Manchurian strategic offensive operation. Manchurian offensive operation Days of August 9 atomic bomb

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters, as we experience the events of this week, you and I can immerse ourselves in that state of mind that implies the need for a Christian to partake, at least to a small extent, of an event that is related to the feat of God for the sake of people.

The Path of Love presupposes the willingness of a person to learn on his own complex art, the skill in which the Lord Himself showed when He came to earth, reduced Himself to a human body, put on flesh and then gave it to be crucified for human sins, showing an example of great humility. In this self-humiliation of the Lord, we see before us the amazing depth of His mercy and His readiness to show how many ways there are to the Heavenly Kingdom.

With His most pure hands He washes the feet of His disciples, people of low profession, His followers, called to the apostolic ministry. Inviting them with Himself to a special feast, to a meal where the first Eucharist is celebrated, He, lamenting, but loving the disciple who betrays Him, wishes to save him until the last moment, but the soul that has departed from God returns with difficulty to its Savior. Here is the tragedy of a student who, in speed, is an example of despair, leading to suicide. Next, we see the example of the apostle Peter, who claims that he will not deny, but then does just that. And each of us in his life, unfortunately, repeats his path, saying one thing with his mouth, and showing another with deeds. Then a prayer sounds in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Lord three times calls the disciples to joint prayer, but the apostles are asleep… And the Savior asks the Father to grant Him the mercy that He must bear.

It must be understood that we are only partially revealed to what we can accommodate, only a part of that pain and suffering. It is about the dialogue of the Lord within Himself. After all, the Savior addresses God the Father, Who is in Him. This is one of the deepest mysteries of theology when it comes to the Holy Trinity. But at the same time, these words show us an example of what we should do in situations of special stress and trials: we should call on God for help, adding at the same time: “Thy will be done!”.

Then we hear about the betrayal that the disciple commits by kissing Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. What was it for? It was a sign. The fact is that after Communion the apostles were transformed and became so similar to the Savior that it was difficult to determine who among these people was their Teacher. The apostle Judas points to Jesus, and He is arrested. And here mercy is shown when the Lord asks to remove the knife, saying that the one who came with a knife or a sword will perish. Both the external and the internal component of the life of a Christian are indicated here, suggesting prayer, humility and readiness to sacrifice oneself as weapons. An amazing door opens before us, difficult to pass, but the only one possible for the salvation of our soul.

Let's try, dear brothers and sisters, to be attentive to words as much as it is possible in our life. Let us learn the art of following Christ in the willingness to start small, in the determination to show our efforts in bearing our cross. Amen!

Archpriest Andrey Alekseev

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively) are the only two examples of the combat use of nuclear weapons in human history. Carried out by the US Armed Forces at the final stage of World War II (the officially announced goal is to hasten the surrender of Japan).

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay bomber, under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb "Fat Man" ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney, commander of the B-29 "Bockscar" bomber. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.

The twin shocks of the atomic bombings and the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan on August 9, 1945 had a profound effect on Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and Japanese Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori, who were inclined to believe that the Japanese government should end the war. .

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender that formally ended the Second world war, was signed on September 2, 1945.

The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification of the bombings themselves are still hotly debated.

Prerequisites

In September 1944, at a meeting between US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Hyde Park, an agreement was reached, according to which the possibility of using atomic weapons against Japan was envisaged.

By the summer of 1945, the United States of America, with the support of Great Britain and Canada, within the framework of the Manhattan Project, completed preparatory work to create the first working models of nuclear weapons.

After three and a half years of direct US involvement in World War II, about 200,000 Americans were killed, about half of them in the war against Japan. In April-June 1945, during the operation to capture the Japanese island of Okinawa, more than 12 thousand American soldiers were killed, 39 thousand were injured (Japanese losses ranged from 93 to 110 thousand soldiers and over 100 thousand civilians). It was expected that the invasion of Japan itself would lead to losses many times greater than those of Okinawan.

May 1945: Target selection

Target, Japan - Hiroshima, Nagasagi

During its second meeting at Los Alamos (May 10-11, 1945), the Target Selection Committee recommended Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and Kokura as targets for the use of atomic weapons. The committee rejected the idea of ​​using these weapons against a purely military target, as there was a chance of overshooting a small area not surrounded by a vast urban area.

When choosing a goal, great importance was attached to psychological factors, such as:
achieving maximum psychological effect against Japan,
the first use of the weapon must be significant enough for international recognition of its importance.

The Committee pointed out that the choice of Kyoto was supported by the fact that its population had more high level education and thus better able to appreciate the value of weapons. Hiroshima, on the other hand, was of such a size and location that, given the focusing effect of the surrounding hills, most of the city could have been destroyed.

US Secretary of Defense Henry Stimson removed Kyoto from the list due to the city's cultural significance. According to Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, Stimson "knew and appreciated Kyoto from his honeymoon there decades ago."

On July 16, the world's first successful test of an atomic weapon was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons of TNT.

