Hiroshima and Nagasaki | Why USA destroyed Japan? | WW2 | Dhruv Rathee

Hello, friends! 6th August 1945, summer was in full force in Japan's Hiroshima city. It was a pleasant day, the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

A typical Monday morning. At 8 AM, people were arriving at their offices, children were at school, in their first period of the day. Meanwhile, some people spotted an American Boeing B-29 aircraft in the sky.

At 8:15 AM, something fell out of the aircraft. From a distance, people couldn't figure out what it was. The thing falling out of the aircraft.

Not even in their dreams could they have imagined that it was an atomic bomb. 43 Seconds. It was in freefall for exactly 43 seconds.

After that, in the blink of an eye, it was all over. Thousands of people in the city saw a blinding light in the last seconds of their life. The bomb blast created an instant fireball.

As if the sun descended on Earth. The temperatures reached 4,000°C. In the blink of an eye, 80,000 people were killed.

This will lead you to the impertinent question Why was the bomb dropped? Come, in today's video let us understand the story of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "From the genius of man, a new age is born.

with the roar of thunder, and the fire of the Sun. " At 8:15 in the morning of the August 6th, the first atomic bomb struck mankind. " "In this instant, Robert Oppenheimer, recalls a passage from the sacred book of the Hindus.

" "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. " Our story began during the second world war. This war broke out in 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland.

One by one, other countries were roped into this war. WWII was being fought between two major alliances. With the Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan on one side, known as the Axis Powers, And the Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States on the other side.

Known as the Allied Powers or the Allies. Countries like France and China were also part of the Allies. But initially, America was trying its best to stay out of the War.

After the devastating results of WWI, America had decided that it wouldn't interfere in conflicts in Europe and Asia. To stay out of it. But in 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, forcing the US to join this war.

"It seems the unprovoked attack by Japan on Sunday, is a State of War. It has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. " It is important to understand things from Japan's context.

Whenever World War II is discussed, we focus mostly on Germany and Hitler. We don't talk about Japan. The thing is, during the early 1900s, Imperialism was seen in Japan.

Similar to how Britain, France, and other European countries were annexing other countries, colonising them, Japan was doing the same. Similar to how India was a part of the British Empire, till 1940, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Eastern areas of China, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, were a part of the Japanese Empire. The Japanese colonisers talked of a Greater Asia.

To build an Asia that'd be united. But that was just the front. In reality, just like other colonisers, they captured the land to exploit the resources.

To benefit only themselves. Their first major expansion was in 1931, capturing the Manchuria region in Northern China. They planned on going further, to capture the areas under the Soviet Union, in Mongolia.

In the South, they planned on capturing the areas of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The thing about the South was that the present-day countries of Vietnam and Cambodia, were a part of the French Empire back then. Known as the French Indo-China.

Since Japan wanted to capture them, they had to defeat the French Empire first. This happened in 1940. They declared a war on France and captured these areas.

But doing so made Japan a participant in WWII. While Hitler was declaring wars and annexing territories in various countries, Japan was doing the same in Asia. America saw this, but they still didn't want to interfere in the war, by using their military, But they had to do something to stop them.

So they decided to opt for some economic actions. So America stopped exporting essential materials to Japan such as Copper, Iron, and Steel. Hoping that this would deter Japan's expansion scheme.

But this doesn't happen. In response, America stops selling oil to Japan, Back then, oil was an extremely important resource for Japan. 80% of the oil in Japan was imported from America.

America said that they would resume selling oil to Japan only on one condition, they would need to withdraw from the Chinese areas occupied by them, and break their alliance with Germany and Italy. But doing so would mean the Japanese dream of creating a Greater Asia, would have to be squashed by the Japanese Emperor. Thus they decided to ignore America's warnings and look for other options.

They saw that the areas of Malaysia and Indonesia, were a good producer of oil and other resources. They planned on capturing these areas and drilling for their oil needs. Ending their dependency on America.

But there was a problem. Back then, Indonesia was Dutch East Indies. Under Dutch control.

And Malaysia was British Malay. Under British control. British and Dutch both were America's allies.

Even if Japan attacked these countries, it would mean that America might attack them. To defend its allies. There was a chance that America wouldn't attack.

