During World War II, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay was dropped by a US B-29 bomber. atomic bomb to 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.

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On August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. To this day, this bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case of use nuclear weapons in the history of mankind.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 the Second world war, 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.

On August 7, 1945, the day after the atomic bomb exploded, smoke billows across the ruins in Hiroshima, Japan.

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.

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

Crew members of the B-29 bomber "The Great Artiste" that 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.

This photograph of an atomic bomb exploding over Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II was released by the Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. 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.

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.

A huge nuclear mushroom cloud over 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.

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.

The boom was installed at the site of the atomic bomb fall 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.

Japanese workers clear away 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 is taken from the Japanese archive news agency Domei.

As seen in this photo, which was 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.

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

Victim of the first atomic bomb explosion in the ward 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.

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

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

A reporter stands among the rubble in front of the shell of what was once the city's 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.

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

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)

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.

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.

In this photo, which was provided by the Japan Association of Aftermath Photographers nuclear explosion in Hiroshima (Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima), - a victim of an 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.

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.

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

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 beach. 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.

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

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

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.

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.

On 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.

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.

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

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

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

In the Ginza district of Nagasaki, which was the equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue, shopkeepers destroyed by a nuclear bomb sell their wares on the sidewalks, September 30, 1945.

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

A service at Nagarekawa Protestant Church after the atomic bomb destroyed the church in Hiroshima, 1945.

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

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.

Ikimi Kikkawa shows his keloid scars left after treatment for burns suffered 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.

Akira Yamaguchi shows his scars from treatment for burns suffered during the nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima.

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

Pilot Colonel Paul W. Taibbetts waves from the cockpit of his bomber at a base on Tinian Island 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.

Another US crime, or Why did Japan capitulate?

We are unlikely to be mistaken in assuming that most of us are still convinced that Japan surrendered because the Americans dropped two atomic bombs of enormous destructive power. On Hiroshima And Nagasaki. The act, in itself, is barbaric, inhumane. After all, it died purely civil population! And the radiation accompanying a nuclear strike, many decades later, maimed and maims newly born children.

However, military events in the Japanese-American War were no less inhumane and bloody before the dropping of atomic bombs. And, for many, such a statement will seem unexpected, those events were even more cruel! Remember the photographs you saw of the bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and try to imagine that Before this, the Americans acted even more inhumanely!

However, we will not anticipate and will cite an excerpt from a voluminous article by Ward Wilson “ The victory over Japan was not won by the bomb, but by Stalin" Presented statistics of the most brutal bombing of Japanese cities BEFORE atomic strikes simply amazing.

Scale

In historical terms, the use of the atomic bomb may seem to be the most important single event in the war. However, from the point of view of modern Japan, the atomic bombing is not as easy to distinguish from other events as it is difficult to distinguish a single drop of rain in the middle of a summer thunderstorm.

An American Marine looks through a hole in the wall at the aftermath of a bombing. Nahi, Okinawa, June 13, 1945. The city, home to 433,000 people before the invasion, was reduced to ruins. (AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps, Corp. Arthur F. Hager Jr.)

In the summer of 1945, the US Air Force carried out one of the most intense urban destruction campaigns in world history. In Japan, 68 cities were bombed, and all of them were partially or completely destroyed. An estimated 1.7 million people were left homeless, 300,000 were killed, and 750,000 were injured. 66 air raids were carried out using conventional weapons, and two used atomic bombs.

The damage caused by non-nuclear airstrikes was colossal. All summer, Japanese cities exploded and burned from night to night. In the midst of this nightmare of destruction and death, it could hardly have come as a surprise that one or another strike didn't make much of an impression– even if it was inflicted by an amazing new weapon.

A B-29 bomber flying from the Marianas could carry a bomb load of 7 to 9 tons, depending on the target location and strike altitude. Typically a raid was carried out by 500 bombers. This means that in a typical air raid using conventional weapons, each city would receive 4-5 kilotons. (A kiloton is a thousand tons, and is the standard measure of the yield of a nuclear weapon. The yield of the Hiroshima bomb was 16.5 kilotons, and a bomb with the power of 20 kilotons.)

With conventional bombing, the destruction was uniform (and therefore more effective); and one, albeit more powerful bomb, loses a significant part of its destructive force at the epicenter of the explosion, only raising dust and creating a heap of debris. Therefore, it can be argued that some air raids using conventional bombs in their destructive power came close to two atomic bombings.

The first conventional bombing was carried out against Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945. It became the most destructive bombing of the city in the history of war. Then approximately 41 square kilometers of urban area burned in Tokyo. Approximately 120,000 Japanese died. These are the largest losses from the bombing of cities.

Because of the way the story is told, we often imagine that the bombing of Hiroshima was much worse. We think that the death toll is beyond all limits. But if you make a table of the number of people killed in all 68 cities as a result of bombings in the summer of 1945, it turns out that Hiroshima in terms of the number of civilian deaths is in second place.

