In December of 1941, the Japanese launched a horrific attack on the United States naval base of Pearl Harbor. It was a spontaneous attack on the United States and the only reason that the Japanese did it, was to draw the attention of us away from Germany and the Axis taking over Europe. America responded to the attacks on Pearl Harbor quickly and Truman asked for a declaration of war against Japan. Many battles against Japan had the highest death toll in American soldiers. The battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima are two that many American citizens recognize. As the death toll rose, our military force began to run low on soldiers and train personnel. America needed to take drastic action to end the war and prevent further death and setting America up with no defense against the powerful Axis army. To counter what could lead into an American defeat, we launched two nuclear bombs, the first two ever used in wartime.
This image was selected as a picture of the week o...
The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese...
English: A navy photographer snapped this photogra...The two bombings were in a three day span with Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The Japanese then surrendered on August 15, 1945. The death count for both of the bombings were a large number, but it was necessary so that our nation would not come under Axis control. In Hiroshima, around 140,000 people were killed, not including deaths later on from the bomb's radiation. In Nagasaki, about 75,000 people were killed. The death toll in Hiroshima was larger than that in Nagasaki, even though "Fat Man", the code-name for the bomb that hit Nagasaki, had the blast power of 22 kilotons of TNT while "Little Boy", the bomb that hit Hiroshima only had 12.5 kilotons. Fat Man makes Little Boy actually look little, but do not let the comparison take away...