But Japan also planned on capturing the Philippines, which was American territory back then, America had occupied and colonised the Philippines. America would definitely attack Japan then, when they would actively try to steal their territories. How would the dream of Greater Asia be fulfilled without the Philippines?

Japan was left with only one option. They would need to occupy and colonise these areas. And in case America decided to attack them, they would need to be silenced first.

Japan knew that America's strength was much more than theirs. In case of a drawn-out war, Japan knew they would lose. But if they stealthily attack the military bases in America, to destroy their fighter jets and vessels, they believed that America would not be able to attack them anymore.

With this thought, on 7th December 1941, Japan conducted a surprise attack on US's Pearl Harbour Bay. "December 7th, 1941, the Jap raiders are on the loose. Without warning, they attacked Pearl Harbour in the city of Honolulu.

A surprise attack born of infamy. " More than 350 aircraft of the Japanese Navy, attacked and bombed the harbour and within 2 hours, 19 US Navy Ships, 188 military aircraft, and more than 2,000 US Military personnel were killed. Within hours, Japan went ahead and captured the Philippines.

But realistically speaking, this was a reckless step by Japan. Children think like this. Attacking someone first so that they won't attack you, and then capturing their territory.

And thinking that you're safe because they had said that they wouldn't interfere in the war. But obviously, if you capture the territory of a country like the USA, and attack their military base, you can't actually expect them to remain inactive. Predictably, in response, America declared that they too would take part in the war.

America declared war against Japan. This was when America officially became involved in WWII. After this, Britain and China declare war against Japan too.

Seeing this happen, Nazi Germany and Italy declared a war on the USA three days later. By the end of 1941, WWII was in full swing. All major countries had declared war on one another.

Now, without going into too many details about the actual war, we come to the surrender of Italy in 1943. Then on 30th April 1945, Hitler commits suicide by shooting himself. Germany surrendered thereafter.

Among the Axis Powers, Japan was the only one to not surrender. Despite continual losses, the Japanese Emperor wasn't willing to surrender. At this point, it will be quite interesting to get into the details of Japanese Fascism.

Friends, the thing was that the common folks in Japan were being highly brainwashed. The incumbent Japanese Emperor was Hirohito, People were told that Hirohito was a blessing from the Gods. People literally compared him to God.

They would blindly believe whatever he said. If they didn't they were considered to be traitors. Since the Japanese Emperor said that colonising other countries was for their good, it must be correct.

When they went to war, they believed that it was for a good purpose. Anyone opposing the war in Japan, were hunted down and executed. Additionally, some Japanese cultures and traditions, were being modified in a way to manipulate people.

For example, their Bushido Samurai tradition. According to this Bushido tradition, Samurais have to be aware of death at all times. They should think of it as The End, Nor should they fear it.

But they modified this tradition and presented it to the people that a true Samurai is one who is willing to die for the Emperor. One who considers dying for the Emperor to be the greatest honour, and surrendering to the enemies as humiliation. If people are brainwashed so, people will be willing to lay down their lives.

Friends, this is what happened. named the Kamikaze. These pilots were tasked with crashing their fighter jets into the warships of the enemy.

Sacrificing themselves. In simpler words, suicide bombings. Not only this, children were being trained to carry an explosive with them, and to lie down in front of the tanks, so that they sacrifice themselves in an attempt to destroy the tanks.

Can you imagine the level of brainwashing people? Obviously, not everyone was brainwashed. There are some heartbreaking stories from the Kamikaze pilots about how on the night before their mission, they would cry and write letters to their family.

Asking if what they were tasked with was really for the benefit of the country. Or for themselves. America and other Allied countries were hoping that since unemployment was at an all-time high in Japan due to the war, where people had nothing to eat, people starving all around, they hoped that the citizens would revolt against their Emperor, pressuring him to surrender.

But this did not happen. America could see only one way forward. Conducting a full-scale invasion of Japan.

Sending their military to Japan to overthrow the emperor. And so America planned Operation Downfall. The last major war between America and Japan was the Battle of Okinawa.

From 1st April 1945 to 22nd June 1945. On the map, you can see the Okinawa Islands south of Japan. America sent its military to physically capture the islands.

And to remove any obstacle they may encounter. After which they would begin their full-scale invasion, Operation Downfall. But the Battle of Okinawa shocked America.