And if you calculate the area of ​​destroyed urban areas, it turns out that Hiroshima fourth. If you check the percentage of destruction in cities, then Hiroshima will be in 17th place. It is quite obvious that, in terms of the scale of damage, it fits well within the parameters of air raids using non-nuclear funds.

From our point of view, Hiroshima is something that stands apart, something extraordinary. But if you put yourself in the shoes of the Japanese leaders in the period preceding the attack on Hiroshima, the picture will look completely different. If you were one of the key members of the Japanese government in late July and early August 1945, you would have felt something like this about the air raids on cities. On the morning of July 17, you would have been informed that during the night they were subjected to airstrikes four cities: Oita, Hiratsuka, Numazu and Kuwana. Oita and Hiratsuka half destroyed. In Kuwana, the destruction exceeds 75%, and Numazu suffered the most because 90% of the city burned to the ground.

Three days later you are woken up and informed that you have been attacked three more cities. Fukui is more than 80 percent destroyed. A week goes by and three more cities are bombed at night. Two days later, bombs fall in one night for another six Japanese cities, including Ichinomiya, where 75% of buildings and structures were destroyed. On August 12, you go into your office, and they report to you that you were hit four more cities.

Night Toyama, Japan, August 1, 1945, after 173 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on the city. As a result of this bombing, the city was destroyed by 95.6%. (USAF)

Among all these messages slips information that the city Toyama(in 1945 it was about the size of Chattanooga, Tennessee) destroyed by 99,5%. That is, the Americans razed to the ground almost the entire city. On August 6, only one city was attacked - Hiroshima, but according to reports received, the damage there is enormous, and a new type of bomb was used in the airstrike. How does this new air raid compare to other bombings that have lasted for weeks, destroying entire cities?

Three weeks before Hiroshima, the US Air Force carried out raids for 26 cities. Of them eight(this is almost a third) were destroyed either completely or stronger than Hiroshima(if you count what part of the cities was destroyed). The fact that 68 cities in Japan were destroyed in the summer of 1945 poses a serious obstacle to those who want to show that the bombing of Hiroshima was the cause of Japan's surrender. The question arises: if they capitulated due to the destruction of one city, then why did they not capitulate when they were destroyed 66 other cities?

If the Japanese leadership decided to surrender because of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this means that they were worried about the bombing of cities in general, and that the attacks on these cities became for them a serious argument in favor of surrender. But the situation looks completely different.

Two days after the bombing Tokyo retired foreign minister Shidehara Kijuro(Shidehara Kijuro) expressed an opinion that was openly held by many high-ranking leaders at the time. Shidehara stated, “People will gradually get used to being bombed every day. Over time, their unity and determination will only strengthen.”

In a letter to a friend, he noted that it was important for citizens to endure suffering because “even if hundreds of thousands of civilians die, are injured and starve, even if millions of homes are destroyed and burned,” diplomacy will take some time. It is appropriate to remember here that Shidehara was a moderate politician.

Apparently, at the very top of state power in the Supreme Council the sentiment was the same. The Supreme Council discussed the importance of the Soviet Union maintaining neutrality - and at the same time, its members said nothing about the consequences of the bombing. From the surviving minutes and archives it is clear that at meetings of the Supreme Council bombing of cities was mentioned only twice: once in passing in May 1945 and a second time on the evening of August 9, when an extensive discussion took place on this issue. Based on the available evidence, it is difficult to say that Japanese leaders attached any importance to air raids on cities, at least in comparison with other pressing wartime issues.

General Anami August 13 noted that atomic bombings are terrible no more than regular airstrikes, which Japan was subjected to for several months. If Hiroshima and Nagasaki were no worse than conventional bombings, and if the Japanese leadership did not attach much importance to this, not considering it necessary to discuss this question in detail, how could atomic strikes on these cities force them to surrender?

Fires after firebombing a city Tarumiza, Kyushu, Japan. (USAF)

Strategic relevance

If the Japanese weren't worried about the bombing of cities in general and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in particular, then what were they worried about? The answer to this question is simple : Soviet Union.

The Japanese found themselves in a rather difficult strategic situation. The end of the war was approaching, and they were losing the war. The situation was bad. But the army was still strong and well supplied. It was almost under arms four million people, and 1.2 million of this number were guarding the Japanese islands.

Even the most unyielding Japanese leaders understood that it was impossible to continue the war. The question was not whether to continue it or not, but how to complete it on better conditions. The Allies (the United States, Great Britain and others - remember that the Soviet Union at that time still maintained neutrality) demanded “unconditional surrender.” The Japanese leadership hoped that he would be able to somehow avoid military tribunals and preserve existing form state power and some of the territories captured by Tokyo: Korea, Vietnam, Burma, individual areas Malaysia And Indonesia, a significant part of the eastern China and numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean.

They had two plans for obtaining optimal surrender conditions. In other words, they had two strategic options. The first option is diplomatic. In April 1941, Japan signed a neutrality pact with the Soviets, which expired in 1946. A group of mostly civilian leaders led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Togo Shigenori hoped that Stalin could be persuaded to act as a mediator between the United States and the allies on the one hand, and Japan on the other, in order to resolve the situation.

