Japan's Atomic Bombings

Weapons of mass destruction, explosions that can wipe out cities seem to be unreal. However there is such a thing called the atom bomb. The a-bomb is feared upon countries to this day. People’s opinions are very different about the a-bomb, some believe it is wrong but others may see it as advancement in war technology.

How It Works:
The atom bomb is caused from nuclear reactions. The reactions from the largest bomb detonated created equal the energy of over 50 million tons of TNT.

Nuclear bombs involve the forces that hold the nucleus of an atom together. But some atoms have unstable nuclei. There are two ways that nuclear energy can be released from an atom:

Nuclear fission - splitting the nucleus of an atom into two smaller pieces with a neutron. This procedure usually takes isotopes of uranium (uranium-235, uranium-233) or plutonium-239.

Nuclear fusion - bringing two smaller atoms, usually hydrogen or hydrogen isotopes (deuterium, together to make a larger one (helium or helium isotopes) this is how the sun produces energy.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm

Used For War:
These two bombs were named “Fat Man” and “Little Boy”. On August 6, 1945 little boy was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan containing about 43,000 soldiers. Nearly 70,000 people died from the explosion. After a five year effect the death toll from this bomb has possibly reached over 200,000, from cancer and other radioactive effects. Three days after the little boy bombing, fat man was then dropped onto Nagasaki. Fat man produced an estimated 40 percent more power than the little boy. Around 40,000 people died head on with 60,000 injured. Five years later the bomb created a death toll of around 140,000. Also for every 6 people killed by these bombs, only one belonged in the military the rest were civilians.

http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/nagasaki.htm

http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm

The Effects:
Some killed from these bombings died from long term effects such as radiation sickness. Hospitals did not know how to treat this illness at the time. This led to a bigger chance to get cancer and also psychological effects. But not only people were effected by it, so was the earth. Problems such as fallout, it is weapon debri, fission products, and, in the case of a ground burst, radiated soil. These fallout areas are hazardous to live in.

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Effects/effects17.shtml

There were letters sent to Roosevelt from Albert Einstein, warning the president about future problems of nuclear technology. Problems such as greed for more power, deaths of innocent people, and effects to the earth. Was Einstein right? When will these bombs be used for war again?

http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml