By Erik English, August 5, 2024
By Erik English | August 5, 2024
Nagasaki in November 1945. (US Army Air Forces via japanairraids.org)
The only instances of atomic weapons being used against a civilian population occurred in 1945 at the tail end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, “Little Boy” was detonated above the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, “Fat Man” was detonated above Nagasaki. The aftermath of the bombings was the complete devastation of both cities in which countless numbers of people lost their lives.
In 2020, nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein published original research with the Bulletin, describing the challenges of tabulating the casualties of the bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Without accurate records of the population prior to the bombings, Allied forces and the Japanese government relied on proxy figures to come up with their estimates. Decades later, those estimates were revisited to account for information that was excluded at the time. The result is a recognition that we may never be able to fully account for the devastation of one of the world’s deadliest weapons.
Learn more in the Bulletin’s latest video and read more in Alex Wellerstein’s original piece for the Bulletin, Counting the dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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Make your gift now Keywords: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, WWII, nuclear weaponsThe Bulletin elevates expert voices above the noise. But as an independent, nonprofit media organization, our operations depend on the support of readers like you. Help us continue to deliver quality journalism that holds leaders accountable. Your support of our work at any level is important. In return, we promise our coverage will be understandable, influential, vigilant, solution-oriented, and fair-minded. Together we can make a difference.
A better question would be, "How many American lives were saved by the dropping of these two bombs by not having to send in Allied troops onto the Japanese mainland where a long, protracted, and very bloody war would have continued"? We cannot lose sight of the fact that Japan instigated this Pacific war, and therefore Japanese civilian blood is on the emperor's hands, not the hands of President Truman.
A more pertinent question would be How many lives have been lost, in the US and throughout the world, as a result of nuclear weapons? The number of people who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki pales in comparison to those who have suffered and died while mining of uranium (in America, Yellow Cake Miners); as a result of nuclear tests (in America, Downwinders and Atomic Vets); and as a result of hazardous waste storage -- in American cities like St. Louis, Missouri.
Your premise is false and simply your assumption. I do not defend the nuclear industry as I know he they poisoned us knowingly even resulting in terrible deaths in some cases as well as debilitating conditions to different degrees. But those numbers are known and people damages are compensated by an act of Congress. Well compensated. I am myself a Cold War Warrior enriching ursnuoim for a brief period before developing new plastics that took me into both Russia and China, and my five business ventures to Japan got me to even Hiroshima for a day where Japanese people were friendly and wanted to pose for pictures with me at The Atomic Bomb Dome. No you have it backwards. The losses we incurred pale on comparison to the losses inflicted on on those there. Yet more lost their lives in the fire bombing of Japanese cities. In fact, our losses pale in comparison to the 43,000 highway deaths in fhe US each year. We accept it somehow. We accept that war is war and even cold war is war and people die.
But the original question was US losses to take Japan without the bomb. Those numbers were estimated by our armed services to be 250,000 dead based on our staggering losses at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. This number was unacceptable to the armed forces so they did nicest to do it, and Japan knew it too so they expected some sort of truce. And then Truman became aware of the Msnhstten Project and the bomb which was so suddenly devastating that eventually the Japanese surrendered unconditionally except getting to sort of keep the Emporer and that he would not be prosecuted for war crimes.
A better question would be, “How many American lives were saved by the dropping of these two bombs by not having to send in Allied troops onto the Japanese mainland where a long, protracted, and very bloody war would have continued”? We cannot lose sight of the fact that Japan instigated this Pacific war, and therefore Japanese civilian blood is on the emperor’s hands, not the hands of President Truman.
A more pertinent question would be How many lives have been lost, in the US and throughout the world, as a result of nuclear weapons? The number of people who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki pales in comparison to those who have suffered and died while mining of uranium (in America, Yellow Cake Miners); as a result of nuclear tests (in America, Downwinders and Atomic Vets); and as a result of hazardous waste storage — in American cities like St. Louis, Missouri.
Your premise is false and simply your assumption. I do not defend the nuclear industry as I know he they poisoned us knowingly even resulting in terrible deaths in some cases as well as debilitating conditions to different degrees. But those numbers are known and people damages are compensated by an act of Congress. Well compensated. I am myself a Cold War Warrior enriching ursnuoim for a brief period before developing new plastics that took me into both Russia and China, and my five business ventures to Japan got me to even Hiroshima for a day where Japanese people were… Read more »