On July 24, during the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed Stalin that the United States had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Truman did not specify that he was referring specifically to atomic weapons.
On July 25, Truman approved the order, beginning August 3, to bomb one of the following targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, or Nagasaki, as soon as the weather allowed, and in the future, the following cities, as bombs arrived.

On July 26, the governments of the United States, Britain, and China signed the Potsdam Declaration, which set out the demand for Japan's unconditional surrender. The atomic bomb was not mentioned in the declaration.

The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration, which had been broadcast over the radio and scattered in leaflets from airplanes, had been rejected. The Japanese government has not expressed a desire to accept the ultimatum. On July 28, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was nothing more than the old arguments of the Cairo Declaration in a new wrapper, and demanded that the government ignore it.

Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet response to the evasive diplomatic moves of the Japanese, did not change the decision of the government. On July 31, in a conversation with Koichi Kido, he made it clear that the imperial power must be protected at all costs.

Preparing for the bombing

During May-June 1945, the American 509th Combined Aviation Group arrived on Tinian Island. The group's base area on the island was a few miles from the rest of the units and was carefully guarded.

On July 28, the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed the order for the combat use of nuclear weapons. The order, drafted by Major General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, called for a nuclear attack "on any day after August 3rd, as soon as the weather permits." On July 29, US Strategic Air Command General Karl Spaats arrived on Tinian, delivering Marshall's order to the island.

Hiroshima was located on a flat area, slightly above sea level at the mouth of the Ota River, on 6 islands connected by 81 bridges. The city's population before the war was over 340,000, making Hiroshima the seventh largest city in Japan. The city was the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Main Army of Field Marshal Sunroku Hata (English), who commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. Hiroshima was an important supply base for the Japanese army.

The population of Hiroshima peaked at 380,000 during the course of the war, but before the bombing, the population gradually decreased due to systematic evacuations ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack, the population was about 245 thousand people.

Bombardment

The main target of the first American nuclear bombing was Hiroshima (Kokura and Nagasaki were spares). Although Truman's order called for the atomic bombing to begin on August 3, cloud cover over the target prevented this until August 6.

On August 6, at 1:45 am, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets, commander of the 509th Combined Aviation Regiment, carrying an atomic bomb on board, took off from Tinian Island, which was about 6 hours from Hiroshima. Tibbets' aircraft (Enola Gay) flew as part of a formation that included six other aircraft

Around 7 a.m., a network of Japanese early warning radars detected the approach of several American aircraft heading towards southern Japan. An air raid alert was issued and radio broadcasts stopped in many cities, including Hiroshima. At about 08:00 a radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of incoming aircraft was very small—perhaps no more than three—and the air raid alert was called off. In order to save fuel and aircraft, the Japanese did not intercept small groups of American bombers. The standard message was broadcast over the radio that it would be wise to go to the bomb shelters if the B-29s were actually seen, and that it was not a raid that was expected, but just some kind of reconnaissance.

At 08:15 local time, the B-29, being at an altitude of over 9 km, dropped an atomic bomb on the center of Hiroshima. The fuse was set to a height of 600 meters above the surface; an explosion equivalent to 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT occurred 45 seconds after the release.

Nuclear mushroom over Hiroshima

It was a calm and sunny Monday morning in Hiroshima. After the air raid was canceled, by 8:15 the city returned to normal life - the soldiers did their morning exercises, the streets were filled with pedestrians and cyclists.

Those closest to the epicenter of the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to coal. Birds flying past burned up in the air, and dry, flammable materials such as paper ignited up to 2 km from the epicenter. Light radiation burned the dark pattern of clothes into the skin and left the silhouettes of human bodies on the walls. People outside the houses described a blinding flash of light, which simultaneously came with a wave of suffocating heat. The blast wave, for all who were near the epicenter, followed almost immediately, often knocking down. Building occupants tended to avoid exposure to the light from the blast, but not the blast—glass shards hit most rooms, and all but the strongest buildings collapsed... while the house collapsed behind him. Within a few minutes, 90% of people who were at a distance of 800 meters or less from the epicenter died

The blast wave shattered glass at a distance of up to 19 km. For those in the buildings, the typical first reaction was the thought of a direct hit from an aerial bomb.

Numerous small fires that simultaneously broke out in the city soon merged into one large fire tornado, which created a strong wind (speed of 50-60 km / h) directed towards the center of the fire. The fiery tornado captured over 11 km² of the city, killing everyone who did not have time to get out within the first few minutes after the explosion.

A few days after the explosion, among the survivors, doctors began to notice the first symptoms of exposure. Soon, the number of deaths among survivors began to rise again as patients who appeared to be recovering began to suffer from this strange new disease. Deaths from radiation sickness peaked 3–4 weeks after the explosion and began to decline only after 7–8 weeks. The long-term health effects associated with radiation sickness, such as an increased risk of cancer, haunted survivors for the rest of their lives, as did the psychological shock of the explosion.

Hiroshima after the atomic explosion

The number of deaths from the direct impact of the explosion ranged from 70 to 80 thousand people. By the end of 1945, due to the effects of radioactive contamination and other post-effects of the explosion, the total number of deaths ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 200,000 people.

