had anticipated this tactic, and if the invasion had gone ahead were planning to launch a 'dummy' invasion force of landing ships ahead of the main invasion, devoid of ground troops but outfitted with an excess of AA-weaponry. [[/note]]\\

The choosing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima as the targets was almost a chance event, as there were four potential cities that could be targeted. In particular, Kokura was the intended target for the second bomb (and had been the backup target for the first), [[ForWantOfANail but Nagasaki was attacked instead because of poor visibility over Kokura]]. This has resulted in Kokura being known as a lucky city. As for Hiroshima, many officials had actually been in support of bombing Kyoto, due to its industrial significance, but the city was removed from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural importance to the Japanese people.[[note]]The removal was mostly the work of one Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who appealed directly to President Truman to get Kyoto removed; Stimson’s exact reasons for doing so are unclear—popular legend claims he spent his honeymoon there, but this [[https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2023/07/24/henry-stimson-didnt-go-to-kyoto-on-his-honeymoon/ is false]]; he did spend some time in Kyoto with his wife in 1926, but other than some praise of the city's sights, there's nothing to indicate his affection for the city was enough that he wanted to spare it the destruction from the bomb.[[/note]] Thus, Hiroshima was chosen as the first atomic bombing target.

The choosing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima as the targets was almost a chance event, as there were four potential cities that could be targeted. In particular, Kokura was the intended target for the second bomb (and had been the backup target for the first), [[ForWantOfANail but Nagasaki was attacked instead because of poor visibility over Kokura]]. This has resulted in Kokura being known as a lucky city. As for Hiroshima, many officials had actually been in support of bombing Kyoto, due to its industrial significance, but the city was removed from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural importance to the Japanese people.[[note]]The removal was mostly the work of one Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who appealed directly to President Truman to get Kyoto removed; Stimson’s exact reasons for doing so are unclear—popular legend claims he spent his honeymoon there, but this [[https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2023/07/24/henry-stimson-didnt-go-to-kyoto-on-his-honeymoon/ is false]]. [[/note]] Thus, Hiroshima was chosen as the first atomic bombing target.

While the fears of a nuclear weapon being used by the Nazis were certainly not unjustified, ironically, they never came close to completing one thanks to their own self-defeating nature. Due to their antisemitic laws, the Nazis forced out many of Europe's top physicists who were Jewish or had married Jews or simply felt solidarity for the Jews. This brain drain greatly hampered the Nazi nuclear program while helping the Manhattan Project. Werner von Heisenberg, one of Germany's leading physicists, ultimately came to the conclusion that building a bomb was impossible, and Hitler eventually lost interest which meant a lack of funding and resources. British commando raids on German heavy water facilities in Occupied Norway also set their project further back.

The Manhattan Project had its origins in a 1939 letter penned to President Roosevelt. Albert Einstein, who signed his name to the letter but didn't actually write it, warned of the possibility of the Nazis achieving nuclear fission, from which a terrible weapon could be constructed. As the early war years featured the Nazis devastating entire cities through air raids, it was clear they would not hesitate to use an atomic bomb if given the chance.

When Nagasaki was hit, it became clear that Japan had no bargaining power. For the peace faction in the government, the bombings were a dark sort of blessing. It was easier to justify surrender in the face of atomic annihilation, rather than simply military defeat. The Japanese government dropped all conditions to surrender save one -- the retention of the Emperor's powers. When the Americans rejected even this final offer, the Japanese realized they had no choice. They would surrender -- unconditionally. The Emperor composed a surrender message, to be broadcast the next day.\\

There were proposals among the scientists for a public non-military demonstration of their new weapon, to show the Japanese what the Allies were now capable of without the need for civilian deaths. However, due to a number of reasons, such as concerns the bomb wouldn't work at all (they were very expensive and already used one in a test) and also squandering the element of surprise which was seen as vital in getting them to surrender, not to mention that the Japanese might consider it to be a trick of some sort, this was dismissed. Two atomic bombs were quickly readied at Los Alamos and sent to the Pacific for immediate use. They were brought to the island of Tinian by the heavy cruiser USS ''Indianapolis'', which would be sunk on its return journey by a Japanese submarine, and

While the fears of a nuclear weapon being used by the Nazis were certainly not unjustified, ironically, they never came close to completing one. Due to their antisemitic laws, the Nazis forced out many of Europe's top physicists who were Jewish or had married Jews or simply felt solidarity for the Jews. This brain drain greatly hampered the Nazi nuclear program while helping the Manhattan Project. Werner von Heisenberg, one of Germany's leading physicists, ultimately came to the conclusion that building a bomb was impossible, and Hitler eventually lost interest which meant a lack of funding and resources. British commando raids in Occupied Europe also set their project further back.