Although this plan had little chance of success, it reflected sound strategic thinking. In the end, the Soviet Union is interested in ensuring that the terms of the settlement are not very favorable for the United States - after all, increasing American influence and power in Asia would invariably mean weakening Russian authorities and influence.

The second plan was military, and most of its supporters, led by the Minister of the Army Anami Koretika, were military men. They hoped that when American troops began to invade, ground troops imperial army will cause them huge losses. They believed that if they succeeded, they would be able to wrest more favorable terms from the United States. This strategy also had little chance of success. The United States was determined to obtain unconditional surrender from the Japanese. But since there was concern in US military circles that the casualties of an invasion would be prohibitive, there was a certain logic to the Japanese high command's strategy.

To understand what the true reason was that forced the Japanese to surrender - the bombing of Hiroshima or the declaration of war by the Soviet Union, it is necessary to compare how these two events affected the strategic situation.

After the atomic attack on Hiroshima, both options were still in force as of August 8th. Another option was to ask Stalin to act as a mediator (Takagi's diary contains an entry dated August 8 that shows that some Japanese leaders were still thinking about involving Stalin). It was still possible to try to fight one last decisive battle and inflict great damage on the enemy. The destruction of Hiroshima had no effect on the readiness of troops for stubborn defense on the shores of their native islands.

View of Tokyo's bombed-out areas, 1945. Next to the burned down and destroyed neighborhoods is a strip of surviving residential buildings. (USAF)

Yes, there was one less city behind them, but they were still ready to fight. They had enough ammunition and shells, and combat power If the army decreased, it was very little. The bombing of Hiroshima did not predetermine either of Japan's two strategic options.

However, the effect of the Soviet Union's declaration of war and its invasion of Manchuria and Sakhalin Island was completely different. When the Soviet Union entered the war with Japan, Stalin could no longer act as a mediator - he was now an adversary. Therefore, the USSR, through its actions, destroyed the diplomatic option to end the war.

The impact on the military situation was no less dramatic. Most of the best Japanese troops were in the southern islands of the country. The Japanese military correctly assumed that the first target of an American invasion would be the southernmost island of Kyushu. Once powerful Kwantung Army in Manchuria was extremely weakened, since its best units were transferred to Japan to organize the defense of the islands.

When the Russians entered Manchuria, they simply crushed the once elite army, and many of their units stopped only when the fuel ran out. The Soviet 16th Army, which numbered 100,000 people, landed troops in the southern part of the island Sakhalin. She received orders to break the resistance of Japanese troops there, and then within 10-14 days to prepare for an invasion of the island Hokkaido, the northernmost of the Japanese islands. Hokkaido was defended by the Japanese 5th Territorial Army, which consisted of two divisions and two brigades. She concentrated on fortified positions in the eastern part of the island. And the Soviet offensive plan included a landing in the west of Hokkaido.

Destruction in residential areas of Tokyo caused by American bombing. The photo was taken on September 10, 1945. Only the strongest buildings survived. (AP Photo)

It doesn’t take a military genius to understand: yes, it is possible to conduct a decisive battle against one great power landing in one direction; but it is impossible to repel an attack by two great powers attacking from two different directions. The Soviet offensive invalidated the military strategy of the decisive battle, just as it had previously invalidated the diplomatic strategy. The Soviet offensive was decisive from a strategic point of view, because it deprived Japan of both options. A The bombing of Hiroshima was not decisive(because there are no Japanese options she did not rule it out).

Introduction Soviet Union during the war also changed all calculations regarding the time remaining to complete the maneuver. Japanese intelligence predicted that American troops would begin landing only in a few months. Soviet troops could actually find themselves on Japanese territory in a matter of days (within 10 days, to be more precise). The Soviet offensive threw all plans into disarray concerning the timing of the decision to end the war.

But Japanese leaders came to this conclusion several months earlier. At a meeting of the Supreme Council in June 1945, they stated that if the Soviets enter the war, "it will determine the fate of the empire" Deputy Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army Kawabe at that meeting he stated: “Maintaining peace in our relations with the Soviet Union is an indispensable condition for the continuation of the war.”

Japanese leaders stubbornly refused to show interest in the bombing that destroyed their cities. It was probably wrong when the air raids began in March 1945. But by the time the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, they were right to view the bombing of cities as an unimportant sideshow with no serious strategic consequences. When Truman said his famous phrase that if Japan did not capitulate, its cities would be subjected to a “destructive shower of steel,” few in the United States understood that there was almost nothing to destroy there.

Charred corpses of civilians in Tokyo, March 10, 1945 after the American bombing of the city. 300 B-29 aircraft dropped 1700 tons incendiary bombs on Japan's largest city, killing 100,000 people. This air raid was the most brutal of the entire Second World War.(Koyo Ishikawa)

By August 7, when Truman made his threat, there were only 10 cities in Japan with populations over 100,000 that had not yet been bombed. On August 9, a blow was struck Nagasaki, and there are nine such cities left. Four of them were on the northern island of Hokkaido, which was difficult to bomb because of the great distance to the island of Tinian, where American bomber aircraft were stationed.