According to official Japanese data, as of the end of March 2009, over 235,000 "hibakusha" - people who suffered from the effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - were still alive. This figure includes children born to women exposed to radiation from the explosions. The number of deaths as of August 2009 is more than 413 thousand (263,945 in Hiroshima and 149,226 in Nagasaki.).

Nuclear pollution
The concept of "radioactive contamination" did not yet exist in those years, and therefore this issue was not even raised then. People continued to live and rebuild the destroyed buildings in the same place where they were before. Even the high mortality of the population in subsequent years, as well as illnesses and genetic abnormalities in children born after the bombings, were not initially associated with exposure to radiation. The evacuation of the population from the contaminated areas was not carried out, since no one knew about the very presence of radioactive contamination.
It is rather difficult to give an accurate assessment of the extent of this contamination due to lack of information, however, since technically the first atomic bombs were relatively low-yield and imperfect (the "Kid" bomb, for example, contained 64 kg of uranium, of which only approximately 700 g reacted division), the level of pollution of the area could not be significant, although it posed a serious danger to the population. For comparison: at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, several tons of fission products and transuranium elements, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during the operation of the reactor, were in the reactor core.

US President Truman

On August 6, after receiving news of the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, US President Truman announced that

We are now ready to destroy, even faster and more completely than before, all Japanese land-based production facilities in any city. We will destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no misunderstanding - we will completely destroy Japan's ability to wage war.

It was to prevent the destruction of Japan that an ultimatum was issued on July 26 in Potsdam. Their leadership immediately rejected his terms. If they do not accept our terms now, let them expect a rain of destruction from the air, the likes of which have not yet been seen on this planet.

In the early morning of August 9, the USSR declared war on Japan; at the same time, Soviet troops launched an invasion of Manchuria. The Soviet-Japanese War began. The top leadership of the Japanese army began preparations for declaring martial law in order to prevent any attempts at peace negotiations.

The second atomic bombing (Kokura) was scheduled for 11 August, but was pushed back 2 days to avoid a five-day period of bad weather that was forecast to begin on 10 August.

Nagasaki in 1945 was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range divided the districts of the city.

The building had a chaotic character: from total area city ​​(90 km²) 12 were built up with residential quarters.
During the Second World War, the city, which was a major seaport, also acquired special significance as an industrial center, in which steel production and the Mitsubishi shipyard, Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo production were concentrated. Guns, ships and other military equipment were made in the city.

Nagasaki was not subjected to large-scale bombing until the explosion of the atomic bomb, but as early as August 1, 1945, several high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city, damaging shipyards and docks in the southwestern part of the city. Bombs also hit the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories. The August 1 raid resulted in a partial evacuation of the population, especially schoolchildren. However, at the time of the bombing, the city's population was still around 200,000.

Bombardment

The main target of the second American nuclear bombing was Kokura, the spare was Nagasaki.
At 2:47 a.m. on August 9, an American B-29 bomber under the command of Major Charles Sweeney, carrying an atomic bomb, took off from Tinian Island.

Unlike the first bombardment, the second was fraught with numerous technical problems. Even before takeoff, a fuel pump malfunction was discovered in one of the spare fuel tanks. Despite this, the crew decided to conduct the flight as planned.
At 08:10, after reaching a rendezvous point with other B-29s participating in the sortie, one of them was found missing. For 40 minutes, Sweeney's B-29 circled around the rendezvous point, but did not wait for the missing aircraft to appear. At the same time, reconnaissance aircraft reported that the cloudiness over Kokura and Nagasaki, although present, still allows for bombing under visual control.

At 08:50, B-29, carrying the atomic bomb, headed for Kokura, where it arrived at 09:20. By this time, however, 70% cloud cover was already observed over the city, which did not allow visual bombing. After three unsuccessful visits to the target, at 10:32 B-29 headed for Nagasaki. By this point, due to a fuel pump failure, there was only enough fuel for one pass over Nagasaki.

At 10:56 B-29 arrived at Nagasaki, which, as it turned out, was also obscured by clouds. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach. At the last moment, however, bombardier-gunner Captain Kermit Behan (eng.) in the gap between the clouds noticed the silhouette of the city stadium, focusing on which he dropped the atomic bomb.

Nuclear mushroom over Nagasaki

The explosion occurred at 11:02 local time at an altitude of about 500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 21 kilotons.

On August 9, at approximately 7:50 a.m., an air raid alert was issued in Nagasaki, which was canceled at 8:30 a.m.

At 10:53, two B-29s came into view, the Japanese mistook them for reconnaissance and did not announce a new alarm.
A hastily aimed bomb exploded almost midway between the two main targets in Nagasaki, the Mitsubishi steel and gun factories to the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami torpedo factory to the north. If the bomb had been dropped further south, Nagasaki's business and residential areas would have suffered much more damage.

In general, although the power of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki was greater than in Hiroshima, the destructive effect of the explosion was less. This was facilitated by a combination of factors - the presence of hills in Nagasaki, as well as the fact that the epicenter of the explosion was located above the industrial zone - all this helped protect some areas of the city from the effects of the explosion.