There were proposals among the scientists for a public non-military demonstration of their new weapon, to show the Japanese what the Allies were now capable of without the need for civilian deaths. However, due to a number of reasons, such as concerns the bomb wouldn't work at all (they were very expensive) and also squandering the element of surprise which was seen as vital in getting them to surrender, not to mention that the Japanese might consider it to be a trick of some sort, this was dismissed. Two atomic bombs were quickly readied at Los Alamos and sent to the Pacific for immediate use.

Knowing very well how close they were to total defeat, the Cabinet was split between those who wanted to surrender and those who wanted to fight to the death. The latter were a smaller group, but the former faction was evenly split between those who wanted to surrender ''now'' and those who wanted to [[InsistentTerminology "negotiate an end to the war."]] In any case, peace negotiations were ongoing throughout 1945, but they followed a familiar pattern, with the Japanese insisting on totally unrealistic conditions while the Americans continually refused anything less than unconditional surrender. The Japanese insisted upon the retention of the Emperor as Supreme Head of State and the retention of his political power, that there would be no occupation, that Japan would retain ''integral territory'' (this meant territory such as Korea and UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}), that Japanese disarmament would not be controlled by the Allies, and that it would try its own war criminals. The Japanese government was deeply divided, but a decision to surrender could only be made by Emperor Hirohito, and he was still under the dominant influence of the military. Most of the military leadership was determined to fight on and defend the home islands against invasion. Japan still occupied most of China and large parts of South-East Asia and had 2 million men under arms. In any case, Truman had no way of knowing what Japan's leaders were thinking. Japan chose to ignore the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July, which warned of "prompt and utter destruction" if it did not surrender. The Americans saw no reason to give Japan any leeway. Germany had already surrendered unconditionally-- so must Japan. This mindset was in part a result of the ending of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WWI]]. Germany had developed a "stabbed-in-the-back" narrative following their surrender in 1918, that the country had been "sold out" by its civilian leadership even though the military was never "defeated" in the field. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler had jumped on the myth to create a narrative that it was the Jews/the communists/the social democrats/etc... who had done so to fuel a desire to go to war. The Allies wanted (and got) total surrenders from Germany and Japan to squash flat any further attempt at creating this narrative that might lead to WW3 down the line.

There were proposals among the scientists for a public non-military demonstration of their new weapon, to show the Japanese what the Allies were now capable of. However, due to a number of reasons, such as concerns the bomb wouldn't work at all and also squandering the element of surprise which was seen as vital in getting them to surrender, not to mention that the Japanese might consider it to be a trick of some sort, this was dismissed. Two atomic bombs were quickly readied at Los Alamos and sent to the Pacific for immediate use.

* ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'' is centered around the creation of the atomic bomb. While the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not shown on screen, Oppenheimer himself vividly thinks about their effects, at one point imagining his colleagues as chaired corpses.

To ensure the Allies would gain a bomb first, America pooled the most brilliant scientists in the free world to work together. Robert Oppenheimer was chosen to lead the project. In order to maintain secrecy, the scientists were housed in a community called Los Alamos, built entirely from scratch, in the New Mexico desert.

While the fears of a nuclear weapon being used by the Nazis were certainly not unjustified, ironically, they never came close to completing one. Due to their antisemitic laws, the Nazis forced out many of Europe's top Jewish physicists. This brain drain greatly hampered the Nazi nuclear program while helping the Manhattan Project. Werner von Heisenberg, one of Germany's leading physicists, ultimately came to the conclusion that building a bomb was impossible. British commando raids in Occupied Europe also set their project further back.

