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American History-Hiroshima and Memory

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Submitted By shien87
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Hiroshima and memory
Background
During the final stage of World War II 1945, the United States conducted the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Such events are the only use of nuclear weapons in the world. The atomic bombs were created by the Manhattan Project, which was a research and development program established by the United States with the United Kingdom and Canada that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II.
The United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945 by threatening Japan with “prompt and utter destruction”. However, such ultimatum was ignored by the Japanese government. Thus, two nuclear weapons that developed by the Manhattan Project had been deployed by the United States. Hiroshima was the primary target of the first atomic bomb mission and Nagasaki was the second target of the mission. The first nuclear weapon named Little Boy was dropped from an American B-29 Superfortress, known as Enola Gay on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and followed by another nuclear weapon named Fat Man dropped from the B-29 Bockscar on the city of Nagasaki on 9 August.
The official figures by Japanese at the time put the death toll at 118,661 and the later estimates the final toll was about 140,000 of Hiroshima’s 350,000 population including military personnel and those who died later due to radiation. On the other hand, the explosion of Fat Man event killed 39,000 and caused a further 25,000 people injured. Other than that, many of them suffered long-term sickness and disability due to these events.
The decision of using nuclear weapons
The debate over bombings has been around the world for many decades. The decision of using nuclear weapons on Japan caused debate concerns the ethical, legal and military controversies. This is particular serious when the decision was

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