Posted on 07/26/2023 4:10:19 AM PDT by FarCenter
As the film “Oppenheimer” arrives in American theaters, it is important to take a fresh look at the race to produce the atomic bomb and the choice of Hiroshima as its first target. There’s a lot more to learn that isn’t in the movie.
Hiroshima was struck by an 11-kiloton atomic bomb that had never been previously tested. But the task to destroy Hiroshima was critical in stopping Japan’s atomic bomb program and either forcing Japan’s surrender or, if Japan did not surrender, protecting the huge planned US and allied amphibious attack on Japan.
I want to emphasize what you are reading is my own analysis of why Hiroshima was a critical, top priority target enabling the allied invasion of the Japanese mainland. It differs greatly from US explanations, which (when taken on balance) are nonsensical.
If Hiroshima was a civilian target selected by the US government, then it was a war crime to carry out the attack. If it was a strategic, military target, then the attack on the city was justifiable.
It is important to note that the US government was, during and after the war and until today, covering up the real truth about the atomic bomb threats of Germany and Japan. Indeed, General Douglas MacArthur, who ran the US occupation of Japan after the surrender, systematically covered up Japan’s atomic bomb program and Japan’s biological and chemical weapons program in China.
Even today questions are still asked why Hiroshima was chosen? Why did the United States not demonstrate the atomic bomb before actually using it on a Japanese city, followed by dropping a Plutonium-fueled bomb that was used against the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
After the Hiroshima blast, Japan’s top atomic scientists flew to Hiroshima, headed by Yoshio Nishina from the RIKEN institute. Japan was desperately short of aircraft but Nishina and his team of scientists were given top priority.
Japan had two atomic bomb programs, one under the aegis of the army centered at RIKEN called Ni-Go and the other, under the navy, known as the F-Go program, headed by Professor Bunsaku Arakatsu. Late in the war the navy program was far along. The bombs were to be assembled in Korea. Korea had become Japan’s main arsenal supplying the war effort.
Arakatsu and his accelerator at Kyoto Imperial University. Photo: Creative Commons Japan’s top scientists quickly figured out that the bomb that struck Hiroshima was an atomic weapon. They measured residual radiation with Geiger counters. By assessing the blast patterns on the sides of partly standing buildings, they understood that the bomb was detonated above ground giving it maximum coverage over the target.
Hiroshima was destroyed by a uranium bomb called Little Boy. Testing it was not possible because there was not enough enriched uranium (U-235). Yet there was much greater confidence that the uranium bomb would work and was less complex than the plutonium implosion device, known as Fat Man, dropped a few days later on Nagasaki.
One of the big secrets of World War II is that both Germany and Japan were far along on atomic weapons development. For political reasons, the US did not want the American population to know just how dangerous atomic bomb development was to the soldiers fighting in Europe and in Asia.
Had the Germans been able to set off an atomic blast during the Battle of the Bulge, US and British forces would have been wiped out. Had Japan unleashed an atomic bomb on the US fleet, the US invasion force would have been destroyed.
Japan even had plans to launch an aircraft from a submarine carrying an atomic bomb. Japan was planning to destroy San Francisco and force the United States into peace negotiations favorable to Japan. Japan’s backup plan was to hit San Francisco with biological weapons launched by the same aircraft.
[Japan’s backup plan was to hit San Francisco with biological weapons]
I think some of Nancy Pelosi’s constituents have been doing just that. In at least a couple of ways that I shall not mention.
From 2015: Japan’s atomic bomb project
https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html
“ Japan’s backup plan was to hit San Francisco with biological weapons launched by the same aircraft.”
We should have hanged every Japanese officer above the rank of Lieutenant after the war without exception.
L
Neither Germany nor Japan was that far along at all. Every nuclear scientist around the world knew the basic how as radioactivity was the buzzword of the time, but to produce the nuclear materials took far more than either nation had available.
“Hiroshima was struck by an 11-kiloton atomic bomb that had never been previously tested”
I think the Hiroshima bomb was the uranium gun-type bomb that had been tested in New Mexico. The Nagasaki bomb, a plutonium implosion-type bomb, hadn’t been tested before.
Hiroshima was a military target.
No. The gun bomb (uranium) was thought to be fool proof. The plutonium was very tricky and had to be tested.
The code name “Trinity” was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, inspired by the poetry of John Donne. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, nicknamed the “Gadget”, of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. The complexity of the design required a major effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory, and concerns about whether it would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The test was planned and directed by Kenneth Bainbridge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)
The damage to Hiroshima by the atom bomb was trivial when compared to the total destruction of Tokyo by conventional bombs.
Absent the Atom bomb, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been destroyed any way.
I think you didn’t click the “This is an excerpt” box. As you say, long article, much more at the link.
>>Neither Germany nor Japan was that far along at all.
According to the article, both were fairly well advanced, and small scale tests had been conducted.
According to the article, information about the true extent of both programs was officially suppressed.
Japan did not have anywhere near the industrial capacity for isotope separation that was required for bomb production.
The effort to separate the radioactive isotopes of uranium and plutonium at Hanford and Oak Ridge was staggering.
Neither had the massive electrical and mechanical systems needed to refine Uranium. These “I’ve got a secret” stories are usually full of crap because they never say facts, just hyperbole, a bunch of weasel words. This article is just that.
P.S. The Japanese nuclear program is highly documented and public. Their efforts are not a secret as this article portrays it to be. Another hallmark of a crap article: They claim no one knows, yet, we adults know. Childish clickbait articles.
U-234 was a Uboat that was transporting partially enriched U-235.
He omits the number of men the US had already lost trying to take a few small islands
The bomb was used to put an end to the war
Kudos to Truman.
“The test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, nicknamed the “Gadget””
Thanks to both of you for the correction. Have either of you seen the movie and if so is it any good?
History channel also had a nice show on Japanese A-Bomb work (both are on youtube IIRC), pointing out the different programs on the main islands vs. in Korea and claiming they exploded one in what is now N Korea after Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs but before their surrender. The alleged events should have generated classified US military reports during the occupation, which may or may not still exist. But the alleged explosion, would certainly have left physical changes on the target site (cf. Trinity site in US) which might even now provide proof. And although the alleged target site is within what is now N Korea, and thus inaccessible, I believe it is within a part of NK we'd captured during the Korean war, only to be later forced out by Chinese entrance to the war. If the alleged events happened and were known the US I'd think a secret US technical inspection of the site would have happened during our occupation. Records may still exist of that. Details may also exist buried within Soviet archives.
Interesting essay, but a couple of obvious questions.
If the Japanese were enriching Uranium in Hiroshima, what possible reason would there have been for the USA and Truman to keep that a secret?
Instead, almost 80 years later, the USA is still being reviled for nuking a civilian target.
Also, my Dad was a battlefield radar specialist who was training to invade Japan in 1945.
I am almost certain he was training to invade Kyushu - the southern most Japanese main island.
I do not think he was being trained to invade Honshu, the largest island and home to Tokyo, which the author says was the invasion plan.
Hard to believe that the USA would attack Honshu BEFORE they controlled the air space over Kyushu.
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