Nuclear weapons have been used for combat purposes only twice in the history of mankind. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 showed how dangerous it could be. It was the real experience of using nuclear weapons that could keep two mighty powers (USA and USSR) from unleashing a third world war.

Bomb drop on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Millions of innocent people suffered during World War II. The leaders of the world powers put the lives of soldiers and civilians on the cards without looking, in the hope of achieving superiority in the struggle for world domination. One of the worst disasters ever world history was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed about 200 thousand people, and total number persons who died during and after the explosion (from radiation) reached 500 thousand.

Until now, there are only assumptions that forced the President of the United States of America to order the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Did he realize, did he know what destruction and consequences would be left after the explosion of a nuclear bomb? Or was this action intended to demonstrate military power in front of the USSR in order to completely kill any thoughts of attacks on the United States?

History has not preserved the motives that moved the 33rd US President Harry Truman when he ordered a nuclear attack on Japan, but only one thing can be said with certainty: it was the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that forced the Japanese emperor to sign the surrender.

In order to try to understand the motives of the United States, one must carefully consider the situation that arose in the political arena in those years.

Emperor of Japan Hirohito

The Japanese emperor Hirohito was distinguished by good inclinations of a leader. In order to expand his lands, in 1935 he decides to seize all of China, which at that time was a backward agrarian country. Following the example of Hitler (with whom Japan entered into a military alliance in 1941), Hirohito begins to take over China, using methods favored by the Nazis.

In order to cleanse China of indigenous people, Japanese troops used chemical weapons, which were banned. Inhuman experiments were carried out on the Chinese, which aimed to find out the limits of the viability of the human body under different situations. In total, about 25 million Chinese died during the Japanese expansion, most of whom were children and women.

It is possible that the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities could not have taken place if, after the conclusion of a military pact with Nazi Germany, the emperor of Japan would not have given the order to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor, thereby provoking the United States to enter World War II. After this event, the date of the nuclear attack begins to approach with inexorable speed.

When it became clear that the defeat of Germany was inevitable, the question of the surrender of Japan seemed to be a matter of time. However, the Japanese emperor, the embodiment of samurai arrogance and a true God for his subjects, ordered all the inhabitants of the country to fight to the last drop of blood. Everyone, without exception, had to resist the invader, from soldiers to women and children. Knowing the mentality of the Japanese, there was no doubt that the inhabitants would fulfill the will of their emperor.

In order to force Japan to capitulate, drastic measures had to be taken. The atomic explosion that thundered first in Hiroshima, and then in Nagasaki, turned out to be exactly the impetus that convinced the emperor of the futility of resistance.

Why was a nuclear attack chosen?

Although the number of versions why a nuclear attack was chosen to intimidate Japan is quite large, the following versions should be considered the main ones:

1. Most historians (especially American ones) insist that the damage caused by dropped bombs is several times less than a bloody invasion of American troops could bring. According to this version, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not sacrificed in vain, as it saved the lives of the remaining millions of Japanese;
2. According to the second version, the purpose of the nuclear attack was to show the USSR how perfect military weapon United States to intimidate a possible adversary. In 1945, the President of the United States was informed that there had been activity Soviet troops near the border with Turkey (which was an ally of England). Perhaps this is why Truman decided to intimidate the Soviet leader;
3. The third version says that the nuclear attack on Japan was the revenge of the Americans for Pearl Harbor.

On the Potsdam Conference, which took place from July 17 to August 2, the fate of Japan was decided. Three states - the USA, England and the USSR, led by their leaders, signed the declaration. It talked about the sphere of post-war influence, although the Second World War was not yet over. One of the points of this declaration spoke of the immediate surrender of Japan.

This document was sent to the Japanese government, which rejected the proposal. Following the example of their emperor, the members of the government decided to continue the war to the end. After that, the fate of Japan was decided. Since the US military command was looking for where to use the latest atomic weapons, the president approved the atomic bombing of Japanese cities.

coalition against Nazi Germany was on the verge of a break (due to the fact that one month remained before the victory), the allied countries could not agree. The different policies of the USSR and the USA eventually led these states to cold war.

What was reported to US President Harry Truman about the start of the tests nuclear bomb on the eve of the meeting in Potsdam, played an important role in the decision of the head of state. Wanting to scare Stalin, Truman hinted to the Generalissimo that he had a new weapon ready, which could leave huge casualties after the explosion.

Stalin ignored this statement, although he soon called Kurchatov and ordered the completion of work on the development of Soviet nuclear weapons.

Having received no answer from Stalin, the American president decides to start the atomic bombing at his own peril and risk.

Why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki chosen for the nuclear attack?

In the spring of 1945, the US military had to select suitable sites for full-scale nuclear bomb tests. Even then, it was possible to notice the prerequisites for the fact that the last test of the American nuclear bomb was planned to be carried out at a civilian facility. The list of requirements for the last test of a nuclear bomb, created by scientists, looked like this:

1. The object had to be on a plain so that the blast wave was not interfered with by uneven terrain;
2. Urban development should be as wooden as possible so that fire damage is maximized;
3. The object must have a maximum building density;
4. The size of the object must exceed 3 kilometers in diameter;
5. The selected city should be located as far as possible from the military bases of the enemy in order to exclude the intervention of the enemy military forces;
6. For a blow to bring maximum benefit, it must be delivered to a large industrial center.

These requirements indicate that the nuclear strike was most likely a long-planned affair, and Germany could well have been in the place of Japan.

The intended targets were 4 Japanese cities. These are Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto and Kokura. Of these, it was only necessary to choose two real targets, since there were only two bombs. The American expert on Japan, Professor Reisshauer, begged to be struck off the list of the city of Kyoto, as it was of great historical value. It is unlikely that this request could affect the decision, but then the Minister of Defense intervened, who was on a honeymoon in Kyoto with his wife. The minister went to a meeting and Kyoto was saved from a nuclear attack.

