Hiroshima: We Dropped the Bomb, Now What?

By Lauren Mims

        World War II is remembered by hundreds of thousands of people and is honored by millions more all over the world. This battle of the nations was one of the most influential and impactful turning points of American history. With tragedies like the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, and countless lives lost on both sides of the battlefield the American government did many things to try to downplay what was easily the largest attack on foreign soil that the United States had ever seen and would hopefully never see again; the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 would change the war game entirely with the drop of the atomic bomb. After the dropping of both bombs, America’s economy and society would be completely changed along with the way of Japanese life forever.

        German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission in Nazi Germany in December of 1938.1 This discovery would ultimately become one of the most dangerous and politically desired projects seen in history. “No one had ever seen such an energetic reaction: fire one low-energy neutron into a uranium atom and the atom split apart and released a burst of energy 10 million times as intense.”1 Very shortly after the release of this discovery a select few of scientists realized how dangerous this could be if put in the wrong hands. The group quickly warned Franklin Roosevelt, one of the scientists being Albert Einstein. After acquiring this knowledge, a large amount of effort was put into research and essentially trying to beat the Germans to the technology. October 1941 the Manhattan Project was put into place and would soon change the world.1 Secret cities were set up in rural Tennessee where not even the majority of the residents knew what they were doing there,

“Ordinary citizens worked and socialized with Ph.D.s and Nobel laureates, without ever knowing their background. Everyone, who lived and worked there, knew we were on an important war mission, but no one seemed to know what, or that the mission had been given top priority by the White House. The Vice President, Harry Truman, didn’t know. The Tennessee governor didn’t even know he had a new town in his state until it was already sealed off and under construction.”2 

The above statement is from an unpublished article by Nancy B. Mims, a resident of Oak Ridge, Tennessee also known as “The Atomic City.”2 Mims describes the factories where the bomb was being harvested in as “...tucked behind ridges and built well away from the town and from one another, guarded and patrolled 24 hours a day...huge, windowless, silent block buildings that never shut down.”2  Her time spent there lasted only a few years, but she claims to have received the best high school education there, despite the “holding ponds next to them that glowed in the dark from nuclear waste.”2 However, it was in Los Alamos, New Mexico where the nuclear materials were being sent to build the actual bombs that would be eventually called “Fat Man” and “Little Boy.”1

        In New Mexico, scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team were hard at work creating the two bombs with “baseball-size cores of uranium or plutonium to deliver explosions equivalent to thousands of tons of TNT.”1 On July 16th, 1945 the first test of Fat Man was deployed, physicist I. I. Rabi said this after the test, “‘A new thing had just been born; a new control; a new understanding of man, which man had acquired over nature.’”1 A truer interpretation of the event could not be found.

Aside from the considerable damage the bomb created in Japan, this weapon would have quite the effect on American economy. The research and production of the bombs ended up costing somewhere around two billion dollars, but also employed over 100,000 people.3 “It cost as much to make the first three bombs as it would cost two decades later to send men to the moon.”1 The war created tons of jobs for both men and women, so after the bomb dropped and ultimately pushed Japan, and eventually America’s European foes, into surrender America experienced a spike in good economy. Rations and poverty had been common throughout the United States due to the Depression and then the transition into wartime, but the biggest proof in history that can be seen of economical growth is the baby boomers. The baby boom was essentially the period of time between 1946 to 1964 when over 78 million babies were born, “the largest demographic spike in the nation’s history.”4 To compare wartime spending and post-war spending Cecil Bohanon points out that in 1944 government spending was at 55% of gross domestic product, but by 1947 it lowered by “75 percent in real terms, or from 55 percent of GDP to just over 16 percent of GDP.”5 Some believed that the drop would have violent outcomes on the economy, but it instead led to a real consumption rate of 22 percent and spending on durable goods doubled.5 Factories that had their hands in war supplies switched over to household items and people were buying. The most important proof of economical growth that can be seen is the employment rate. Before the war unemployment rates were in the double digits, during the war unemployment was at about 1.9%, and after the war it only raised to 3.9%.5 “As economist Robert Higgs points out, ‘It was no miracle to herd 12 million men into the armed forces and attract millions of men and women to work...during the war. The real miracle was to reallocate a third of the total labor force...in just two years.’”5 The dropping of the bomb was the driving force to end the war that would lead to one of the most prosperous times in American history.

