Term paper on Atomic Bombs Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)

Atomic Bombs Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

RESOURCE GUIDE

Gauging that an invasion of the Japanese home islands could cost perhaps 1 million American and more Japanese casualties, President Truman opted to use the atomic bomb to end the war with Japan . When the latter refused to surrender after a final American warning of ‘‘prompt and utter destruction,” the B-29 Enola Gay on August 6, 1945 dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima , destroying the city and killing possibly 100,000 persons. Japan did not surrender, and a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. Five days later, the emperor announced that Japan had surrendered.
Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the arguments for and against using the atomic bomb to end the war against Japan .

2. Discuss American public reaction to the use of the bomb.

3. Discuss Japanese recollections of the dropping of the atomic bombs.

4. Analyze the controversy concerning the Smithsonian Institution’s fifty-year commemorative exhibit of the dropping of the bombs on Japan .

5. Discuss the long-range consequences of using the atomic bomb against Japan.

Suggested Sources : See entry 44 for related items.

REFERENCE SOURCES

Louis L. Snyder’s Historical Guide to World War II . Louis L. Snyder. Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1982. A comprehensive collection of articles on major and minor events before, during, and after World War II.

GENERAL SOURCES

Bailey, Janet. The Good Servant: Making Peace with the Bomb at Los Alamos . New York : Simon&Schuster, 1995.

Ball, Howard. Justice Downwind: America ‘s Nuclear Testing Program in the 1950s . London : Oxford University Press, 1986. Information on nuclear testing in the United States during the early cold war period.

Bethe, Hans A. The Road from Los Alamos . New York : Simon&Schuster, 1991. Nontechnical essays that advocate nuclear disarmament, with a focus on weapons research, arms control, and nuclear power. Part of the publisher’s Masters of Modern Physics Series.

Burchett, Wilfred. Shadows of Hiroshima . New York : Verso, 1983. Covers Germany’s nonnuclear program, Potsdam , Los Alamos, and Hiroshima . The author used Morse code to leak the horrors of radiation sickness to the West.

Hafemeister, D. W. Physics, Technology and the Nuclear Arms Race . Baltimore: American Institute of Physics, 1983. Describes the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear weaponry.

Hershberg, James G. James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,

1995. Written by the number two supervisor building the fission bomb, as well as the main opponent of building the fusion weapon.

Smyth, Henry D. Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: The Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940–1945 . (1945). Reprint. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989. The original report surveying the history of the bomb from its development through its use against the Japanese.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Ferrell, Robert H. Harry S. Truman and the Bomb: A Documentary History . Worland, NY: High Plains Publishing, 1996. Examination of his correspondence provides insight into Truman’s situation.

Goldstein, Donald M., et al. Rain of Ruin . McLean, VA: Brassey, 1995. Endorses the idea that the bomb saved American lives by destroying the two Japanese cities. Contains more than 400 black and white photographs.

Hersey, John. Hiroshima . New York: Knopf, 1985. Brings up to date the lives of the six survivors the author covered so brilliantly in 1946; a new edition of a classic work with a final chapter written nearly forty years later.

Leckie, Robert. Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II . New York: Viking, 1995. Covers the controversy over the use of atomic bombs on Japan.

Nagai, Takashi. The Bells of Nagasaki . New York: Kodansha America, 1984. The story of a physician and radiologist and his eyewitness account of the tragedy.

Prentice, Ross L. Atomic Bomb Survivor Data: Utilization and Analysis . Philadelphia: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 1984. Information on the survivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Schull, William J. Effects of Atomic Radiation: A Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki . New York: Wiley-Liss, 1995. Summarizes the largest and longest medical follow-up study known, as well as an eyewitness account of the pertinent events and findings.

———. Song among the Ruins . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990. Documents genetic damage among children of survivors of the atomic bomb. Written under the auspices of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Selden, Kyoko, and Mark Selden. The Atomic Bomb: Voices from Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1990. An excellent pictorial and text containing novellas, photographs, poetry, memoirs, pictures by survivors, and statements by and about children.

Sherwin, Martin J. A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and the Origins of the Arms Race . (1975) Reprint. New York: Vintage, 1987. History of the diplomatic and political circumstances surrounding the development and use of the first atom bomb, with a new introduction and epilogue examining recent developments in the nuclear arms race.

Wyden, Peter. Day One: Before Hiroshima and After . New York: Simon&Schuster, 1984. Synthesizes the literature and interviews both the scientists and the survivors.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Ferrell, Robert N. Harry S. Truman and the Bomb: A Documentary History . Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing, 1996. Insight into the event by one of the leading Truman biographers.

Walker, Samuel J. Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Concise, informative account of Truman and his decision to drop the bomb.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

World War II : The War Chronicles Series. New York: A&E Home Video, 1998. 2 videocassettes. The 140-minute Volume 2 treats ‘‘The War in the Pacific” from Pearl Harbor to the atomic bombing of Japan; condensed version of the 1983 motion picture by Lou Reda Productions.

WORLD WIDE WEB

Ohba, Mitsuru and John Benson. A-Bomb WWW Museum . June 1995. http://www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/index.html A project of Hiroshima City University that provides Japanese perspective. Excellent, informative links such as ‘‘Introduction: About the A-Bomb” and ‘‘The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki.”