Minister of War Henry Stimson(Henry Stimson) removed the ancient capital of Japan from the list of bombing targets because it had important religious and symbolic significance. So, despite Truman’s menacing rhetoric, after Nagasaki there remained only four large cities that could be subjected to atomic attacks.

The thoroughness and scope of the bombing of the American Air Force can be judged by the following circumstance. They bombed so many Japanese cities that they were eventually forced to target population centers of 30,000 or fewer. In the modern world, it is difficult to call such a settlement a city.

Of course, it was possible to re-strike cities that had already been firebombed. But these cities were already destroyed by an average of 50%. Additionally, the United States could drop atomic bombs on small towns. However, there remained such untouched cities (with a population of 30,000 to 100,000 people) in Japan. only six. But since 68 cities in Japan had already been seriously damaged by bombing, and the country's leadership did not attach any importance to this, it was hardly surprising that the threat of further airstrikes could not make much of an impression on them.

The only thing that retained at least some form on this hill after the nuclear explosion were the ruins Catholic Cathedral, Nagasaki, Japan, 1945. (NARA)

Convenient story

Despite these three powerful objections, the traditional interpretation of events still greatly influences people's thinking, especially in the United States. There is a clear reluctance to face the facts. But this can hardly be called a surprise. We should remember how convenient the traditional explanation of the bombing of Hiroshima is in emotional plan - both for Japan and for the USA.

Ideas remain powerful because they are true; but unfortunately, they can also remain strong by meeting needs from an emotional point of view. They fill an important psychological niche. For example, the traditional interpretation of the events in Hiroshima helped Japanese leaders achieve a number of important political goals, both domestically and internationally.

Put yourself in the emperor's shoes. You have just subjected your country to a devastating war. The economy is in ruins. 80% of your cities are destroyed and burned. The army was defeated, suffering a series of defeats. The fleet suffered heavy losses and is not leaving its bases. The people begin to starve. In short, the war was a disaster, and most importantly, you lying to your people, without telling him how bad the situation really is.

The people will be shocked to learn of the surrender. So what should you do? Admit that you have failed? Make a statement that you have seriously miscalculated, made mistakes and caused enormous damage to your nation? Or explain the defeat as amazing scientific achievements that no one could have predicted? If the defeat was blamed on the atomic bomb, then all mistakes and military miscalculations could be swept under the rug. The bomb is the perfect excuse for losing a war. There is no need to look for the guilty, no need to conduct investigations and trials. Japanese leaders will be able to say they did their best.

Thus, in general the atomic bomb helped remove blame from Japanese leaders.

But by attributing the Japanese defeat to atomic bombings, three more very specific political goals were achieved. Firstly, this helped maintain the emperor's legitimacy. Since the war was lost not because of mistakes, but because of the enemy’s unexpected miracle weapon, it means that the emperor will continue to enjoy support in Japan.

Secondly, this aroused international sympathy. Japan waged the war aggressively, and showed particular cruelty to the conquered peoples. Other countries must have condemned her actions. And if turn Japan into a victim country, which was inhumanely and dishonestly bombed using a terrible and cruel instrument of war, then it will be possible to somehow atone and neutralize the most vile acts of the Japanese military. Drawing attention to the atomic bombings helped create more sympathy for Japan and dampen the desire for the harshest punishment.

And finally, claims that the Bomb secured victory in the war flattered the American victors of Japan. The American occupation of Japan officially ended only in 1952, and during this time The United States could change and remake Japanese society at its discretion. In the early days of the occupation, many Japanese leaders feared that the Americans would want to abolish the institution of the emperor.

They also had another concern. Many senior Japanese leaders knew that they could be tried for war crimes (when Japan surrendered, it was already being tried in Germany Nazi leaders). Japanese historian Asada Sadao(Asada Sadao) wrote that in many post-war interviews, "Japanese officials ... were clearly trying to please their American interviewers." If Americans want to believe that their bomb won the war, why disappoint them?

Soviet soldiers on the banks of the Songhua River in the city of Harbin. Soviet troops liberated the city from the Japanese on August 20, 1945. At the time of Japan's surrender, there were about 700,000 people in Manchuria Soviet soldiers. (Yevgeny Khaldei/waralbum.ru)

By explaining the end of the war with the use of the atomic bomb, the Japanese were largely serving their own interests. But they also served American interests. Since victory in the war was ensured by the bomb, the idea of military power America. The diplomatic influence of the United States in Asia and around the world is increasing, and American security is strengthening.

The $2 billion spent on creating the bomb was not wasted. On the other hand, if we accept that the reason for Japan's surrender was the entry of the Soviet Union into the war, then the Soviets can well claim that they did in four days what the United States could not do in four years. And then the perception of the military power and diplomatic influence of the Soviet Union will increase. And since at that time it was already full swing The Cold War was underway, recognizing the Soviets' decisive contribution to the victory was tantamount to providing aid and support to the enemy.