The Japanese people weren't willing to give up. Every person was ready to fight till their last breath. Even the last person standing was fighting to their very end.

There were continual Kamikaze attacks. One suicide bomb after the other. There was no intention of surrendering.

This made defeating the Japanese forces really difficult. This is why the Battle of Okinawa is known as the bloodiest battle in the Pacific. Eventually, America won this battle but at a huge cost.

12,000 American soldiers were killed. More than 50,000 were injured. On the other hand, 110,000 Japanese soldiers were killed.

The people living in Okinawa are known as Okinawans. In this battle, more than 100,000 Okinawans were killed. One-fourth population of the island.

25% of the people living in the islands laid down their lives. Seeing these statistics, the American military heads thought that this would be a hindrance to their Operation Downfall. If they sent their army and their forces, they may theoretically win, but at what cost?

12,000 of their soldiers were killed in just one small island. If they tried to capture other Japanese islands, trying to defeat them on-ground in close battles, many of their soldiers would be killed. Many Japanese soldiers will also be killed, it was simply unimaginable.

The war would be long drawn, because the Japanese citizens were so brainwashed they wouldn't be ready to surrender. America and the allies knew that they would have to use some other way to force Japan to surrender. 12th April 1945, the then US President Franklin D Roosevelt, he was the POTUS all through WWII, he passed away.

Vice President Harry Truman became the new POTUS. The responsibility to find a solution to the Japanese wars fell on him. He considered various options.

Negotiating with the Japanese Emperor Hirohito for peace, but they assumed that it wouldn't work because the Emperor refused to surrender. He had made it clear much before. Around this time, he came to know about a top-secret US Military Project.

The Manhattan Project. Several scientists were secretly developing the first atom bomb in the world. On 16th July 1945, the atom bomb was tested, at a bombing range in New Mexico.

This test was successful. Truman believed that he had found a solution. He discussed this with his other military heads and top government officials, how they could deploy this bomb.

They decided to give the last warning to Japan before the atomic bomb was deployed. 26th July 1945, Potsdam Declaration. The Presidents of the US and China, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, came together to demand Japan's unconditional surrender.

They warn that in case Japan doesn't surrender, It would result in prompt and utter destruction. Without specifying what they meant by 'destruction'. Not even in the wildest dreams could the Japanese people have imagined, that a weapon like an atomic bomb even existed.

By July 1945, it is said that the Anti-War sentiments among the masses in Japan were quite high. People were tired with these constant wars. They were starving to death.

There was unemployment, the economic situation was terrible. But they could not oppose their military and the Emperor, until the military decided to support them. The Japanese Emperor might have been ready to surrender if he was assured that he could continue to be in power in the occupied territories.

But America wanted unconditional surrender. On 29th July 1945, Japan rejected this Potsdam Declaration. After this, on 3rd August, US President Harry Truman authorised the atom bomb being dropped on Japan.

6th August 1945, Boeing B-29 aircraft flew over the city of Hiroshima. This aircraft was carrying the Little Boy atom bomb. Quite an ironic name for the first atomic bomb in the world.

One that was used in warfare. Little boy. At 8:15 A.

M. this bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And America became the first and only country in the world to use nuclear weapons.

The people present in Hiroshima that day the ones who survived this bombing, tell a painful tale. They said that there was first a blinding light that literally blinded people temporarily. Just after that, came a blast so loud, that many survivors suffered permanent hearing loss.

Followed by the temperature of 4,000°C on the ground that instantly vapourised people in the radius. This happened so quickly, that only the shadows of people remained. The black shadow permanently stuck to the rocks.

We can still see these. The people who weren't instantly killed, couldn't comprehend what happened around them. Before they could understand this, the shockwaves of the blast followed.

The temperature changes led to strong winds blowing that almost created a hurricane. The debris from homes, glass pieces, everything was flying all around. When the wind calmed after some minutes, people looked up at the sky.

They could see only black toxic dust. It was unbelievable. Where 15 minutes ago, they could see a beautiful blue sunny sky, it was covered in black toxic fumes by then.

70% of the buildings in Hiroshima were wiped out. The city wasn't a city anymore. Look at these satellite images, before and after the bombing.

I won't go into the details of the corpses found there because the details are very disturbing. All I would say is that the skin was peeling off. People were so dehydrated that they were in agony.

