The U.S. Bombed Hiroshima - August 6, 1945

The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on this day in 1945. For a longer look, listen to the February 26, 2018, episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, "Sadako Sasaki's 1000 Cranes, Part 1." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff
Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff You
Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore
the past one day at a time with a quick
look at what happened today in history. Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and it's August six. The United
States dropped an atomic bomb known as Little Boy, on

(00:24):
the Japanese city of Hiroshima on this day in nineteen
forty five. The United States had entered World War Two
after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seven of
ninety one, and then by May of ninety five, the
war in Europe had ended, but it was raging on
in the Pacific. Japan at that point, though, was in

(00:45):
dire straits. The Japanese Navy was almost destroyed, the nation
had seen colossal damage from Allied firebombing over major cities,
and the conditions for Japanese civilians in a lot of
cases were just terrible. Will had no food and we're
on the verge of starvation. But even so, there were

(01:05):
a lot of people within the Allied forces who thought
that Japan would never surrender, no matter how bad things got,
and this was due to a combination of some preconceptions
about Japanese culture and society, and then just the tactics
that the Japanese military had been using during the war.
It's hard to imagine a fighting force that uses kama

(01:27):
kaze fighters ever backing down. So on July, ten, days
after the first successful test of an atomic bomb, the
United States issued the Potsdam Declaration. This called for Japan
to surrender unconditionally or face quote prompt and utter destruction.

(01:47):
But Japan did not surrender, and the United States bombed
Hiroshima on August six. Hiroshima had been chosen specifically for
maximum shock value. It was a major city that had
not been targeted by fire bombing, so the damage would
be colossal, and then it was also believed that the
surrounding hilly territory would focus the blast and cause even

(02:12):
more damage. At least eighty thousand people died instantly, most
of them civilians. Tens of thousands more died later from
radiation poisoning and radiation induced diseases. The blast also completely
leveled the area near its hypocenter, and a fire spread
from there. First person accounts of that day are horrifying.

(02:35):
Japan still did not surrender, though, and the United States
dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki on the ninth. Other
military operations were still ongoing during this time, and the
Soviet Union also started to deploy millions of troops to
Manchuria to be part of this fight. Japan's surrender was
announced the AUGUSTI, and the nation formally surrendered on September two.

(02:58):
There continues to be debate about what role exactly nuclear
weapons played at the end of the war, as well
as whether their use on civilian cities was justified, and
public opinion about that second question varies dramatically in the
United States versus Japan. According to a report by the
nonpartisan Pew Research Center, fifty six percent of Americans believe

(03:22):
the use of nuclear weapons was justified and thirty four
percent say that it wasn't. Meanwhile, in Japan, just fourteen
percent say that it was justified, while seventy nine percent
say that it wasn't. Thanks to Tari Harrison for her
audio editing on these episodes, and you can learn more
about what happened in Hiroshima on the first part of

(03:43):
the Stuff You Missed in History Class episode Sadako Sasaki's
One Thousand Cranes. That's from February. The second part of
this episode is also relevant, but not as directly connected
to the bombing of Hiroshima. You can subscribe to This
Day in History class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and
wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can tune

(04:05):
in tomorrow for another moment for more time, this time
from the nineteen sixties.