Four years of work and two billion dollars of investment finally culminated on July 16, 1945. At 5:29am local time, Oppenheimer and the rest of the scientists detonated "the Gadget" in a test code-named Trinity. A brilliant flash lit up the early morning and blew over the observers standing six miles away. As he watched the destructive power of what he had created, Oppenheimer remarked "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

There were proposals among the scientists for a non-military demonstration of their new weapon, to show the Japanese what the Allies were now capable of. However, due to a number of reasons, such as concerns the bomb wouldn't work at all and squandering the element of surprise which was seen as vital in getting them to surrender, not to mention that the Japanese might consider it to be a trick of some sort, this was dismissed. Two atomic bombs were quickly readied at Los Alamos and sent to the Pacific for immediate use.

The choosing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima as the targets was almost a chance event, as there were four potential cities that could be targeted. In particular, Kokura was the intended target for the second bomb (and had been the backup target for the first), [[ForWantOfANail but Nagasaki was attacked instead because of poor visibility over Kokura]]. This has resulted in Kokura being known as a lucky city. As for Hiroshima, many officials had actually been in support of bombing Kyoto, due to its industrial significance, but the city was removed from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural importance to the Japanese people.[[note]]The removal was mostly the work of one Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who appealed directly to President Truman to get Kyoto removed; Stimson’s exact reasons for doing so are unclear—popular legend claims he spent his honeymoon there, but this [[https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2023/07/24/henry-stimson-didnt-go-to-kyoto-on-his-honeymoon/ is false]. [[/note]] Thus, Hiroshima was chosen as the first atomic bombing target.

The choosing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima as the targets was almost a chance event, as there were four potential cities that could be targeted. In particular, Kokura was the intended target for the second bomb (and had been the backup target for the first), [[ForWantOfANail but Nagasaki was attacked instead because of poor visibility over Kokura]]. This has resulted in Kokura being known as a lucky city. As for Hiroshima, many officials had actually been in support of bombing Kyoto, due to its industrial significance, but the city was removed from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural importance to the Japanese people.[[note]]The removal was mostly the work of one Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who appealed directly to President Truman to get Kyoto removed; It was no coincidence that Stimson had had his honeymoon in the city, and subsequently had fallen in love with it.[[/note]] Thus, Hiroshima was chosen as the first atomic bombing target.

To ensure the Allies would gain a bomb first, America pooled the most brilliant scientists in the free world to work together. Robert Oppenheimer was chosen to lead the project. In order to maintain secrecy, the scientists were housed in a community called Los Alamos in the New Mexico desert.

While the fears of a nuclear weapon being used by the Nazis was certainly not unjustified, ironically, they never came close to completing one. Due to their antisemitic laws, the Nazis forced out many of Europe's top Jewish physicists. This brain drain greatly hampered the Nazi nuclear program while helping the Manhattan Project.

The Allies accepted, and so a truce was concluded on the 15th of August until the representatives of both countries' governments could meet (on September 2nd) to sign the peace treaty on the quarterdeck of the battleship USS ''Missouri''. The surrender even allowed the Allies to give large quantities of food aid to Japan, preventing a massive famine from occurring in the autumn of 1945. In the meantime, the Japanese began destroying all records they could of everything even remotely related to war crimes before the Americans arrived two weeks later. To this day, many details of the crimes of the Japanese Empire remain unknown.

Later in the afternoon of the 8th, in Moscow, Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato was summoned to a meeting with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov[[note]]yes, ''that'' [[MolotovCocktail Molotov]][[/note]] and told in no uncertain terms that as of midnight, the Soviet Union and Japan would be at war. Sato, one of the realists in the Japanese government, had continually written to his superiors imploring them to seek a diplomatic end to the war, but his warnings were universally ignored. Now, with the Soviets in the east looking on Tokyo with hungry eyes, and the Americans in the west with a new weapon of unprecedented power, it's clear that Japan is running out of options--and out of time.\\

Later in the afternoon of the 8th, in Moscow, Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato was summoned to a meeting with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov[[note]]yes, ''that'' [[MolotovCocktail Molotov]][[/note]] and told in no uncertain terms that as of midnight, the Soviet Union and Japan would be at war. Sato, one of the realists in the Japanese government, had continually written to his superiors imploring them to seek a diplomatic end to the war, but his warnings were universally ignored. Now, with the Soviets in the east looking on Tokyo with hungry eyes, and the Americans in the west with a new weapon of unprecedented power, it's clear that Japan is running out of options--and out of time.