Looking at the questions raised here, it is alarming to realize that the evidence from Hiroshima and Nagasaki underlies everything we think about nuclear weapons. This event is irrefutable proof of the importance of nuclear weapons. It is important for gaining a unique status, because conventional rules do not apply to nuclear powers. This is an important measure of nuclear danger: Truman's threat to subject Japan to a "destructive shower of steel" was the first open atomic threat. This event is very important for creating a powerful aura around nuclear weapons, which makes them so significant in international relations.

But if the traditional history of Hiroshima is called into question, what should we make of all these conclusions? Hiroshima is center point, the epicenter from which all other statements, statements and claims emanate. However, the story we tell ourselves is far from reality. What should we think about nuclear weapons now, if its colossal first achievement - the miraculous and sudden surrender of Japan - turned out to be a myth?

It was only thanks to our people that Japan was defeated

According to the official point of view, the bombing of Japanese cities was the only compelling argument to convince the Japanese government to capitulate. According to historians, the proud Japanese were ready to fight to the last soldier, and seriously prepared for American intervention.

Proud Japanese were ready to fight to the last soldier, and seriously prepared for American intervention // Photo: whotrades.com

Japanese intelligence knew that the United States had no other choice but to land on the island of Kyushu. Fortifications were already waiting for them here. Tokyo planned to impose a battle on Washington, which would cost them dearly, both in material terms and in terms of human lives. The Japanese were not very interested in their losses. American intelligence learned about these plans. Washington was not happy with this balance of power. American government wanted complete and unconditional surrender of the enemy on their terms. And this meant occupation and the creation of institutions in the state that Washington would consider necessary. The Japanese, according to some sources, were ready to capitulate. But they categorically did not accept America's conditions. Tokyo was determined to maintain the current government and avoid occupation.

It is noteworthy that at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, Roosevelt insisted that the USSR undertake to enter the war with Japan. At the end of the summer of 1945, the Soviet leadership informed the allies that its troops were ready to cross the border of Manchuria and enter the war with Japan. The White House made it clear to Stalin that he was not against this scenario. But if this does not happen, then there will be no complaints either. Thus, America already had a trump card in the war with Japan. But the spread of the USSR’s influence to the East was extremely undesirable for it.

Hit list

Initially, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the main contenders for a meeting with the American nuclear bomb. Moreover, Nagasaki was not even on the list of cities that the American generals considered as targets. The United States assumed the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on Kyoto, as the cultural and industrial center of Japan. Next on the list was Yokohama because of its military factories, and also Hiroshima because it had a huge number of ammunition depots. Niigata had a major military port, so the city was put on the hit list, and the city of Kokura was considered a target because it was considered the country's largest military arsenal.

The death of Kyoto could really break the Japanese // Photo: sculpture.artyx.ru

From the very beginning, Kyoto was seen as the main target. The death of this city could really break the Japanese. Kyoto for a long time was the capital of the state, and is now considered the largest cultural center. He was saved by pure chance. The fact is that one of the American generals carried out Honeymoon in the cultural capital of Japan. He felt very sorry for the beautiful city, and he used all his eloquence to convince the authorities to spare him.

After Kyoto disappeared from the list, Nagasaki appeared on it. Later, the choice of the American command was settled on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Judgment Day

On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. The city was surrounded by hills, and the United States hoped that the terrain would further intensify the consequences of the attack. The city was destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people died. The people who survived the explosion tried to escape the heat in the river, but the water literally boiled, and some were boiled alive. Three days later, on August 9, hell repeated itself in Nagasaki. It is noteworthy that the pilot with a nuclear bomb on board had two targets - Kokura and Nagasaki. Kokur was saved by the fact that there was thick fog over him that day. Ironically, Nagasaki hospitals treated victims of the Hiroshima explosion.

According to expert estimates, the explosions cost almost half a million human lives. And almost all of them belonged to civilians. Many of the survivors then died due to radiation sickness.

Hidden motives

The nuclear bomb finally convinced the Japanese government of the need to surrender. Emperor Hirohito accepted all the conditions of the Americans. And the whole world saw how devastating the consequences of using new weapons could be mass destruction. Already at that moment, world leaders began to understand that the next global conflict would be the last for humanity.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on the Americans’ terms // Photo: istpravda.ru

Even though at that time the USA and the USSR were considered allies in the war against the Nazis, the first signs of coldness between the superpowers were already visible. According to many experts, the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely demonstrative. They were supposed to demonstrate American power. But as a result, this led to Moscow urgently creating its own nuclear bomb, and then other states. Thus began an arms race that kept the whole world in suspense throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

Prerequisites for great war V Pacific region began to arise in the middle of the 19th century, when the American Commodore Matthew Perry, on instructions from the US government, at gunpoint, forced the Japanese authorities to end their policy of isolationism, open their ports to American ships and sign an unequal treaty with the United States, giving serious economic and political advantages to Washington.