The impact the dropping of the bomb had on American culture and society is easily one of the most defining points of the history of post-World War II. From that point on, the playing field of warfare would be completely different and society knew that. Generally, as can be seen from the lack of approval in the headlines of newspapers, American’s were not thrilled about the bombs dropping. Many understood that it was a part of warfare, but as William O. Morse writes in a letter to the editor of The New York Times, “‘Hiroshima is (or was) a manufacturing and distribution center and the military bombing of it is obvious...We as a nation are not to blame....”6 While American’s were understanding of how detrimental the damage was for Japan, society decided to focus their attention on how the atomic bomb was a successful discovery. Many felt that the bomb would end all wars, but in reality it created a silent mass hysteria that would plague many nations, but mostly America. During wartime it was very common for schools to implement some kind of safety to prevent casualties from air raids or other attacks in America, but once the war had ended such practices did not for fear of an atomic bomb being dropped on American soil.

In an article in the Saturday Evening Post published in 1954, many years after the bombs had been dropped, a detailed plan was released for what a suburban Washington, D.C. school would do if an atomic bomb were to be dropped in the area. The article has five main points believed to be the best course of action, “Point I. Install a good warning system.”7 Researchers believed that if the bomb were to be dropped in the city it would still greatly affect the surrounding areas, but if given at least thirty minutes warning many could survive the impact. “Point II. Adopt procedures to be followed in case of attack.”7        

By this they mean that if a bomb should be dropped students and staff need to know what to do immediately. The biggest concern is the heat wave and shattering pulse that will be sent from the drop point. Students were taught that they should quickly drop to the floor and try to cover any exposed skin. “Point III. Organize and train teams of students to cope with a disaster.”7 This point would require that groups of students would essentially be put in charge, previous to any kind of threat, to manage other students, administer CPR and first aide, to send radio messages, and some “forty have had fire-fighting training or experience”7 to help put out fires that the bomb may cause. “Point IV. Acquire emergency equipment.”7 After a plan is originally set in place schools and school district office buildings would need to be stocked with supplies and lists of students with skills that could be useful in a post-attack situation. “Point V. Test this emergency plan with a full-scale rehearsal.”7 The creator of this five point plan, Dr. John Balloch, believed that point five should be implemented as often as fire drills to ensure that students, staff, and the community as a whole were prepared for the imminent atomic bomb threat.

Aside from the fear of safety that America lived in for many years after the bomb dropped, the nation experienced an amazing growth in their economy backed up by a new kind of patriotism that would become iconic. However, it can not go without being said that the bomb also had an even larger effect on Japan’s society and economy. In the book Hiroshima the lives of six people that survived the bomb are narrated. The author writes mostly of the destruction and trouble that each survivor faces and ends with each of their lives after one year,

“Miss Sasaki was a cripple; Mrs. Nakamura was destitute; Father Kleinsorge was back in the hospital; Dr. Sasaki was not capable of the work he had once done; Dr. Fujii had lost the thirty-room hospital it took him many years to acquire, and no prospects of rebuilding it; Mr. Tanimoto’s church had been ruined and he no longer had his exceptional vitality.”8

Forty years after the story was published in The New York Times another chapter was added before being published as a book. In this final chapter the author returned to Japan to find out what happened to the six survivors. Hersey came back to an a much more thriving economy, but one that had become hostile towards those affected by the bomb. If someone were to have “A-bomb sickness”8 they were often not hired, because they could not work as well as others. Eventually, however, activists created legislature that would provide medical care towards those suffering so that they would not starve to death from lack of employment. This legislature was called “A-Bomb Victims Medical Care Law”8 Many of the survivors were able to get some of their lives back together, half of them suffered from the sickness, but were able to still continue making money. Mostly, the biggest issue they faced were the memories of the destruction and casualties following the months after the bombs were dropped.
        In conclusion, the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki greatly affected America socially and economically. The bomb was an extremely game-changing discovery for scientists all over the world and would ultimately change the way militaries look at warfare for the rest of time. America’s economy was able to grow exponentially post-war after dealing with the Depression and wartime rationing and while America became much more patriotic, many lived in fear for years that there would be an atomic attack on U.S. soil. Japan was eventually able to rebuild, but the horrendous tragedy that those who survived had to face had lasting effects on the country as a whole. The use of the A-bomb in World War II may have been one of the only option that the American government could employ and that decision certainly changed the course of history.