From the memoirs of Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was 16 years old at the time of the explosion:

I was knocked to the ground (from my bike) and the ground shook for a while. I clung to her so as not to be carried away by the blast wave. When I looked up, the house I had just passed was destroyed... I also saw the child being blown away by the blast. Large rocks were flying in the air, one hit me and then flew up into the sky again...
When everything seemed to calm down, I tried to get up and found that on my left arm the skin, from the shoulder to the fingertips, was hanging like tattered tatters.

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of ​​​​approximately 110 km², of which 22 were on the water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited.

According to a Nagasaki Prefecture report, "humans and animals died almost instantly" up to 1 km from the epicenter. Nearly all houses within a 2 km radius were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper ignited up to 3 km away from the epicenter. Of the 52,000 buildings in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and another 5,400 were severely damaged. Only 12% of the buildings remained intact. Although there was no fire tornado in the city, numerous localized fires were observed.
The death toll by the end of 1945 ranged from 60 to 80 thousand people. After 5 years, the total death toll, including deaths from cancer and other long-term effects of the explosion, could reach or even exceed 140,000 people.

Plans for subsequent atomic bombings of Japan

The US government expected that another atomic bomb would be ready for use in mid-August, and three more each in September and October. On August 10, Leslie Groves, military director of the Manhattan Project, sent a memorandum to George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army, in which he wrote that "the next bomb ... should be ready for use after August 17-18." On the same day, Marshall signed a memorandum with the comment that "It should not be used against Japan until the express approval of the President is obtained." At the same time, discussions have already begun in the US Department of Defense on the advisability of postponing the use of bombs until the start of Operation Downfall, the expected invasion of the Japanese islands.

Japanese surrender and subsequent occupation

Up until August 9, the war cabinet continued to insist on 4 terms of surrender. On the morning of August 9, news came almost simultaneously about the declaration of war by the Soviet Union on the evening of August 8 and about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. At the meeting of the "big six", held on the night of August 10, the votes on the issue of surrender were divided equally (3 "for", 3 "against"), after which the emperor intervened in the discussion, speaking in favor of surrender. On August 10, 1945, Japan handed over an offer of surrender to the Allies, the only condition of which was that the Emperor be retained as a nominal head of state.
In his announcement, Hirohito mentioned the atomic bombings:

... in addition, the enemy has a terrible new weapon that can take many innocent lives and cause immeasurable material damage. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the collapse and annihilation of the Japanese nation, but also to the complete disappearance of human civilization.
In such a situation, how can we save millions of our subjects, or justify ourselves before the sacred spirit of our ancestors? For this reason we have ordered the acceptance of the terms of the joint declaration of our adversaries.

Within a year of the end of the bombing, 40,000 American troops were stationed in Hiroshima and 27,000 in Nagasaki.

In the spring of 1948, to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Commission on the Study of the Effects of Atomic Explosions (English) at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States was created at the direction of Truman. Among the victims of the bombing were found many non-war people, including prisoners of war, forced conscription of Koreans and Chinese, students from British Malaya, and about 3,200 US citizens of Japanese descent.

In 1975, the Commission was dissolved, its functions were transferred to the newly created Institute for the Study of the Effects of Radiation Exposure (English Radiation Effects Research Foundation).

The role of the atomic bombings in the surrender of Japan and their ethical validity are still the subject of scientific and public discussion. In a 2005 review of historiography on the subject, the American historian J. Samuel Walker wrote that "the debate about the appropriateness of the bombing will definitely continue." Walker also noted that "The fundamental question, which has been debated for more than 40 years, is whether atomic bombings were necessary to achieve victory in the war on pacific ocean on terms acceptable to the United States."

Proponents of the bombings usually claim that they were the cause of Japan's surrender, and therefore prevented significant losses on both sides (both the US and Japan) in the planned invasion of Japan; that the quick end of the war saved many lives elsewhere in Asia (primarily in China); that Japan was waging an all-out war in which the distinctions between the military and the civilian population are blurred; and that the Japanese leadership refused to capitulate, and the bombing helped to shift the balance of opinion within the government towards peace. Opponents of the bombings contend that they were simply an addition to an already ongoing conventional bombing campaign and thus had no military necessity, that they were fundamentally immoral, a war crime, or a manifestation of state terrorism (despite the fact that in 1945 there was no there were international agreements or treaties directly or indirectly prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare).

A number of researchers express the opinion that the main purpose of the atomic bombings was to influence the USSR before it entered the war with Japan on Far East and demonstrate the atomic power of the United States.

It is located in the west of the island of Kyushu in Japan and is the administrative center of the prefecture of the same name. The city arose on the site of a fishing village, and was one of the main points through which Japan's contacts with foreign countries were carried out. During Japan's period of isolation, Nagasaki was the only port through which there was limited trade with the Dutch and Chinese.

With the outbreak of World War II, Nagasaki not only did not lose its importance as a major seaport, but also acquired an important military value due to the many industries operating in the city, primarily shipbuilding, weapons and steel mills.