The place of Kyoto in the list was taken by the city of Kokura, which was chosen as a target along with Hiroshima (although later the weather conditions made their own adjustments, and Nagasaki had to be bombed instead of Kokura). The cities had to be big, and the destruction large-scale, so that the Japanese people were horrified and stopped resisting. Of course, the main thing was to influence the position of the emperor.

Conducted research by historians various countries of the world show that the American side did not care at all about the moral side of the issue. Dozens and hundreds of potential civilian casualties were of no concern to either the government or the military.

After reviewing entire volumes of classified materials, historians have come to the conclusion that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were doomed in advance. There were only two bombs, and these cities had a convenient geographical location. In addition, Hiroshima was a very densely built-up city, and an attack on it could unleash the full potential of a nuclear bomb. The city of Nagasaki was the largest industrial center working for the defense industry. A large number of guns and military equipment were produced there.

Details of the bombing of Hiroshima

The combat strike on the Japanese city of Hiroshima was pre-planned and carried out in accordance with a clear plan. Each item of this plan was clearly executed, which indicates the careful preparation of this operation.

On July 26, 1945, a nuclear bomb bearing the name "Baby" was delivered to the island of Tinian. By the end of the month, all preparations were completed, and the bomb was ready for combat. After consulting the meteorological indications, the date of the bombardment was set - August 6th. On this day the weather was excellent and the bomber, with a nuclear bomb on board, soared into the air. Its name (Enola Gay) was remembered for a long time not only by the victims of a nuclear attack, but throughout Japan.

In flight, the death-carrying plane was escorted by three planes whose task was to determine the direction of the wind so that the atomic bomb hit the target as accurately as possible. Behind the bomber, an aircraft was flying, which was supposed to record all the data of the explosion using sensitive equipment. A bomber was flying at a safe distance with a photographer on board. Several planes flying towards the city did not cause any concern to either the Japanese air defense forces or the civilian population.

Although Japanese radars detected the approaching enemy, they did not raise the alarm because of a small group of military aircraft. Residents were warned of a possible bombardment, but they continued to work quietly. Since the nuclear strike was not like a conventional air raid, not a single Japanese fighter took to the air to intercept. Even the artillery paid no attention to the approaching planes.

At 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay bomber dropped a nuclear bomb. This drop was made using a parachute to allow a group of attacking aircraft to retire to a safe distance. Having dropped a bomb at an altitude of 9,000 meters, battle group turned around and walked away.

Having flown about 8,500 meters, the bomb exploded at an altitude of 576 meters from the ground. A deafening explosion covered the city with an avalanche of fire that destroyed everything in its path. Directly at the epicenter, people simply disappeared, leaving behind only the so-called "shadows of Hiroshima." All that was left of the man was a dark silhouette imprinted on the floor or walls. At a distance from the epicenter, people burned alive, turning into black firebrands. Those who were on the outskirts of the city were a little more fortunate, many of them survived, having received only terrible burns.

This day has become a day of mourning not only in Japan, but throughout the world. About 100,000 people died that day, and the following years claimed the lives of several hundred thousand more. All of them died from radiation burns and radiation sickness. According to the official statistics of the Japanese authorities as of January 2017, the number of deaths and injuries from the American uranium bomb is 308,724 people.

Hiroshima today is largest city Chugoku region. The city has a commemorative memorial dedicated to the victims of the American atomic bombing.

What happened in Hiroshima on the day of the tragedy

The first Japanese official sources said that the city of Hiroshima was attacked by new bombs that were dropped from several American aircraft. People did not yet know that the new bombs destroyed tens of thousands of lives in an instant, and the consequences of nuclear explosion persist for decades.

It is possible that even the American scientists who created the atomic weapon did not anticipate the consequences of radiation for people. For 16 hours after the explosion, no signal was received from Hiroshima. Noticing this, the operator of the Broadcasting Station began to make attempts to contact the city, but the city remained silent.

After a short period of time, strange and confusing information came from the railway station, which was located near the city, from which the Japanese authorities understood only one thing, an enemy raid was made on the city. It was decided to send the aircraft for reconnaissance, since the authorities knew for sure that no serious enemy combat air groups broke through the front line.

Having approached the city at a distance of about 160 kilometers, the pilot and the officer accompanying him saw a huge dusty cloud. Flying closer, they saw a terrible picture of destruction: the whole city was ablaze with fires, and smoke and dust made it difficult to see the details of the tragedy.

Landing in a safe place, the Japanese officer reported to the command that the city of Hiroshima had been destroyed by US aircraft. After that, the military began selflessly to help the wounded and shell-shocked from the bomb explosion compatriots.

This catastrophe rallied all the surviving people into one big family. Wounded, barely standing people dismantled the rubble and put out fires, trying to save as many of their compatriots as possible.

Washington made an official statement about the successful operation only 16 hours after the bombing.

Dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki

The city of Nagasaki, which was an industrial center, has never been subjected to massive air strikes. They tried to save it to demonstrate the enormous power of the atomic bomb. Just a few high-explosive bombs damaged weapons factories, shipyards and medical hospitals in the week before the terrible tragedy.

Now it seems incredible, but Nagasaki became the second Japanese city to be nuked by chance. The original target was the city of Kokura.

The second bomb was delivered and loaded onto the plane, according to the same plan as in the case of Hiroshima. The plane with a nuclear bomb took off and flew towards the city of Kokura. On approaching the island, three American planes were supposed to meet to record the explosion of an atomic bomb.

Two planes met, but they did not wait for the third. Contrary to the forecast of meteorologists, the sky over Kokura was covered with clouds, and the visual release of the bomb became impossible. After circling for 45 minutes over the island and not waiting for the third aircraft, the commander of the aircraft that carried the nuclear bomb on board noticed a malfunction in the fuel supply system. Since the weather finally deteriorated, it was decided to fly to the reserve target area - the city of Nagasaki. A group consisting of two aircraft flew to the alternate target.