About half an hour after the bomb blast, it started raining. People thought it would bring some relief but in reality, the toxic dust in the air had mixed with the moisture, and formed clouds. This wasn't normal rain.

Each drop of rain was black. Grease was dripping from the sky. This was poisonous.

Normally, when a disaster strikes a city, doctors and ambulances reach there to help people. But here, 90% of healthcare workers were killed in the blast. As many hospitals were destroyed.

Who would help these people? The people who didn't die instantly, many of them died some days, weeks, or months later due to radiation sickness. I talked about this in detail in the video on Chernobyl.

You can watch it if you want to know the details. After this bomb blast, it is said that the fanatics in the Japanese military refused to even conduct a meeting. To them this was insignificant.

It was another bomb, albeit a bigger bomb. To them, there was no need to surrender. The Japanese emperor still refused to surrender.

In response, three days later, on 9th August 1945, America dropped another atom bomb. This time, on Nagasaki. Around 11 AM, another Boeing B-29 aircraft flew over Nagasaki carrying an even more powerful bomb.

The Fat Man. The mushroom cloud formed by this bomb blast was much bigger. It killed 40,000 people immediately, and a radius of 6.

7 km² in the city was thoroughly destroyed. Though the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki was more powerful, this time, there were fewer casualties. There were several reasons for this.

First, when other cities came to know about Hiroshima, People were already given pamphlets warning them that something similar may happen in their city as well. People were better prepared. People had moved out from the city centre to the outskirts.

Additionally, there were hills around Nagasaki. The hills lessened the impact of the explosion. Hiroshima was on flat ground, there were no hills, so it had to face a higher impact.

In total, in these two bombings, 200,000 people were killed. 95% of these people were actually civilians. The common people.

Not the military personnel. After this, the Japanese Supreme Council finally met, to discuss the surrender. Some people were finally scared that America would continue bombing the cities if they do not surrender.

But many members of the Council were still completely against the surrender. When the Council voted on the surrender, the result was tied at 3:3. 3 people were in favour and 3 against it.

What next? The Japanese Emperor was asked to be the tie-breaker. And finally, Emperor Hirohito agreed to surrender.

The atom bombs weren't the only reason for the surrender. The thing was that a few hours before the bombing in Nagasaki, the Soviet Union had declared a war on Japan too. The region of Manchuria in North China that I mentioned earlier in the video, it was already occupied by Japan, the Soviet Union declared war there, and occupied this area.

On one hand, the USA was bombing their cities, on the other hand the Soviet Union was also attacking them. Additionally, in their occupied territories in Japan and South East Asia, people were getting increasingly infuriated. These are the reasons why Emperor Hirohito finally decided to surrender.

"The time is 9:05 AM, the Japanese have been on board for exactly 10 minutes. " Some of the Japanese military personnel were angry at this. They didn't want this surrender.

So they tried to stage a coup against the Emperor. But the coup was unsuccessful. On 15th August 1945, after this surrender, the second world war was officially over.

About 7 years after this, The Allies occupied Japan. Their occupation continued till 1952, during which the conditions of the surrender were negotiated. A new constitution was adopted in Japan, democracy was established, and the status of the Japanese Emperor, continued as a figurehead.

There is still an Emperor of Japan but without any powers. The total cost of the destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was $970 million. Their rebuilding and restoration began almost immediately.

Volunteers from other cities came in to rebuild the cities. This story deserves its recognition about how the cities were restored beautifully that if you visit these cities now, you won't even know that these cities were once attacked by a nuclear bomb. The people who suffered from the radiation, obviously, their lives were altered forever.

They were disabled. Their children were born with disabilities. The chances of getting cancer increased.

But thankfully, one good news to come from here is that the long-term radiation levels weren't very harmful. At least not as harmful as it is in Chernobyl. Sometime later, the city was struck by a typhoon, after the typhoon, the radiation levels dropped down.

Another reason for this is a nuclear bomb works differently than a nuclear power plant. I talked about this in the Chernobyl video too. But the biggest question to arise here is that From US's perspective, was it justified to drop the atom bomb?

And killing 200,000 people. Whether the decision was right or wrong, today, to comment on the morality of this question is not as easy as you might think. American President Harry Truman never apologised for these bombings.