Nagasaki was located in two valleys, through which two rivers flowed. The mountain range separated residential and industrial areas. It was he who caused the chaotic development of Nagasaki and the fact that less than 4 square miles of the city's total area of ​​​​35 square miles were built up. Nagasaki developed for many years without a coherent city plan, and so residential buildings and factory buildings throughout the industrial valley ended up as close to each other as possible. On the same street, on the south side, the Mitsubishi steel plant and the shipyard of the same company were located, and on the north side, the Mitsubishi torpedo workshops - Urakami. The main business and residential areas were located on a small plain near the edge of the bay.

Nagasaki had never been bombed on a large scale before the atomic bomb. However, on August 1, 1945, several high-explosive bombs were dropped there. Some of these bombs hit the shipyards and docks in the southwestern part of the city. A few ended up in the Mitsubishi steel and weapons factories, the Medical School and the hospital. Although the damage from this attack was relatively minor, it caused considerable disturbance in the city and some people, mostly schoolchildren, were evacuated to rural areas; thus, by the time of the atomic attack, the population of Nagasaki had declined somewhat.

The release of the atomic bomb "Fat Man" ("Fat Man") - a plutonium bomb (an isotope of plutonium-239) with a capacity of 20 kilotons and a mass of 4.5 tons - was scheduled by the United States for August 11, then the deadline was postponed to August 9.

On August 9, at 11:20 a.m., the crew of the carrier aircraft dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bomb exploded high above the industrial valley of Nagasaki, almost halfway between Mitsubishi's steel and arms works to the south, and Mitsubishi's Urakami torpedo plant to the north, the city's two main targets.

More than 73 thousand people were killed and went missing, later another 35 thousand people died from exposure and injuries. More than 50% of the victims were affected by burns, up to 30% received damage from the shock wave, 20% were exposed to penetrating radiation.

The fires destroyed most of the residential buildings.

The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of ​​approximately 43 square miles, of which 8.5 square miles were water and only 9.8 square miles were developed. The rest of the space was only partially inhabited, which helped to avoid even more victims.

The consequences of the second bombing were no less terrifying than after the first operation. In one of the Japanese reports, the situation observed on the territory of Nagasaki was characterized as follows: "The city resembles a cemetery where not a single tombstone has survived."

Currently, the epicenter of a nuclear explosion is a prosperous suburb of Nagasaki. Only the so-called Epicenter Park reminds of the catastrophe. In the center of this park stands a black stone pillar, just above the spot where the bomb went off.

Nearby is the Peace Park, in the center of which a colossal figure of a seated half-naked man is installed on a high pedestal. Right hand it is raised up, as if pointing to a falling bomb, and the left one is stretched horizontally and symbolizes peace and forgiveness.

In the south of the Peace Park is the Atomic Bomb Museum, which opened in 1996. The terrible exhibits of this museum make an indelible impression on visitors. A clock with hands frozen at 11:02 - the exact time of the atomic bomb explosion on August 9, 1945 - became the emblem of Nagasaki.

Material prepared on the basis of information open sources

A little about the city of Hiroshima

Hiroshima City is located in the west of Japan's largest island of Honshu and is the administrative center of Hiroshima Prefecture. The name of the city is translated as "wide island". It is named so because the branches of the Ota River, flowing from the Chugoku Mountains to the plain where Hiroshima is located, form 6 islands protruding into the Hiroshima Bay when it flows into the Inland Sea. The city is located on them. Hiroshima stands almost entirely in lowland, only slightly above sea level; to the northwest and northeast rise hills up to 700 feet high.

The history of Hiroshima dates back to the 16th century, when the local feudal lord Terumoto Mori ordered the construction of a snow-white Carp Castle (Rijo) here. The name of the castle is not accidental - the river was then famous for the abundance of this fish. During the Edo period (1603-1867) it was a typical medieval walled city. Until 1868, it served as the residence of the Asano clan, which ruled the city and the surrounding province. At that time, the provinces of Aki and Bingo were located on the site of modern Hiroshima Prefecture, which were merged during the transition to the prefectural system of administrative division in 1876.

By the time of the atomic bombing, the area of ​​​​the city of Hiroshima was about 26 square meters. miles, of which only 7 were completely built up. There were no explicitly designated commercial, industrial, and residential areas. 75% of the population lived in a densely built-up area in the city centre. A single hill in the eastern part of the city, about half a mile long and 221 feet high, to some extent prevented the spread of destruction, the rest of the city was completely unprotected from the bomb.

Hiroshima was of great military importance. It housed the headquarters of the 2nd Army, which was engaged in the defense of all of southern Japan. The city was a communications hub, a transshipment and assembly point for troops. According to a report from Japan, “Maybe more than a thousand times since the start of the war, Hiroshima residents have seen off with shouts of “Banzai!” troops sailing from the pier. In the center was a row of both reinforced concrete and light buildings. The space outside the city center was crowded with small wooden workshops among many Japanese houses; several large industries were located not far from the outskirts of the city. The houses were wooden with tiled roofs. Many industrial buildings were also timber-frame structures. The whole city was easy prey for fire.