On August 9, 1945, at 7:50 am, the inhabitants of Nagasaki woke up from an air raid signal and descended into shelters and bomb shelters. After 40 minutes, considering the alarm not worthy of attention, and classifying two aircraft as reconnaissance, the military canceled it. People went about their usual business, not suspecting that an atomic explosion would now thunder.

The Nagasaki attack went exactly the same way as the Hiroshima attack, only high cloud cover almost spoiled the Americans' bomb release. Literally in the last minutes, when the fuel supply was at the limit, the pilot noticed a “window” in the clouds and dropped a nuclear bomb at an altitude of 8,800 meters.

The carelessness of the Japanese air defense forces, which, despite the news of a similar attack on Hiroshima, is striking, did not take any measures to neutralize American military aircraft.

The atomic bomb, called "Fat Man", exploded at 11 hours 2 minutes, within a few seconds turned a beautiful city into a kind of hell on earth. 40,000 people died in an instant, and another 70,000 received terrible burns and injuries.

Consequences of nuclear bombings of Japanese cities

The consequences of a nuclear attack on Japanese cities were unpredictable. In addition to those who died at the time of the explosion and during the first year after it, radiation continued to kill people for many years to come. As a result, the number of victims has doubled.

Thus, the nuclear attack brought the United States a long-awaited victory, and Japan had to make concessions. The consequences of the nuclear bombing shocked Emperor Hirohito so much that he unconditionally accepted the terms of the Potsdam Conference. Based on official version, the nuclear attack carried out by the US military did exactly what the American government wanted.

In addition, the troops of the USSR, which had accumulated on the border with Turkey, were urgently transferred to Japan, on which the USSR declared war. According to members of the Soviet Politburo, after learning about the consequences caused by nuclear explosions, Stalin said that the Turks were lucky, as the Japanese sacrificed themselves for them.

Only two weeks have passed since the entry of Soviet troops into Japan, and Emperor Hirohito has already signed an act unconditional surrender. This day (September 2, 1945) went down in history as the day the Second World War ended.

Was there an urgent need to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Even in modern Japan, there is an ongoing debate about whether it was necessary to carry out a nuclear bombing or not. Scientists from all over the world are painstakingly studying secret documents and archives from the Second World War. Most researchers agree that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sacrificed for the sake of ending the world war.

The well-known Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa believes that the atomic bombing was started in order to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union into Asian countries. It also allowed the United States to assert itself as a leader militarily, which they succeeded brilliantly. After the nuclear explosion, arguing with the United States was very dangerous.

If you stick to this theory, then Hiroshima and Nagasaki were simply sacrificed to the political ambitions of the superpowers. Tens of thousands of victims were completely ignored.

One can guess what could have happened if the USSR had time to complete the development of its nuclear bomb before the United States. It is possible that the atomic bombing would not have happened then.

Modern nuclear weapons are thousands of times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japanese cities. It is hard to even imagine what could have happened if the world's two largest powers had begun nuclear war.

The most little-known facts about the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Although the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is known to the whole world, there are facts that only a few know:

1. The man who managed to survive in hell. Although everyone who was near the epicenter of the explosion died during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, one person who was in the basement 200 meters from the epicenter managed to survive;
   
2. War is war, and the tournament must go on. At a distance of less than 5 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion in Hiroshima, a tournament was held in the ancient Chinese game "Go". Although the explosion destroyed the building and many of the competitors were injured, the tournament continued on the same day;
3. Able to withstand even a nuclear explosion. Although the explosion in Hiroshima destroyed most of the buildings, the safe in one of the banks was not damaged. After the end of the war, the American company that produced these safes received a letter of thanks from a bank manager in Hiroshima;
4. Extraordinary luck. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was the only person on earth, which officially survived two atomic explosions. After the explosion in Hiroshima, he went to work in Nagasaki, where he again managed to survive;
5. "Pumpkin" bombs. Before starting the atomic bombing, the United States dropped 50 Pumpkin bombs on Japan, so named for their resemblance to a pumpkin;
6. An attempt to overthrow the emperor. The Emperor of Japan mobilized all the citizens of the country for "total war". This meant that every Japanese, including women and children, must defend their country to the last drop of blood. After the emperor, frightened by atomic explosions, recognized all the conditions of the Potsdam Conference and later capitulated, Japanese generals attempted a coup d'état, which failed;
7. Met a nuclear explosion and survived. Japanese Gingko biloba trees are remarkably resilient. After the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, 6 of these trees survived and continue to grow to this day;
   
8. People who dreamed of salvation. After the explosion in Hiroshima, hundreds of survivors fled to Nagasaki. Of these, 164 people managed to survive, although only Tsutomu Yamaguchi is considered the official survivor;
9. Not a single policeman died in the atomic explosion in Nagasaki. The surviving law enforcement officers from Hiroshima were sent to Nagasaki in order to teach colleagues the basics of behavior after a nuclear explosion. As a result of these actions, not a single policeman was killed in the Nagasaki bombing;
10. 25 percent of those who died in Japan were Koreans. Although it is believed that all of those who died in the atomic explosions were Japanese, in fact a quarter of them were Koreans, who were mobilized by the Japanese government to participate in the war;
11. Radiation is a fairy tale for children. After atomic explosion the American government for a long time concealed the fact of the presence of radioactive contamination;
12. "Meetinghouse". Few people know that the US authorities did not limit themselves to nuclear bombing of two Japanese cities. Before that, using the tactics of carpet bombing, they destroyed several Japanese cities. During Operation Meetinghouse, the city of Tokyo was virtually destroyed, and 300,000 of its inhabitants died;
13. They didn't know what they were doing. The crew of the plane that dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was 12 people. Of these, only three knew what a nuclear bomb was;
14. On one of the anniversaries of the tragedy (in 1964), an eternal flame was lit in Hiroshima, which should burn as long as at least one nuclear warhead remains in the world;
    
