Information About Hiroshima Before, During And
After The A-bomb Was Dropped
By: Sarah Skaer, Grade 8
Before
I. Meiji and Taisho Periods
(1868-1926)
In the Meiji period and around the 1890's,
Hiroshima gained a large amount of military responsibility. During the Sino-Japanese War
that lasted from 1894 to 1895, the Imperial Headquarters was moved to Hiroshima. Army
facilities and an important military center were also placed in Hiroshima. Hiroshima had
become an important city in Japan. Not only was Hiroshima becoming known as a military
center, it was also growing in education. Hiroshima was the second city in Japan to have a
higher education school, after Tokyo. Hiroshima became the assembling and dispatching
point for army troops during each of Japan's wars overseas, and related facilities were
added year after year.
2. Showa Period and Wartime
(1925-1945)
Japan's war on the China mainland was
triggered by the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and developed into a full war with China in
1937. Japan opposed the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and other Allied
forces resulting in the attack that the Japanese made on the US military base at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii in December 1941. Because of the war that had suddenly evolved, all of the
factories in Hiroshima had shifted from the manufacturing of civilian goods, to the
manufacturing of military supplies. Many Japanese men served in battle, while women,
children and the old worked in the military factories.
During
The night before the Atomic bombing of
Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, a raid warnings sounded around midnight, but the all-clear
signals were given within two hours. Another air raid sounded at about 7:10 A.M., but this
warning lasted only twenty minutes. Since the all-clear signal had been given, people went
to work. The middle school and older students worked at factories or removed debris. An
estimated 8,400 students were scheduled to work on building demolition on the day of the
bombing. There were no vacations for any of the schools because of the labor that was
needed. Elementary school students who were above third grade were evacuated to the
countryside. This left the young and older children in Hiroshima.
No one in Hiroshima had been aware of the
horrors that lay ahead. The Enola Gay arrived in Hiroshima and released the first ever
nuclear weapon used in war: the A-bomb. The A-bomb exploded 500 meters above the Nakajima
district of the city and completely destroyed Hiroshima leaving only a few buildings
standing and thousands of people suffering.
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| Hypocenter
before the bomb was dropped. A-bomb dome is top center-right |
Hypocenter
after the bomb was dropped. A-Bomb Dome is top center-right |
Daniel
Seltz, a guest speaker from Hiroshima University who talked about the A-bomb |
After
At the end of 1945, about 140,000 people had
died as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima. Leukemia and other various kinds of cancer
were the most common diseases many of the Hiroshima survivors became afflicted with.
Leukemia, one kind of cancer, caused white blood cells to produce in such quantities that
the affected person had no protection against any other type of disease. Some of the
babies that were conceived during the time of the bombing lived, but unfortunately, the
majority died. The ones that did live seemed to have a shorter life span than the
unaffected children. Microcephaly, smaller-than-normal skull, also occurred in common
cases. As far as genetic effects went, there were none.
The survivors and Hiroshima residents built
temporary shelters in Hiroshima and eventually rebuilt their city with peace in mind.
Glossary
Yellow alert: Signal that enemy aircraft
is approaching.
Air raid warning: Warning that enemy
aircraft will drop bombs or fire-bombs.
Student mobilization: Policy under which
students in middle school and above were conscripted to work in military factories or at
demolition sites due to a shortage of labor.
Building demolition work: To minimize
damage from air raids, buildings in certain areas were destroyed to established fire
lanes.
Evacuation of children: Policy under which
public elementary school children in the third grade and above were moved to towns in the
countryside in groups or to homes of relatives or friends to escape air raids.
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DEATHS CAUSED BY THE A-BOMB
(From The Outline Of Atomic Bomb Damage In Hiroshima.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum:Hiroshima.
1994)
Even today, it is difficult to come up with an
exact estimate of the total number of people killed by the atomic bomb. At that time,
there were fluctuations in Hiroshima's population due to the presence of military
personnel and evacuations, but it's believed that approximately 280,000~290,000 civilians
lived in the city and approximately 40,000 military personnel were stationed there.
However, as the city was destroyed in an instant, records indicating the population and
number of households were lost in the ensuing fires. Also, due to the confusion after the
bombing, thorough surveys were not conducted at that time.
Casualties from the bomb do not only include
those killed immediately. Of those citizens who managed to survive through the initial
bombing, as well as those who entered the city after the bombing and were contaminated by
radiation, many died later. Even now, a number of surveys are still being conducted and
efforts are continuing to clarify the number of people who died, the number exposed to the
bombing and the state of the city afterwards.
The number of people who were directly exposed
to the atomic bomb, including military personnel, citizens, national volunteers and
residents of surrounding areas mobilized to work in the city, is estimated to be over
350,000. Many Koreans are included in this figure. These people were forcefully recruited
to supplement Japan's labor shortage. They worked in factories that supplied the military
and many of their family members were with them in the city. There were other foreigners
as well, including exchange students from China and other countries in Southeast Asia and
prisoners of war from the US forces.
In addition to injuries from the intense heat
rays and blast, damage to the human body by the atomic bomb also included the destruction
of cells by radiation. Thus, the effects of the A-bomb span a long period of time, and the
total number of deaths varies depending on the time when the calculation is made.
A number of figures have been publicly
announced regarding the total number of dead, but at this point Hiroshima City estimates
the number who died by December 1945, when acute illnesses subsided, at 140,000
(+/-10,000). This figure was officially published in material submitted by the city of
Hiroshima to the United Nations in 1976.
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Reflection
on the Peace Park and A-bomb Museum
By: Ryan Sattler, Grade 7
The Hiroshima Peace Park and A-Bomb museum
both contain lot of important and interesting artifacts, monuments and pieces of
information. They are very informative about the war and the peace process and remind us
of the danger of nuclear weapons and the need to prevent them from being used again.
The A-bomb dome is the remnant of the
industrial exhibition hall in Hiroshima. It is a reminder of the war's terrible effect in
the past and is a symbol of support for peace in the future. The museums exhibits showed
what was happening around the time the bomb was dropped and what it was like in the city
alter the bomb was dropped. It tells the world what the people went through.
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| Hiroshima
A-Bomb Museum |
The museum was very
informative. I learned many things, including which countries currently had nuclear
weapons and how many they had from the big globe, as well as how badly Hiroshima was
destroyed, from the before and alter models. I learned of Hiroshima's peace efforts and
it's attempt to get the world to destroy all of it's nuclear weapons. I also learned
general information about the bomb,. including how it worked and how it was delivered. I
hadn't realized before coming to Japan how bad the damage to the city was and how many
people died. The museum told me a lot, but it was hard to get the full picture. I also
learned the story of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes, and I saw the statue of her.
It was sad to see how many people died, but as
I said before, it was hard to grasp the full extent of what happened. I think it was good
how well Hiroshima recovered and how it gained a positive attitude about preventing more
bombs from being used.
One question I felt the museum left unanswered
was the reason that the United States dropped the bomb. Overall the museum seemed a little
one sided, not going into a lot of detail about what happened before the bomb, but it
wasn't too bad.
In the main part of the museum I found the
items the dead people left behind very interesting, but the model of people with their
skin melted off was gross. The exhibits showed what people were doing at the time of the
bomb well, but it would have been better if the exhibits had said more about the people
who the objects belonged to. It was also interesting the way the a-bomb dome was damaged,
with the frame of the dome still there.
The museum and the park were very interesting
and informative, and the exhibits and statues were nicely presented. The park and museum
are good for people who don't know much about the bomb and they are a good reminder of
what happened.
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