Attack preparation

Already in the spring of 1945, the survey team of the Manhattan Project received the task of choosing an object for the first use of the atomic bomb. The group included mathematicians, theoretical physicists, explosives specialists and meteorologists. This group, made up primarily of scientists including Robert Oppenheimer, concluded that an object for a bomb of this unprecedented type must satisfy the following conditions:

1. Since an atomic bomb is expected to produce the most destruction due to the initial shock wave, and subsequent destruction due to the action of fire, the object must contain a large percentage of crowded frame buildings and other structures that are easily destroyed by shock waves and fire;

2. As calculated, the main destructive effect of the impact of the shock wave during a bomb explosion extends to the area of ​​a circle with a radius of more than one and a half kilometers. Therefore, the object chosen must be a densely built-up area of ​​approximately the same dimensions;

3. The chosen object must be of major military and strategic importance;

4. The first target should, if possible, be chosen from objects that have not been bombed before, so that the effect of a single bomb is sufficiently clear.

Further, it was decided that American air units would not bomb four Japanese cities until the use of the atomic bomb. Such a gesture did not at all mean an act of mercy towards these four cities. They were simply protected from conventional bombing, as they were intended to be turned into ruins by a new deadly bomb.

The list of objects of the atomic bombing - Hiroshima, Kokura and Nigata - was added to the ancient sacred city of Japan, Kyoto. When the Japan expert, Professor Edwin O. Reisshauer, heard this terrible news, he rushed to his boss, Major Alfred McCormack, in the Army Intelligence Agency. The shock brought him to tears. McCormack, a cultured and humane New York lawyer, later succeeded in persuading Secretary of War Stimson to reconsider Kyoto's sentence and strike the city off the black list.

In the spring of 1945, pilots at Wendover Airfield in Utah were already training in preparation for the first raids with atomic bombs ...

In July 1945, after the report of a military reconnaissance pilot, the decision was finally made to bomb Hiroshima because of big size cities, the location of military depots there, as well as the location of the city among the hills, which were supposed to play a focusing role in the direction of the strike.

On July 26, the Indianapolis cruiser delivered the Baby atomic bomb to Tinian Island (on the way back, the cruiser was attacked by a submarine and died with almost the entire crew). In early August, everything was ready for the operation, they were waiting for favorable weather. The crews were instructed, showed photos from the tests. Impressed pilots understood the meaning of the unusual escape maneuver after dropping the bomb. Realizing the historical role assigned to the unit, proud of it, the commander of the air regiment, Colonel Tibets, gave his aircraft the name "Enola Gay" - in honor of his mother. When the strike force took off from Tinian on August 6, the hull of the atomic bomb in the Enola Gay's bomb bay was covered in a variety of slogans both jocular and serious. Among them was the inscription "From the guys from" Indianapolis "...

On August 6, an hour before the bombardment, 3 weather scouts went out to the designated areas in front of the B-29 Enola Gay carrier aircraft that had taken off. At a distance of 6-7 km from the carrier aircraft, an aircraft with equipment that recorded the parameters of a nuclear explosion followed. A bomber was flying 70 km from the carrier aircraft in order to photograph the results of the explosion.

The Japanese air defense system detected the bombers. At about 8:00 a.m., the radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the number of incoming aircraft was very low—probably no more than three—and the air raid alert was cancelled. The regular radio warned people to go down to shelter if the B-29s did show up, but no raid was expected after the reconnaissance. People continued to work without entering the shelter, and looked at enemy aircraft. The Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft artillery did not counteract the air enemy.

When the bombers reached the city center, one of them dropped a small parachute, after which the planes flew away. Immediately after that, at 8:15 a.m., there was a deafening explosion that seemed to rip apart heaven and earth in an instant. The bomb exploded with a blinding flash in the sky, a great rushing gust of air, and a deafening roar that spread miles from the city; the first destruction was accompanied by the sounds of collapsing houses, growing fires, a giant cloud of dust and smoke cast a shadow over the city.

For several hours after the disaster in Hiroshima, no one in Tokyo really knew what had happened there. The very first official announcement came from a telegram from a senior civilian official in Chugoku County. It said that Hiroshima had been attacked by "a small number of aircraft" that had used "an entirely new type of bomb."

On the morning of August 7, Deputy Chief General Staff Shawabe received a report, one phrase of which seemed completely incomprehensible: "The city of Hiroshima was completely destroyed in an instant by one bomb."

City on fire

A blinding flash and a terrible roar of explosion - after which the whole city was covered with huge clouds of smoke. Among the smoke, dust and debris, one after another flashed wooden houses, until the end of the day the city was engulfed in smoke and flames. And when, finally, the flame subsided, the whole city was one ruin. It was a terrible sight that history has never seen before. Charred and burnt corpses were piled up everywhere, many of them frozen in the position in which the explosion found them. The tram, from which there was only one skeleton, was full of corpses, holding on to the belts. Many of those who remained alive moaned from the burns that covered the entire body. Everywhere one could encounter a spectacle reminiscent of scenes from the life of hell.