15. Lost connection. After the destruction of Hiroshima, communication with the city was completely lost. Only three hours later did the capital learn that Hiroshima had been destroyed;
16. Deadly poison. The crew of the Enola Gay were given ampoules of potassium cyanide, which they had to take in case they failed to complete the task;
17. radioactive mutants. The famous Japanese monster "Godzilla" was invented as a mutation for radioactive contamination after a nuclear bombing;
18. Shadows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions of nuclear bombs had such tremendous power that people literally evaporated, leaving only dark prints on the walls and floor as a memory of themselves;
19. Hiroshima symbol. The first plant to bloom after the Hiroshima nuclear attack was the oleander. It is he who is now the official symbol of the city of Hiroshima;
20. Warning before a nuclear attack. Before the nuclear attack began, US aircraft dropped millions of leaflets on 33 Japanese cities warning of an impending bombardment;
21. Radio signals. An American radio station in Saipan broadcast warnings of a nuclear attack throughout Japan until the very last moment. The signals were repeated every 15 minutes.

The tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened 72 years ago, but it still serves as a reminder that humanity should not thoughtlessly destroy its own kind.

August marks two consecutive 65th anniversaries of the use of atomic weapons by the Americans against civilians - on the 6th in Hiroshima and on August 9 in Nagasaki. These explosions, terrible in their scale, which the whole world would call war crimes, if they were committed by a country that lost the war, suggest different thoughts.

For example, about the cynicism of Western propaganda. Textbooks produced in Japan under the control of American authorities during the years of post-war occupation describe atomic bombings so that it is difficult to understand from them who and how used weapons of mass destruction in civilian cities. As a result, recent opinion polls in Japan show that a significant portion of Japanese youth believe that the nuclear bombings were some kind of natural disaster, like a tsunami, and not the result of a conscious American desire to cause the greatest damage to Japan. And even that the country was bombed not by the United States, but by the Red Army, no more and no less.

And in general, today's claims of Japan, which lost the war, are addressed not at all to the Americans, who, in violation of the rules of warfare, used weapons of mass destruction and indiscriminately destroyed more than 400,000 civilians, but to Russia, which did not violate either the Hague or Geneva conventions. And for some reason, not from the United States, but from Russia, the Japanese today demand repentance and the return of territories lost during the war.

Moreover, Japan itself never formally apologized to the peoples of Asia for the use of hundreds of thousands of their women, whom the Japanese army carried behind their regiments to serve the soldiers. And from the history books, references to the crimes of the Japanese military in China, Singapore and the Philippines were removed. And the ashes of Japanese war criminals executed by decision Tokyo process, is buried in the sacred temple of Yasukuni, where the current prime ministers of the country go to worship.

However, the PRC still remembers the "Nanjing massacre" of 1937, when Japanese troops captured the city, which was then the capital of China, and consider it the worst war crime. Then, for six weeks, Japanese soldiers burned and plundered a peaceful city, destroying everyone in a row in the most brutal ways and raping women and teenage girls. Chinese historians claim that the Japanese then killed 300,000 civilians and raped more than 20,000 women, from seven-year-old girls to old women. A significant part of them were sent to the soldiers' brothels, where they subsequently died.

In February 1942, the Japanese captured the British colony of Singapore, after which they began to identify and eliminate the "anti-Japanese elements" of the Chinese community there. This definition then fell under the Chinese - participants in the defense of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, former employees of the British administration and ordinary citizens who just made donations to the China aid fund. The list of suspects included almost all Chinese men living in Singapore between the ages of eighteen and fifty. Those who, according to the Japanese, could pose a threat to the occupying authorities, were taken out on trucks outside the cities and shot with machine guns. More than 50,000 people were killed in this way.

During the Khabarovsk litigation 1949 on Japanese war criminals, it turned out that the Japanese were preparing to widely use bacteriological weapons against the population of the USSR and other countries on the eve and during the Second World War. It became known that the Japanese in the Kwantung Army, which occupied Manchuria, created a special "Togo detachment" for preparing bacteriological warfare, as well as detachments No. 731 and No. 100. In their laboratories, bacteria of plague, anthrax, glanders, typhoid fever and other USSR. The detachments carried out experiments on Soviet and Chinese prisoners, as a result of which more than 4,000 people died from the end of 1937 to the summer of 1945. The Japanese used bacteriological weapons against Soviet and Mongolian troops in the battles on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939 and against China in 1940-1942, spreading plague and smallpox bacteria. The Japanese sent groups of saboteurs to the Soviet borders, infecting water bodies in the border areas.

All this Japanese society today preferred to forget. But on the other hand, he selectively remembers that as a result of the war, Japan lost the Kuril Islands, and demands that Russia return them. At the same time, he is not even going to discuss the return to China of other disputed territories - the Senkaku Islands. These islands were taken over by Japan along with Taiwan at the end of the 19th century. After World War II, when Japan returned Taiwan to China, the Senkaku archipelago came under the jurisdiction of the United States, which then annexed them to the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, where their military base is located.

Today, the Japanese simply do not hear the demands of the PRC to return Senkaku and do not discuss them with China, and not because there are oil reserves in the area of ​​the archipelago. Tokyo proceeds from the fact that only weak countries, led by narrow-minded leaders, distribute their territories, and Japan does not consider itself to be such.

But it refers to them modern Russia, although it was her soldiers in World War II who in two weeks smashed Japan's main force, the Kwantung Army, which numbered more than a million soldiers and officers, to dust. Today, Japan demands the return of the Kuril Islands, otherwise refusing to sign a peace treaty with Russia. And he arranges provocations, such as mass sending Japanese fishing schooners to the shores of the Kuril Islands, which begin to catch crabs there under the pretext that they can do anything in their “northern territories”.

