01 Defining Hiroshima

Defining Hiroshima: Dropping of “the most destructive explosive ever devised by man.” The quote above is from a leaflet that was dropped on several Japanese cities, warning the people within to evacuate. No such warning fell on the people of Hiroshima: that was the site of the first of the two uses of the atomic bomb. Historians have debated the necessity, as have students in a classroom studying world history. Whether or not the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was necessary, on August 6, 1945, by the word of President Harry Truman, the city of Hiroshima felt the wrath of science. Hiroshima is synonymous with the mentality of Harry Truman; he was a simple man who saw the world in black and white. Truman was told by his advisors (Leslie Groves among them) that the dropping of the bomb would end World War II with as little American casualties as possible. Little or no talk of ethics took place, as Truman believed that the simple answer to the conflict was in the grasp of the United States. Hiroshima was the result of this “quick fix” for the war. For the eighty thousand plus who died instantly as the extreme blast from “Little Boy” spread quickly overhead and through the streets, it was over before they knew it. This seems a merciful fate when coupled with the deaths and mutations that countless victims suffered from radiation poisoning years after the bomb fell. So what is Hiroshima? A blunder of men, perhaps. A killer blow to fell the enemy instead of peace talks. The opening of a new era. Whatever one considers it, in finality, one must also see the whole of the bombing, what it was and what it means today.