In a situation where most Asian countries found themselves fully or partially dependent on Western powers, Japan, in order to maintain its sovereignty, had to carry out lightning-fast technical modernization. At the same time, a feeling of resentment against those who forced them to one-sided “openness” took root among the Japanese.

Through its example, America demonstrated to Japan that with the help of brute force it is supposedly possible to solve any international problems. As a result, the Japanese, who had practically never ventured anywhere outside their islands for centuries, began an active expansionist policy directed against other Far Eastern countries. Its victims were Korea, China and Russia.

Pacific Theater

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria from Korea, occupied it and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. In the summer of 1937, Tokyo began a full-scale war against China. Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing fell that same year. On the territory of the latter, the Japanese army staged one of the most monstrous massacres in world history. From December 1937 to January 1938, the Japanese military killed, using mainly edged weapons, up to 500 thousand civilians and disarmed soldiers. The killings were accompanied by horrendous torture and rape. Rape victims - from young children to elderly women - were then also brutally killed. The total number of deaths as a result of Japanese aggression in China was 30 million people.

• Pearl Harbor
• globallookpress.com
• Scherl

In 1940, Japan began expansion into Indochina, and in 1941 it attacked British and American military bases (Hong Kong, Pearl Harbor, Guam and Wake), Malaysia, Burma and the Philippines. In 1942, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, the American Aleutian Islands, India and the islands of Micronesia became victims of aggression from Tokyo.

However, already in 1942 the Japanese offensive began to stall, and in 1943 Japan lost the initiative, although it armed forces were still quite strong. The counter-offensive by British and American forces in the Pacific theater of operations progressed relatively slowly. Only in June 1945, after bloody battles, were the Americans able to occupy the island of Okinawa, annexed by Japan in 1879.

As for the position of the USSR, in 1938-1939 Japanese troops tried to attack Soviet units in the area of ​​Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, but were defeated.

Official Tokyo was convinced that it was faced with too strong an enemy, and in 1941 a neutrality pact was concluded between Japan and the USSR.

Adolf Hitler tried to force his Japanese allies to break the pact and attack the USSR from the east, but Soviet intelligence officers and diplomats managed to convince Tokyo that this could cost Japan too much, and the treaty remained in force de facto until August 1945. The United States and Great Britain received agreement in principle for Moscow to enter the war with Japan from Joseph Stalin in February 1945 at the Yalta Conference.

Manhattan Project

In 1939, a group of physicists, with the support of Albert Einstein, handed over a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt, which stated that Hitler's Germany in the foreseeable future may create a weapon of terrible destructive power - the atomic bomb. The American authorities became interested in the nuclear problem. Also in 1939, the Uranium Committee was created as part of the US National Defense Research Committee, which first assessed the potential threat, and then began preparations for the United States to create its own nuclear weapons.

• Manhattan Project
• Wikipedia

The Americans recruited emigrants from Germany, as well as representatives from Great Britain and Canada. In 1941, a special Bureau was created in the USA scientific research and development, and in 1943, work began on the so-called Manhattan Project, the goal of which was to create ready-to-use nuclear weapons.

In the USSR, nuclear research has been going on since the 1930s. Thanks to the activities of Soviet intelligence and Western scientists with leftist views, information about preparations for the creation of nuclear weapons in the West began to flow en masse to Moscow starting in 1941.

Despite all the difficulties of wartime, in 1942-1943 nuclear research in the Soviet Union was intensified, and representatives of the NKVD and GRU actively began searching for agents in American scientific centers.

By the summer of 1945, the United States had three nuclear bombs - the plutonium Thing and Fat Man, and the uranium Baby. On July 16, 1945, a “Thing” test explosion was carried out at a test site in New Mexico. The American leadership was satisfied with its results. True, according to memories Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov, just 12 days after the first atomic bomb was assembled in the United States, its diagram was already in Moscow.

On July 24, 1945, when US President Harry Truman, most likely for the purpose of blackmail, told Stalin in Potsdam that America had weapons of “extraordinary destructive power,” Soviet leader he only smiled in response. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was present during the conversation, then concluded that Stalin did not understand what was being said at all. However, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was well aware of the Manhattan Project and, having parted ways with the American president, told Vyacheslav Molotov (USSR Foreign Minister in 1939-1949): “We will need to talk with Kurchatov today about speeding up our work.”

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Already in September 1944, an agreement in principle was reached between the United States and Great Britain on the possibility of using the atomic weapons being created against Japan. In May 1945, a target selection committee meeting at Los Alamos rejected the idea of ​​launching nuclear strikes on military targets due to the “possibility of a miss” and the lack of a strong “psychological effect.” They decided to hit the cities.

Initially, the city of Kyoto was also on this list, but US Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted on choosing other targets, since he had warm memories associated with Kyoto - he spent his honeymoon in this city.

• Atomic bomb "Baby"
• Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

On July 25, Truman approved a list of cities for potential nuclear strikes, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The next day, the cruiser Indianapolis delivered the Baby bomb to pacific island Tinian, to the location of the 509th Composite Aviation Group. On July 28, the then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George Marshall, signed a combat order on the use of atomic weapons. Four more days later, on August 2, 1945, all the components necessary to assemble the Fat Man were delivered to Tinian.