But when a similar action was attempted in 2004 by seven Chinese advocating the return of the Senkaku Islands to the PRC, Japan showed that it was protecting its territory well. As soon as the Chinese activists landed on one of the islands of the archipelago, they were arrested by the Japanese police and taken to Okinawa, where they spent several months in prison. That's the whole discussion of the problem of returning the islands "in Japanese style."

From Russia, Japan impudently demands the return of the islands in exchange for the possible conclusion of some kind of peace treaty with it. Although even international experts strongly doubt the need for Moscow to conclude a peace treaty with the country that it defeated and which recognized itself as defeated, on September 2, 1945, signing an act of unconditional surrender aboard the Missouri battleship. In it, Japan agreed to recognize the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, in paragraph 8 of which it is written that its sovereignty is henceforth limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and "those smaller islands" that the victorious countries will indicate to it. Then conquered by force weapons, Japan did not dispute the right of the victors to decide questions of its territory. The same happened in the case of Germany, which capitulated to the Allies in May 1945 and in doing so lost Prussia, which became Polish Silesia, and Alsace and Lorraine, which went to France. But for more than 60 years Russia has been successfully developing trade, economic and political relations with Germany without concluding any peace treaty. But the Japanese, a few years after the defeat in the war, dragged Moscow into an endless dispute about the Kuriles, according to international law, without any grounds for that. After all, it is quite obvious that the games of the Japanese with the idea of ​​a peace treaty have one goal - to use the weakness of the Moscow leaders, to review the results of the Second World War in their favor and regain the lost lands.

But in the world they don’t give away territories just like that, thanks for that. Even the two islands of the Kuril chain, Moscow for the first time agreed in 1956 to transfer to Japan during the years of the government of the near-minded Nikita Khrushchev, only in the hope of exchanging them for the neutral status of Japan. But Japan did not have any neutral status, but, on the contrary, American military bases firmly settled on its territory, making it an "unsinkable US aircraft carrier." Naturally, about the transfer to her of any Russian territories and there can be no talk.

However, Russian leaders, instead of simply ignoring Tokyo's attempts to start a discussion of the "problem of northern territories", continue to unwittingly pander to them. Although the Kuriles belong to Russia under international law, and we obviously should not be interested in what the Japanese think about this. It is clear as daylight that the attempts to “fool out” the islands, not by washing, but by rolling, are calculated on the inability of the Moscow chiefs to “take a hit” for a long time, and the perseverance of the talkative Japanese diplomats. And also to the “fifth column” existing in Russia, which from time to time prints articles in our newspapers with Japanese money about the “original rights” of the Japanese to the Kuriles.

It seems that the problem of the Kuriles in relations with Japan can be solved once and for all by simply not responding to Tokyo's attempts to draw Russia into its discussion, i.e., acting in the same way as the Japanese do regarding Chinese claims to the Senkaku Islands. For the polite readiness of Russia to solve a non-existent problem for her by peace only inflames the Japanese, beckoning with the illusory proximity of the “return of the territories”, and provokes the invention of new scandals.

And Moscow should finally forget about signing a peace treaty with Japan. Russia does not need it, and Japan already signed a text in San Francisco in 1951 in front of 48 countries, which says that it renounces the rights and claims to the Kuril Islands, the southern part of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to them. By the way, the PRC, together with the Soviet Union, also did not sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan, but this does not prevent it from living and developing

Reference
The so-called "problem of the northern territories" is a dispute initiated by Japan with Russia regarding the ownership of a number of islands in the Kuril chain. After the Second World War, all the Kuril Islands came under the administrative control of the USSR, but subsequently a number of the southern islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands began to be disputed by Japan. The problem of ownership of the southern Kuril Islands is the main obstacle to the signing of a peace treaty with Japan.
The Japanese first received information about the islands during an expedition to the island of Hokkaido in 1635, but the Japanese did not reach the Kuriles themselves. In 1643, the Lesser Kuril Ridge was surveyed by the Dutch expedition of Maarten Gerritsen de Vries in search of the "Golden Lands" and it was compiled detailed map, a copy of which he sold to the Empire of Japan, finding nothing of value there.
Taken from here:

So, let's say a low-yield nuclear bomb exploded in your city. How long will you have to hide and where to do it in order to avoid the consequences in the form of radioactive fallout?

Michael Dillon, a scientist at the Livermore National Laboratory, spoke about radioactive fallout and how to survive. After numerous studies, analysis of many factors and possible developments, he developed a plan of action in the event of a disaster.

At the same time, Dillon's plan is aimed at ordinary citizens who have no way to determine where the wind will blow and what the size of the explosion was.

small bombs

Dillon's technique for protecting against has so far been developed only in theory. The fact is that it is designed for small nuclear bombs from 1 to 10 kilotons.

Dillon argues that everyone now associates nuclear bombs with the incredible power and destruction that could have happened during the Cold War. However, such a threat seems less likely than terrorist attacks using small nuclear bombs, several times less than those that fell on Hiroshima, and simply incomparably less than those that could destroy everything if it happened. global war between countries.

Dillon's plan is based on the assumption that after a small nuclear bomb, the city survived and now its inhabitants must escape from radioactive fallout.

The diagram below shows the difference between the range of a bomb in the situation Dillon is investigating and the range of a bomb in the Cold War arsenal. The most dangerous area is shown in dark blue (the psi standard is the psi that is used to measure the force of an explosion; 1 psi = 720 kg/m²).

People who are within a kilometer of this zone are at risk of receiving a dose of radiation and burns. The range of radiation hazard from the explosion of a small nuclear bomb is much less than from Cold War thermonuclear weapons.

For example, a 10 kiloton warhead will create a radiation threat 1 kilometer from the epicenter, and radioactive fallout can travel another 10-20 miles. So it turns out that a nuclear attack today is not instant death for all living things. Maybe your city will even recover from it.

What to do if the bomb exploded

If you see a bright flash, do not go to the window: you may get hurt while looking back. As in the case of thunder and lightning, the blast wave travels much more slowly than the explosion.