Later in the afternoon of the 8th, in Moscow, Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato was summoned to a meeting with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov[[note]]yes, ''that'' [[MolotovCocktail Molotov]][[/note]] and told in no uncertain terms that as of midnight, the Soviet Union and Japan would be at war. Sato, one of the realists in the Japanese government, had continually written to his superiors imploring them to seek a diplomatic end to the war, but his warnings were universally ignored. Now, with the Soviets in the east looking on Tokyo with hungry eyes, and the Americans in the west with a new weapon of unprecedented power, it's clear things are quickly about to go from bad to worse.\\

The bombing of Hiroshima did not immediately change the Japanese position. It was still unknown whether America had more bombs in reserve. If they had not, then the Army's defense of the Home Islands would still be semi-tenable and they still had some bargaining power. If they had, then the Army's defense of the Home Islands was pointless and Japan would have to surrender. In fact, during a cabinet meeting General Anami was right in the middle of suggesting America had only one atomic bomb when news reached them of the bombing of Nagasaki.\\

Later in the afternoon of the 8th, in Moscow, Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato was summoned to a meeting with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov[[note]]yes, ''that'' [[MolotovCocktail Molotov]][[/note]] and told in no uncertain terms that as of midnight, the Soviet Union and Japan would be at war. Sato, one of the realists in the Japanese government, had continually written to his superiors imploring them to seek a diplomatic end to the war, but his warnings were universally ignored.\\

* Show that Japan's conventional defense of the Home Islands against a possible Allied land invasion in October 1945 (''Operation '''Downfall'''") was untenable given the power and number of the Western Allies' nuclear weapons. This point was particularly important given that the Japanese Army and Navy were aware that President Truman and the US military had reservations about the monetary and human costs of a ground invasion. All parties knew that this reservation was strengthened by the possibility that an invasion might be unnecessary, as domestic rebellion or even revolution might topple the Japanese regime after widespread famine began in earnest (sometime in autumn 1945).

On the 6th and 9th of August 1945, the US forces destroyed the UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with UsefulNotes/{{nuclear weapons}}, which resulted from the [[UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer Manhattan Project]]. This was done to:

On the 6th and 9th of August 1945, the USA destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with UsefulNotes/{{nuclear weapons}}, which resulted from the [[UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer Manhattan Project]]. This was done to:

Knowing very well how close they were to total defeat, the Cabinet was split between those who wanted to surrender and those who wanted to fight to the death. The latter were a smaller group, but the former faction was evenly split between those who wanted to surrender ''now'' and those who wanted to [[InsistentTerminology "negotiate an end to the war."]] In any case, peace negotiations were ongoing throughout 1945, but they followed a familiar pattern, with the Japanese insisting on totally unrealistic conditions while the Americans continually refused anything less than unconditional surrender. The Japanese insisted upon the retention of the Emperor as Supreme Head of State and the retention of his political power, that there would be no occupation, that Japan would retain ''integral territory'' (this meant territory such as Korea and UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}), that Japanese disarmament would not be controlled by the Allies, and that it would try its own war criminals. The Japanese government was deeply divided, but a decision to surrender could only be made Emperor Hirohito, and he was still under the dominant influence of the military. Most of the military leadership was determined to fight on and defend the home islands against invasion. Japan still occupied most of China and large parts of South-East Asia and had 2 million men under arms. In any case, Truman had no way of knowing what Japan's leaders were thinking. Japan chose to ignore the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July, which warned of "prompt and utter destruction" if it did not surrender. The Americans saw no reason to give Japan any leeway. Germany had already surrendered unconditionally-- so must Japan. This mindset was in part a result of the ending of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WWI]]. Germany had developed a "stabbed-in-the-back" narrative following their surrender in 1918, that the country had been "sold out" by its civilian leadership even though the military was never "defeated" in the field. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler had jumped on the myth to create a narrative that it was the Jews/the communists/the social democrats/etc... who had done so to fuel a desire to go to war. The Allies wanted (and got) total surrenders from Germany and Japan to squash flat any further attempt at creating this narrative that might lead to WW3 down the line.

Hiroshima was also a city of significant military importance. It happened to have been selected as the headquarters for Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, who was to command the defense of the entirety of Southern Japan for the Allied invasion. It was also a hub for transportation, logistics, and communications, as well as having some of the last remaining war production factories in the country. At the time of the bombing, roughly 350,000 people were still in Hiroshima, believing that perhaps their relatives in America had successfully petitioned the government to spare the city.