WW 2 14 The Atomic Bomb Quiz tomorrow

WW 2 #14: The Atomic Bomb! Quiz – tomorrow / Timeline due Friday / Test – Friday 1. Why did US drop the atomic bomb? 2. Should the US have dropped the atomic bomb?

Pacific Theater • Japanese forced to retreat since Battle of Guadalcanal – but did not give up! • Kamikaze: Japanese suicide pilots – Crash into American ships

• Okinawa: island near Japan, June 1945 – Desperate fight: J loses 110, 000 troops – US loses 12, 500 • US needs to invade Japan BUT feared that it would cost ½ million US lives

President Harry Truman • Had to decide…. – Invade Japan by land & sea – lose ½ million American soldiers and war might continue for months –OR– Use a brand new weapon called the atomic bomb – nuclear bomb that could thousands • Invented by the top secret Manhattan Project

The Decision • US told Japan to surrender or be destroyed • J doesn’t reply

A-Bomb • Aug 6, 1945 – US drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima • 3 days later, another abomb was dropped on Nagasaki

Mushroom Cloud from an A-bomb

Destruction • 70, 000 ppl die immediately • 200, 000 will ultimately die

• Radiation: cancer & other disease causing energy released killing even more • bomb

• “Within a few seconds the thousands of people in the streets and the gardens in the center of town were scorched by a wave of searing heat. Many were killed instantly, others lay writhing on the ground, screaminng in agony from the intolerable pain of their burns. Everything standing upright in the way of the blast, walls, houses, factories, and other buildings were annihilated. ”

V-J Day • Japan surrenders on Sept 2, 1945 • WW 2 is completely over!