Neither did he show any regret. "Well, I thought it was a blessing. And I thought it could be used to make a blessing.

I never worried about this being a curse I wanted a weapon that would win the war, and it did. That's what I was interested in. " Because he, along with many other US Diplomats and Military officials believed that the bombings were a necessity.

That they had no other option. They argue that America was left with only 2 options to end the war. First, Operation Downfall.

And the second, dropping the nuclear bombs. The original plan of most military officials was to carry out Operation Downfall, but after the Battle of Okinawa, they found that many people would die in these battles. The Japanese people weren't ready to surrender.

They were willing to the last man standing. After the battle, America estimated that it would take at least 10 years and the lives of 1 million soldiers, if they continued trying to fight the Japanese Army on the ground. Their perspective was that 200,000 people were killed by the atom bomb, though is it not an insignificant number, 200,000 people are much less than 1 million US soldiers.

As far as radiation was concerned, they claim that they weren't aware of any long-lasting effects of the nuclear bombs. That people would contract diseases due to it later. That people would suffer radiation sickness later.

The scientists of the Manhattan Project knew about the amount of radiation released. But they didn't know the impact it has on human bodies. It was never tested in detail.

America's argument was simply that they chose to kill 200,000 people rather than suffer the deaths of 1 million US soldiers. But many critics argue that America had several other options. First and foremost it is said that if they had to force the Japanese military to surrender, why would they bomb cities with 95% civilians?

They could have bombed a Japanese island where there were only military facilities. They could still be threatened with the consequences and made to surrender. The US Military's counter-argument is that the Japanese military was so brainwashed that they would not have surrendered at any cost.

If they didn't surrender after Hiroshima was bombed, why would they have surrendered after the bombing of a small island? Experts also claim that the US couldn't test out more nuclear bombs because they had only two readily available bombs. And two were being manufactured.

So they had to choose a place where they could be certain that there'd be some action. The second argument against the bombing was that hours before the bombing of Nagasaki, the Soviet Union had already invaded Japan. And Japan would have surrendered when it saw that they were being attacked by the US and the Soviet Union from both sides.

At least the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the second atom bomb, was utterly pointless. There was no need for it. America simply had to wait for some time.

Some experts also argue that the atom bombs weren't the real reason behind Japan's surrender. The invasion by the Soviet Union was the real reason. And the third and final argument here is the moral dilemma.

Who gave the US President the right to choose to kill 200,000 people over the potential death of 1 million US soldiers? It is very easy to decide while sitting in his office thousands of miles ago to choose the option with fewer deaths, but would he have chosen the same decision had his family been in Hiroshima or Nagasaki? Would he still have chosen to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though his family was there to save 1 million potential lives by killing 200,000 people.

A US Psychologist says that to avoid this dilemma, there should be a volunteer on whom the nuclear codes could be embedded. When the US President thinks that nuclear weapons need to be used, the President should then have to murder the volunteer with his own hands, to get to the nuclear codes. Because politicians like to use the argument that they do something because fewer people would be killed by it than by not doing it.

So if the US President thinks that it is needed to deploy nuclear weapons to save people he would have to pick up the knife and kill the volunteer. Because the sacrifice of one person would be justified to save thousands. You should think about these.

This is beautifully depicted in a film, Eye in the Sky (2015) it beautifully depicts this moral dilemma. Friends, what do you think? After getting to know the entire story, what do you think?

Was it justified from America's perspective? To drop atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Was this decision right or wrong?

Comment below and let me know. This is a highly debated topic even today. A survey was conducted in 1991, where Americans were asked the same thing, 63% of Americans believed that these bombings were justified.

When the same question was asked to the Japanese people, only 29% of Japanese people believe that the bombings were justified. But you can still see that the number isn't at 0% in Japan, And the number is not at 100% in America. Because this isn't an easy question.

A good thing was that this was a lesson to the world to not use nuclear weapons. The devastating impact of these isn't warranted by any country on any person. Thankfully, till now, no other country has used nuclear bombs since then.

Hopefully, even in the future, it would continue the same. I hope you found this video as informative as always. If you like this, you can watch the video on Chernobyl, And the one on the French Revolution.

You can also understand the Cuba Missile crisis in detail. I have made many such detailed videos on historical events. Thank you very much!