The target of the first strike was the seventh most populous city in Japan - Hiroshima, where at that time about 245 thousand people lived. The headquarters of the fifth division and the second main army were located on the territory of the city. On August 6, a US Air Force B-29 bomber under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbetts took off from Tinian and headed for Japan. At about 08:00, the plane appeared over Hiroshima and dropped the “Baby” bomb, which exploded 576 meters above the surface of the earth. At 08:15 all clocks stopped in Hiroshima.

The temperature under the plasma ball formed as a result of the explosion reached 4000 °C. About 80 thousand city residents died instantly. Many of them turned to ashes in a split second.

The light radiation left dark silhouettes of human bodies on the walls of buildings. Glass was broken in houses located within a 19-kilometer radius. The fires that arose in the city united into a fiery tornado, destroying people who tried to escape immediately after the explosion.

On August 9, the American bomber headed for Kokura, but there was heavy cloudiness in the area of ​​the city, and the pilots decided to strike at the reserve target - Nagasaki. The bomb was dropped taking advantage of a gap in the clouds through which the city stadium was visible. "Fat Man" exploded at an altitude of 500 meters, and although the power of the explosion was greater than in Hiroshima, the damage from it was less due to the hilly terrain and a large industrial area in which there was no residential development. During the bombing and immediately after it, between 60 and 80 thousand people died.

• Consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the American army on August 6, 1945

Some time after the attack, doctors began to note that people who seemed to be recovering from wounds and psychological shock were beginning to suffer from a new, previously unknown disease. The peak number of deaths from it occurred three to four weeks after the explosion. This is how the world learned about the consequences of radiation on the human body.

By 1950 total The victims of the bombing of Hiroshima as a result of the explosion and its consequences were estimated at approximately 200 thousand, and of Nagasaki - at 140 thousand people.

Causes and consequences

In mainland Asia at that time there was a powerful Kwantung Army, on which official Tokyo had high hopes. Its strength, due to rapid mobilization measures, was not reliably known even to the command itself. According to some estimates, the number of soldiers in the Kwantung Army exceeded 1 million. In addition, Japan was supported by collaborationist forces, including military formations which included several hundred thousand more soldiers and officers.

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. And the very next day, having secured the support of the Mongolian allies, the USSR advanced its troops against the forces of the Kwantung Army.

“Currently in the West they are trying to rewrite history and revise the contribution of the USSR to the victory over both fascist Germany and militaristic Japan. However, only the entry into the war on the night of August 8–9, the Soviet Union, which was fulfilling its allied obligations, forced the Japanese leadership to announce surrender on August 15. The Red Army’s offensive against the forces of the Kwantung group developed quickly, and this, by and large, led to the end of World War II,” Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist historian at the Victory Museum, expressed his opinion in an interview with RT.

• Surrender of the Kwantung Army troops
• RIA News
• Evgeny Khaldey

According to the expert, over 600 thousand people surrendered to the Red Army. Japanese soldiers and officers, among whom were 148 generals. Alexander Mikhailov urged not to overestimate the impact of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the end of the war. “The Japanese were initially determined to fight to the end against the United States and Great Britain,” he emphasized.

As the senior noted Researcher Institute Far East RAS, Associate Professor at the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​of Moscow State Pedagogical University Viktor Kuzminkov, the “military expediency” of launching a nuclear strike on Japan is only a version officially formulated by the leadership of the United States.

“The Americans said that in the summer of 1945 it was necessary to start a war with Japan on the territory of the metropolis itself. Here the Japanese, according to the US leadership, had to offer desperate resistance and could allegedly inflict unacceptable losses on the American army. But the nuclear bombings, they say, should still have persuaded Japan to surrender,” the expert explained.

According to the head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Kistanov, the American version does not stand up to criticism. “There was no military need for this barbaric bombardment. Today even some Western researchers admit this. In fact, Truman wanted, firstly, to intimidate the USSR destructive force new weapons, and secondly, to justify the huge costs of its development. But it was clear to everyone that the USSR’s entry into the war with Japan would put an end to it,” he said.

Viktor Kuzminkov agrees with the following conclusions: “Official Tokyo hoped that Moscow could become a mediator in the negotiations, and the USSR’s entry into the war left Japan no chance.”

Kistanov emphasized that simple people and members of the elite in Japan respond differently to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Ordinary Japanese people remember this disaster as it really happened. But the authorities and the press are trying not to highlight some of its aspects. For example, in newspapers and on television, atomic bombings are very often talked about without mentioning which specific country carried them out. For a long time, current American presidents did not visit memorials dedicated to the victims of these bombings. The first was Barack Obama, but he never apologized to the descendants of the victims. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also did not apologize for Pearl Harbor,” he noted.