It is difficult to imagine the full scale of this tragedy. It is very difficult to read the memoirs of eyewitnesses and literary works of hibakusha - people who survived the atomic bombing. But it is these records that are the most valuable: they are documentary evidence of what was happening in the city on August 6, 1945.

This one bomb, with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of TNT, exploded at an altitude of 600 meters above the city, in an instant destroyed 60 percent of the city of Hiroshima to the ground. Of the 306,545 inhabitants of Hiroshima, 176,987 were affected by the explosion. 92,133 people were killed or missing, 9,428 were seriously injured and 27,997 were slightly injured. Such information was published in February 1946 by the headquarters of the American occupation army in Japan. In an effort to reduce their responsibility, the Americans, as far as possible, underestimated the number of victims. Thus, when calculating losses, the number of killed and wounded servicemen was not taken into account. In addition, it must be borne in mind that many of the seriously and lightly wounded died in a few days, months or even years from radiation sickness. Therefore, in reality, the death toll, apparently, exceeds 150 thousand people.

Various buildings within a radius of 2 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion were completely destroyed, and within a radius of 12 kilometers were subjected to more or less significant destruction. People died or received severe burns within 8.6 kilometers, trees and grass were charred at a distance of up to 4 kilometers. As a result of the explosion and the fires that followed it, up to 9/10 of all the houses of the city, of which there were 95 thousand, were turned into ashes.

Never in the past could the human imagination imagine such magnitude of damage and such cruelty. Black rain fell on the city, which could not extinguish the fires and only increased the panic. Rescue work, the provision of medical care in the first hours was hampered by fires and destruction of infrastructure. The exact number of victims will probably never be established - there was no one to count. There was nothing left of those who were near the epicenter - the explosion literally evaporated people. The vast majority of the dead were civilians.

Ten years after the tragedy, on August 6, 1955, the first international conference for the prohibition of atomic and hydrogen weapons was held in Hiroshima. In 1985, the South Pacific was declared a nuclear-free zone.

A statement about Hiroshima and its victims by Valeria Novodvorskaya: “... I am not at all horrified by the trouble that happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But look what kind of candy from Japan turned out ... The game was worth the candle.

Having entered the war with Japan in December 1941, the United States for a long time could not achieve a turning point in the naval war in the Pacific Ocean in its favor.

Only from mid-1943 did the military situation in the Pacific begin to change in favor of the United States. At the same time, the naval war took on an even more fierce character, as Japan stubbornly clung to every island and archipelago. And even more severe battles lay ahead, especially when approaching Japanese proper territory.

Even at the Tehran conference, the United States raised the question of its entry into the war with Japan before the USSR.

Fearing huge casualties and material losses, especially in the event of an invasion of the Japanese islands, the US ruling circles increasingly began to turn their eyes to the USSR, hoping to shift some of the burden of defeating Japan onto it. Washington expected to kill two birds with one stone: firstly, the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan was supposed to reduce American casualties and bring the end of the war with her closer, and secondly, to achieve the greatest possible weakening of the USSR in military and economic relations, in order to then push back him from solving the problems of the post-war order of the world and to ensure the dominant role for the United States. The question of the participation of the USSR in the war in the Far East was discussed at the initiative of the United States in February 1945 at the Crimean Conference. At this conference, the USSR agreed to enter the war against Japan two or three months after the end of the war with Germany, on the condition that: the restoration of Russia's rights violated by Japan's treacherous attack in 1094, namely: the return of South Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it to the USSR, internationalization of the commercial port of Dairen (Dalniy), ensuring the predominant interests of the USSR in this port and restoring the lease on Port Arthur as a naval base of the USSR, joint operation with China of the Chinese Eastern and South Manchurian Railways (CER and SMWR), transfer of the USSR Kuril Islands.

Even after the creation of atomic weapons in the United States, their leading military circles continued to consider the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan as desirable as before. Therefore, at the Potsdam Conference, after G. Truman received a message from the United States about the successful test of the atomic bomb, the Americans still wanted to receive from the USSR confirmation of their commitment to the war with Japan, recorded in the decisions of the Crimean Conference.

After the war in the United States, there were more than once statements that the Americans could do without the participation of the USSR in the war with Japan. But the truth is inexorable: the United States sought the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan, while seeking to extract political and military benefits for itself.

A week after the end of the Potsdam Conference, on August 9, 1945, Soviet Union, fulfilled its allied obligations and entered the war against Japan. The participation of the USSR in this war was aimed at hastening the end of World War II, helping to liberate the countries of East and Southeast Asia from Japanese occupation, and strengthening the security of the country's eastern borders.

As early as April 5, 1945, the Soviet Union denounced the neutrality pact with Japan, which was a direct warning to its ruling circles. Three combined-arms armies and one tank army were transferred from the west to the Far East. The total number of Soviet troops in this region doubled, reaching 1.5 million people. To manage military operations, the High Command of the Soviet troops in the Far East was created, headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky. Combat units and formations were headed by experienced military leaders.