Now you have to take care of protection from radioactive fallout, but in the event of a small explosion, you do not need to look for a special isolated shelter. For protection, it will be possible to hide in an ordinary building, you just need to know which one.

30 minutes after the explosion, you must find a suitable shelter. In half an hour, all the initial radiation from the explosion will disappear and the main danger will be radioactive particles the size of a grain of sand that will settle around you.

Dillon explains:

If at the time of the disaster you are in an unreliable shelter that cannot provide tolerable protection, and you know that there is not a single such building nearby, within 15 minutes, you will have to wait half an hour, and then go look for it. Before you enter the shelter, make sure you don't have any radioactive material the size of sand particles.

But what kind of buildings can become a normal shelter? Dillon says the following:

There should be as many obstacles and distance as possible between you and the consequences of the explosion. Buildings with thick concrete walls and roofs, large amounts of earth - for example, when you sit in a basement surrounded by earth on all sides. You can also go deep into large buildings in order to be as far as possible from open air with the consequences of a disaster.

Think about where you can find such a building in your city and how far it is from you.

Maybe it's the basement of your house, or a building with a lot of interior space and walls, with bookshelves and concrete walls, or something else. Just choose buildings that you can reach within half an hour and don't rely on transport: many will flee the city and the roads will be completely clogged.

Let's say you got to your shelter, and now the question arises: how long to stay in it until the threat has passed? The films show different paths of events, ranging from a few minutes in a shelter to several generations in a bunker. Dillon claims that they are all very far from the truth.

It's best to stay in the shelter until help arrives.

Considering that we are talking about a small bomb with a radius of destruction of less than a mile, the rescuers must react quickly and begin the evacuation. In the event that no one comes to help, you need to spend at least a day in the shelter, but still it is better to wait until the rescuers arrive - they will indicate the desired evacuation route so that you do not jump out to places with high level radiation.

The principle of operation of radioactive fallout

It may seem strange that you are allowed to leave the shelter after a day, but Dillon explains that the biggest danger after the explosion comes from early radioactive fallout, and they are heavy enough to settle within a few hours after the explosion. As a rule, they cover the area in the immediate vicinity of the explosion, depending on the direction of the wind.

These large particles are the most dangerous because of the high levels of radiation that will ensure the immediate onset of radiation sickness. In this they differ from the smaller doses of radiation that can be caused many years after the incident.

Taking refuge in a shelter will not save you from the prospect of cancer in the future, but it will prevent a quick death from radiation sickness.

It is also worth remembering that radioactive contamination is not a magical substance that flies around and penetrates anywhere. There will be a limited region with a high level of radiation, and after you leave the shelter, you will need to get out of it as soon as possible.

This is where you need rescuers who will tell you where the border of the danger zone is and how far you need to go. Of course, in addition to the most dangerous large particles, many lighter ones will remain in the air, but they are not capable of causing immediate radiation sickness - what you are trying to avoid after an explosion.

Dillon also noted that radioactive particles decay very quickly, so that being outside the shelter 24 hours after the explosion is much safer than immediately after it.

Our pop culture continues to savor the topic of nuclear, which will leave only a few survivors on the planet, hiding in underground bunkers, but a nuclear attack may not be as devastating and large-scale.

So you should think about your city and figure out where to run if something happens. Maybe some ugly concrete building that has always seemed to you a miscarriage of architecture will someday save your life.

The Cold War ended over two decades ago, and many people have never lived in fear of nuclear annihilation. However, a nuclear attack is a very real threat. Global politics is far from stable and human nature has not changed in any last years, not in the last two decades. "The most constant sound in the history of mankind is the sound of the drums of war." As long as nuclear weapons exist, there is always the danger of their use.

Is it really possible to survive after a nuclear war? There are only predictions: some say yes, others say no. Keep in mind that modern thermonuclear weapons are plentiful and several thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan. We really don't fully understand what will happen when thousands of these munitions explode at the same time. For some, especially those living in densely populated areas, trying to survive may seem completely futile. However, if a person survives, it will be someone who is morally and logistically prepared for such an event and lives in a very remote area of ​​no strategic importance.

Steps

Preliminary preparation

Make a plan. If a nuclear attack occurs, you will not be able to go outside, as it will be dangerous. You should stay protected for at least 48 hours, but preferably longer. With food and medicine on hand, you can at least temporarily not worry about them and focus on other aspects of survival.

Stock up on foods that are not perishable. Such products can be stored for several years, so they should be available and will help you survive after an attack. Choose foods that are high in carbs so you get more calories for less money. Store them in a cool dry place:

• White rice
• Wheat
• Beans
• Sugar
• Pasta
• Powdered milk
• Dried fruits and vegetables
• Build up your stock gradually. Every time you go to the grocery store, buy one or two items for your dry rations. In the end, you will stock up for several months.
• Make sure you have a can opener with you.

1. You must have a supply of water. Water can be stored in food grade plastic containers. Clean them with a bleach solution and then fill them with filtered and distilled water.

   • Your goal is to have 4 liters per person per day.
   • Keep common chlorine bleach and potassium iodide (Lugol's solution) on hand to purify water in the event of an attack.

2. You must have means of communication. Staying up to date, as well as being able to alert others to your location, can be vital. Here's what you might need:

   • Radio. Try to find an option that works with a crank or solar power. If you have a radio with batteries, don't forget spares. If possible, connect to a radio station that broadcasts 24-hour weather forecasts and emergency information.
   • Whistle. You can use it to call for help.
   • Mobile phone. It is not known whether mobile communication will work, but if it does, you should be prepared. If possible, find a solar charger for your phone model.

3. Stock up on medicines. Having the necessary medicines and being able to provide first aid is a matter of life and death if you are injured in an attack. You will need:

   Prepare other items. Add the following to your survival kit:

   • Flashlight and batteries
   • Respirators
   • plastic film and adhesive tape
   • Garbage bags, plastic ties and wet wipes for personal hygiene
   • Wrench and pliers to turn off gas and water.