According to Kuzminkov, the atomic bombings changed Japan greatly. “A huge group of “untouchables” appeared in the country - hibakusha, born to mothers exposed to radiation. Many people shunned them; the parents of young men and girls did not want hibakusha to marry their children. The consequences of the bombings penetrated into people's lives. Therefore, today many Japanese are consistent supporters of a complete abandonment of the use of nuclear energy in principle,” the expert concluded.

On August 6, 1945, the United States used its most powerful weapon of mass destruction to date. It was an atomic bomb, equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT. The city of Hiroshima was completely destroyed, tens of thousands of civilians were killed. While Japan was recovering from this devastation, three days later the United States again launched a second nuclear strike on Nagasaki, under the guise of a desire to achieve Japanese surrender.

Bombing of Hiroshima

At 2:45 a.m. Monday, a Boeing B-29 Enola Gay took off from Tinian, one of the islands in the northern part of Pacific Ocean, 1500 km from Japan. A team of 12 specialists were on board to ensure how smoothly the mission would go. The crew was commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbetts, who named the aircraft "Enola Gay". That was his own mother's name. Right before takeoff, the name of the plane was written on board.

"Enola Gay" was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber (aircraft 44-86292), as part of a special air group. In order to deliver such a heavy cargo as a nuclear bomb, the Enola Gay was modernized: the latest propellers, engines, and quickly opening bomb bay doors were installed. Such modernization was carried out only on a few B-29s. Despite the modernization of the Boeing, it had to drive the entire runway to gain the speed required for takeoff.

A couple more bombers were flying next to the Enola Gay. Three more planes took off earlier to find out weather conditions over possible goals. A ten-foot (more than 3 meters) long “Little” nuclear bomb was suspended from the ceiling of the plane. In the Manhattan Project (the development of US nuclear weapons), Navy Captain William Parsons took an important part in the development of the atomic bomb. On the Enola Gay plane, he joined the team as a specialist in charge of the bomb. To avoid a possible explosion of the bomb during takeoff, it was decided to place a combat charge on it directly in flight. Already in the air, Parsons exchanged the bomb plugs for combat charges in 15 minutes. As he later recalled: “At the moment when I set the charge, I knew what “Baby” would bring to the Japanese, but I did not feel much emotion about it.

The Baby bomb was created based on uranium-235. It was the result of $2 billion worth of research, but never tested. No nuclear bomb has ever been dropped from an airplane. The US chose 4 Japanese cities for bombing:

• Hiroshima;
• Kokura;
• Nagasaki;
• Niigata.

At first there was also Kyoto, but later it was crossed off the list. These cities were centers of military industry, arsenals, and military ports. The first bomb was going to be dropped to advertise the full power and more impressive importance of the weapon in order to attract international attention and hasten Japan's surrender.

First bombing target

On August 6, 1945, the clouds cleared over Hiroshima. At 8:15 a.m. (local time), the Enola Gay's hatch swung open and the Little One flew toward the city. The fuse was set at a height of 600 meters from the ground, at an altitude of 1900 feet the device detonated. Gunner George Caron described the sight he saw through the rear window: “The cloud was shaped like a mushroom of a seething mass of purple-ash smoke, with a fiery core inside. It looked like lava flows engulfing the entire city."

Experts estimate the cloud rose to 40,000 feet. Robert Lewis recalled: “Where we had clearly seen the city a couple of minutes ago, we could already see only smoke and fire creeping up the sides of the mountain.” Almost all of Hiroshima was razed to the ground. Even three miles away, out of 90,000 buildings, 60,000 were destroyed. The metal and stone simply melted, the clay tiles melted. Unlike many previous bombings, the target of this raid was not just one military installation, but an entire city. The atomic bomb, apart from the military, mostly killed civilians. Hiroshima's population was 350,000, of whom 70,000 died instantly directly from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radioactive contamination over the next five years.

A witness who survived the atomic explosion described: “The people’s skin turned black from burns, they were completely bald, since their hair was burned, it was not clear whether it was the face or the back of the head. The skin on their arms, faces and bodies was hanging down. If there were one or two such people, the shock would not be such a strong one. But wherever I walked, I saw just such people all around, many died right along the road - I still remember them as walking ghosts.”

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

As the people of Japan tried to comprehend the destruction of Hiroshima, the United States was planning a second nuclear strike. It was not delayed so that Japan could surrender, but was carried out immediately three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. On August 9, 1945, another B-29 Bockscar (“Bock machine”) took off from Tinian at 3:49 am. The initial target for the second bombing was supposed to be the city of Kokura, but it was covered by dense clouds. The reserve target was Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m., the second atomic bomb was detonated 1,650 feet above the city.

Fuji Urata Matsumoto, who miraculously survived, spoke about the terrible scene: “The pumpkin field was completely demolished by the explosion. Nothing remained of the entire mass of the harvest. Instead of a pumpkin, there was a woman's head lying in the garden. I tried to look at her, maybe I knew her. The head was of a woman about forty, I have never seen it here, maybe it was brought from another part of the city. A gold tooth gleamed in the mouth, singed hair hung down, the eyeballs were burned and black holes remained.”