The idea of ​​the Soviet command was to inflict two main and several auxiliary strikes on the directions converging in the center of Manchuria, to encircle and defeat the Kwantung Army - the main striking force of the Japanese militarists, numbering over 1 million people.

On the eve of the agreed date for the opening of hostilities by the USSR on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, the city of Nagasaki was also subjected to an atomic bombing. There was no military need for this, for the fate of Japan was already sealed.

On the very first day of the fighting, Soviet troops launched a swift offensive: the 1st Far Eastern Front (commander - Marshal K.A. Meretskov) - from Primorye and the Trans-Baikal Front (commander - Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky) - from the territory of Mongolia. The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front (commanded by General of the Army M.A. Purkaev) crossed the Amur and Ussuri rivers and began to advance deep into Manchuria.

By August 14, Soviet troops had dismembered the Kwantung Army and threatened its complete encirclement. On the same day, the Japanese emperor announced his unconditional surrender. But hostilities continued. Having landed troops, the Soviet troops captured the Lyadun Peninsula and the Kuril Ridge.

The entire military campaign in the Far East lasted 24 days. It stopped when units of the 1st Far Eastern Front reached the 38th parallel, the line of demarcation between the Soviet and American armed forces, negotiated with the United States.

The signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Japan took place on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. On the Soviet side, it was signed by Lieutenant General K.N. Derevianko.

With the liquidation of the center of war in the Far East, the Second World War also ended.

But I'm interested in the question: "Was the atomic bombing by US aircraft of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki called for military necessity?". According to former US political and military leaders who made the decision to carry out the atomic bombings, these bombings were dictated by supposedly exclusively military considerations. US President Truman noted in his memoirs that he "considered the atomic bomb as a military weapon and never doubted that it should be used."

After successfully testing this weapon, they decided to use it against Japan. On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and the second, on August 9, on Nagasaki.

And since on August 14 the Japanese emperor announced the surrender of Japan, then from this fact US politicians draw a simple conclusion: the atomic bombing became the main, if not the only, reason for the surrender of Japan, it accelerated the end of the war and, therefore, was necessary.

But an analysis of the events that preceded the atomic bombing and especially those that followed it refutes this version and leads to completely different conclusions.

Firstly, the imperial headquarters responded to the bombing of Hiroshima only by sending a special commission to this city to study the consequences of an atomic explosion. Japanese leaders were much more concerned about the position of the Soviet Union. And when the Soviet troops went on the offensive on August 9, this radically changed the situation.

The entry of the USSR into the war with Japan plunged its ruling circles into extreme despondency and confusion. Tokyo could not fail to realize that if the Soviet Armed Forces "broke the back" of the fascist German army, which was the strongest in the capitalist world, then they would be able to cope even more with the Japanese army. Back in May 1945, the Supreme Council of Japan decided: “It is absolutely necessary, regardless of the further course of the war with England and America, that the Empire make extraordinary efforts to prevent the USSR from coming out against us, since this blow will be fatal for the Empire.”

That is why the Japanese leadership on the morning of August 9 made a fundamental decision on the need for surrender. Japanese Prime Minister Admiral Suzuki at an emergency meeting Supreme Council on the leadership of the war frankly stated: "The entry into the war of the Soviet Union this morning puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war." The loss of all hope of victory in the war was also announced at the same meeting by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Togo. The authors of the multi-volume "History of the Pacific War" published in Japan write that although "the main headquarters immediately gave the order to begin military operations against the Soviet Union, however, these were the last convulsive efforts dictated by desperation."

Thus, the news of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which arrived at headquarters in the middle of the day, no longer affected the situation: the decision to surrender became a fact before this news.

I believe that the use of atomic weapons was not caused by military necessity, since the defeat of Japan was, in essence, a foregone conclusion by the defeat of Nazi Germany and the upcoming entry into the war against Japan by the Soviet Union, which the American leadership was well aware of.

But then why were atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In the name of what were about 500,000 civilians burned in an atomic flame or subjected to excruciating suffering from injuries, burns, and radioactive radiation?

In my opinion, nothing can justify a barbaric act; one can only try to explain it. And if the atomic bombing was not caused by military necessity, then the explanation should be sought in the policy of the US ruling circles. As Japanese historians rightly noted, “the use of the atomic bomb was for the United States not the last military action in World War II, but the first serious battle in the Cold War that they are waging against Russia.”

I think that by committing a monstrous crime against humanity, the US leadership pursued the goal of intimidating the peoples of the world, and above all the Soviet Union, using nuclear blackmail to strengthen its military, political and diplomatic positions in the post-war world, to secure strategic superiority over the USSR and, brandishing atomic club, rule the world. But nothing came of it: the Soviet Union soon stripped the United States of its monopoly on nuclear weapons. However, the events of the last days of the Second World War show that the imperialists are ready to go to any lengths to satisfy their ambitions, including the use of the most barbaric weapons. And this requires high vigilance and selfless struggle from all peace-loving peoples in order to curb American and other atomic maniacs.