4. Follow the news. A nuclear attack is unlikely to happen out of the blue. It will certainly be preceded by a sharp deterioration in the political situation. If a conventional war breaks out between countries that have nuclear weapons and does not end quickly, it could escalate into a nuclear war. Even individual nuclear strikes in one region can escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict. Many countries have a rating system to indicate the imminence of an attack. In the USA and Canada, for example, it is called DEFCON.

   Assess the risk and consider evacuation if a nuclear exchange looks realistic. If evacuation is not an option, then you should at least build a shelter for yourself. Assess your proximity to the following destinations

   • Airfields and naval bases, especially those hosting nuclear bombers, submarine-launched ballistic missiles or bunkers. These places for sure will be attacked even with a limited exchange of nuclear strikes.
   • Commercial ports and airstrips over 3 km long. These places, probably for sure
   • government buildings. These places, probably, will be attacked even with a limited exchange of nuclear strikes and for sure be attacked in an all-out nuclear war.
   • Large industrial cities and most populated regions. These places, probably, will be attacked in the event of an all-out nuclear war.

5. Learn about different types nuclear weapons:

   • Atomic bombs are the main types of nuclear weapons and are included in other classes of weapons. The power of an atomic bomb is due to the fission of heavy nuclei (plutonium and uranium) when they are irradiated with neutrons. When each atom splits, a large amount of energy is released and even more neutrons. This results in an extremely fast nuclear chain reaction. Atomic bombs are the only type of nuclear bomb still used in warfare. If terrorists can capture and use a nuclear weapon, it will most likely be an atomic bomb.
   • Hydrogen bombs use the ultra-high temperature of an atomic charge as a "spark plug". Under the influence of temperature and strong pressure, deuterium and tritium are formed. Their nuclei interact, and as a result, a huge release of energy occurs - a thermonuclear explosion. Hydrogen bombs are also known as thermonuclear weapons because deuterium and tritium nuclei require high temperatures to interact. Such weapons are usually many hundreds of times stronger than the bombs that destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Most of the US and Russian strategic arsenal are just such bombs.

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World War II changed the world. The leaders of the powers were playing games for power among themselves, where the stakes were millions of lives of innocent people. One of the most terrible pages in the history of mankind, which largely predetermined the outcome of the entire war, was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese cities where ordinary civilians lived.

Why did these explosions happen, what consequences did the President of the United States of America expect when he ordered the bombing of Japan with nuclear bombs, did he know about the global consequences of his decision? The researchers of history continue to search for answers to these and many other questions. There are many versions about what goals Truman pursued, but be that as it may, it was the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that became the decisive factor in the end of World War II. To understand what served as the basis for such a global event, and why it became possible to drop a bomb on Hiroshima, consider its background.

Emperor Hirohito

Emperor Hirohito of Japan had grandiose ambitions. Following the example of Hitler, who at that time was doing very well, in 1935 the head of the Japanese islands, on the advice of his generals, decides to seize backward China, not even suspecting that all his plans will be brought down by the atomic bombing of Japan. With the help of a large population of China, he hopes to get all of Asia into his possession.

From 1937 to 1945, Japanese troops used chemical weapons prohibited by the Geneva Convention against the Chinese army. The Chinese were killed indiscriminately. As a result, over 25 million Chinese lives were at the expense of Japan, almost half of which were women and children. The date of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was inexorably approaching due to the cruelty and fanaticism of the emperor.

In 1940, Hirohito makes a pact with Hitler, and the next year he attacks the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, thereby involving the United States in World War II. But soon Japan began to lose ground. Then the emperor (he is the incarnation of God for the inhabitants of Japan) ordered his subjects to die, but not to surrender. As a result, families died in the name of the emperor. Many more will die when American planes carry out the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

Emperor Hirohito, having already lost the war, was not going to give up. He had to be forced to surrender, otherwise the consequences of a bloody invasion of Japan would have been horrendous, worse than the bombing of Hiroshima. Many experts believe that saving more lives was one of the main reasons why the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Potsdam Conference

1945 was a turning point for everything for the world. From July 17 to August 2 of that year, the Potsdam Conference was held, the latest in a series of Big Three meetings. As a result, many decisions were made that would help end the Second world war. Including the USSR assumed obligations to conduct military operations with Japan.

The three world powers led by Truman, Churchill and Stalin came to a temporary agreement on the redistribution of post-war influence, although the conflicts were not resolved and the war was not over. The Potsdam Conference was marked by the signing of the Declaration. Within its framework, the demand for Japan's unconditional and immediate surrender was spelled out.

The Japanese government leadership indignantly rejected the "impudent proposal." They intended to fight the war to the end. Failure to comply with the requirements of the Declaration, in fact, freed the hands of the countries that signed it. The American ruler considered that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was possible.

Anti-Hitler coalition survived last days. It was during the Potsdam Conference that sharp contradictions emerged in the views of the participating countries. The unwillingness to come to a consensus, yielding to the “allies” on some issues to the detriment of oneself, will lead the world to a future cold war.

Harry Truman

On the eve of the Big Three meeting in Potsdam, American scientists are conducting control tests of a new type of weapon of mass destruction. And just four days after the end of the conference, US President Harry Truman received a classified telegram saying that the tests of the atomic bomb had been completed.

The President decides to show Stalin that he has a winning card in his fist. He hints to the Generalissimo about this, but he is not at all surprised. Only a faint smile that appeared on his lips, and another puff of the eternal pipe were the answer to Truman. Returning to his apartment, he will call Kurchatov and order to speed up work on the atomic project. The arms race was in full swing.

American intelligence reports to Truman that the Red Army troops are heading towards the Turkish border. The President makes a historic decision. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will soon become a reality.

