Japan

Japan

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
America and Japan hadn’t been at war until Japan hit an American naval
base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 as well as other bases in the
Philippines. After that, many scientists gathered and made a top secret research
facility in New Mexico for the atom bomb. The overall project was under the
authority of General Leslie Grovesand costed about 2 billion dollars. The bomb
was a gun type that was made with uranium-235 and a rare isotope of uranium
extracted in giant factories. When the bomb was finished they tested it at Trinity
Site on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. It’s said that the explosion
itself was “brighter than the sun” and ten times hotter, enough to melt the sand into
glass. Finally,they gave Japan one last chance to surrender before they face a “rain
of ruin”.
On August 6th the American troops sent a crew on the Enola Gay with the
atom bomb “Little Boy” to hit Hiroshima. It was a six hour flight and crew
members constantly were setting up the bomb. When they flew over Hiroshima,
the people went into shelters because they thought it was a possible air raid. Since
thecrew had missed the target- the Aioi Bridge by almost 800 feet (240 m)- so the
people thought it was safe to go out.
When the atom bomb was dropped, it had created a tremendous explosion. A
mushroom cloud rose thousands of feet into the air and the blast reached at least 5
miles out into the city. The intense heat and light even caused some people to
evaporate and others to getseverely burned and blind. Further out, everything was
crashing down when the strong air full of radiation hit and everything began to
burn. Any survivors left were desperate for water and help. Some had even tried to
crawl to a nearby river which had been full of corpses. During this desperate
struggle a black rain began to fell and the people of Hiroshima thought it was a
good sign, so theydrank it. What they didn’t know was that the water was highly
radioactive and they would all die from poisoning soon after.
Japan was in shock, but still wouldn’t surrender, so three days later-August
9th- they sent another bomb named “Fat Man” to hit Nagasaki. The target was
officially supposed to be Kokura but the city’s weather had saved them, for it was
much too cloudy and the troopscouldn’t see their target. Finally, the bomb hit
Nagasaki, not killing as much people though. At this instinct, Japan surrendered
and World War II was over.
While the bomb hit Nagasaki, there was a strange happening in the small
clinic shelters of Hiroshima. People had started to get ill and die, but no one knew
the cause. Doctors said that when they would touch the head of a patient,tuffs of
hair fell out. It turns out this mysterious disease was a cancer caused by the
radiation and gamma rays. The cancer was later named leukemia and nicknamed
the atom bomb disease, which still affected many people a decade later because
there was still radiation in the air.
Nuclear Power of the Seventies
          The ending of World War II brought even more challenges to Japan asthe country dealt with the decision of how to unite its nation as a whole again. In the mid-70s, Japan depended on oil for 66% of the country’s electrical energy. Following that came two oil crises, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or OAPEC, made a proclamation of an oil embargo on the countries who bought their exported oil. Of course, Japan was one of its buyers, dependingon oil to meet much of its energy requirements. This decision was made “in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military,” during the Yom Kippur War, which had lasted until March of 1974.
After these drastic measures, Japan and many other nations decided to find and use a new source of energy; nuclear energy. In 1954, Japan had embarked on a nuclear research project for...