The choice of the object or how the attack on Nagasaki and Hiroshima was prepared

Back in the spring of 1945, the participants in the Manhattan Project were given the task of identifying potential sites for testing atomic weapons. Scientists from the Oppenheimer group compiled a list of requirements that the object must meet. It included the following items:

Four cities were chosen as intended targets: Hiroshima, Yokohama, Kyoto and Kokura. Only two of them were supposed to be real targets. The weather had the final say. When this list caught the eye of Professor Edwin Reisshauer, an expert on Japan, he tearfully asked the command to exclude Kyoto from it as a unique world cultural value.

Henry Stimson, who at that time held the chair of the Minister of Defense, supported the professor's opinion despite the pressure of General Groves, because he himself knew and loved this cultural center well. The vacated place in the list of potential targets was occupied by the city of Nagasaki. The developers of the plan believed that only large cities with a civilian population should be the targets, so that the morale effect was as bright as possible, capable of breaking the opinion of the emperor and changing the views of the Japanese people on participation in the war.

Researchers of history turned over not a single volume of materials and got acquainted with the secret data of the operation. They believe that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the date of which was predetermined a long time ago, were the only possible ones, since there were only two atomic bombs and they were going to use them precisely on Japanese cities. At the same time, the fact that a nuclear attack on Hiroshima would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people was of little concern to both the military and politicians.

Why did Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whose history will forever be overshadowed by thousands of people killed in one day, take the role of victims on the altar of War? Why was it the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs that was supposed to force the entire population of Japan, and most importantly its emperor, to surrender? Hiroshima was a military target with dense buildings and many wooden structures. In the city of Nagasaki, there were several important industries supplying guns, military equipment and elements of military shipbuilding. The choice of other goals was pragmatic - convenient location and development.

Bombing of Hiroshima

The operation was carried out according to a clearly developed plan. All his points were implemented exactly:

1. On July 26, 1945, the atomic bomb "Kid" arrived on the island of Tinian. By the end of July, all preparations were completed. The final date for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima has been set. The weather did not disappoint.
2. On August 6, a bomber with the proud name "Enola Gay", carrying death on board, entered Japanese airspace.
3. Three harbinger aircraft flew ahead of him to determine weather conditions, under which the atomic bombing of Hiroshima will be accurate.
4. Behind the bomber, one aircraft was moving with fixing equipment on board, which was supposed to record all the data on how the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would go.
5. The last in the group was a bomber to photograph the results of the explosion that would cause the bombing of Hiroshima.

The small group of aircraft that made such a surprise attack, as a result of which the atomic bombing of Hiroshima became possible, did not cause concern either among representatives of the air defense or among the ordinary population.

The Japanese air defense system detected aircraft over the city, but the alarm was canceled, since no more than three flying objects were visible on the radar. Residents were warned about the possibility of a raid, but people were in no hurry to hide in shelters and continued to work. Neither artillery nor fighters were alerted to counter enemy aircraft that appeared. The bombing of Hiroshima was unlike any other bombing that Japanese cities have experienced.

At 0815, the carrier aircraft reached the city center and released its parachute. After this unusual attack on Hiroshima, the entire group immediately left. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima above 9000 meters. At an altitude of 576 meters above the roofs of city houses, it exploded. A deafening explosion ripped apart the sky and the earth with a powerful blast wave. A shower of fire burned everything in its path. In the epicenter of the explosion, people simply disappeared in a fraction of a second, and a little further they were burned alive or charred, still remaining alive.

August 6, 1945 (the date of the bombing of Hiroshima with nuclear weapons) became a black day in the history of the whole world, the day of the murder of more than 80 thousand Japanese, a day that will lay a heavy burden of pain on the hearts of many generations.

The first hours after the bombing of Hiroshima

For some time in the city itself and its environs, no one really knew what happened after all. People did not understand that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had already taken thousands of lives in an instant, and would take many thousands more for decades to come. As stated in the first official report, the city was under attack unknown species bombs from several planes. What is an atomic weapon, and what are the consequences of its use, no one, even its developers, hardly suspected.

For sixteen hours there was no definite information that there had been a bombing of Hiroshima. The first person to notice the absence of any signals on the air from the city was the operator of the Broadcasting Corporation. Multiple attempts to contact at least someone were unsuccessful. Some time later, unintelligible, fragmentary information came from a small railway station 16 km from the city.

From these reports, it became clear at what time the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima took place. A staff officer and a young pilot were sent to the Hiroshima military base. They were tasked to find out why the Center was not responding to inquiries about the situation. After all, the General Staff was sure that no massive attacks on Hiroshima had taken place.

The military, who were at a fairly decent distance from the city (160 km), appeared to be a cloud of dust that had not yet settled. Approaching and circling over the ruins, only a few hours after the bombing of Hiroshima, they witnessed a horrifying sight. The city, destroyed to the ground, was blazing with fires, clouds of dust and smoke obscured the view, not allowing you to see the details from above.

The plane landed at some distance from the buildings destroyed by the blast wave. The officer sent a message about the state of affairs to the General Staff and began to provide all possible assistance to the victims. The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima claimed many lives and crippled many more. People helped each other as much as they could.

Only 16 hours after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Washington made a public statement about what had happened.

Atomic attack on Nagasaki

The picturesque and developed Japanese city of Nagasaki has not been subjected to massive bombing before, as it was stored as an object for a decisive strike. Only a few high-explosive bombs were dropped on shipyards, Mitsubishi armaments factories, and medical facilities in the week before that crucial day when US aircraft used an identical maneuver to deliver deadly weapon and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was carried out. After those minor strikes, the population of Nagasaki was partially evacuated.

Few people know that Nagasaki only by chance became the second city whose name will forever be inscribed in history as a victim of the atomic bomb explosion. Until the last minute, the second approved site was the city of Kokura on the island of Yokushima.

The three bombing planes were supposed to meet on approach to the island. The radio silence regime forbade the operators to go on the air, so before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima took place, visual contact of all participants in the operation had to take place. The carrier aircraft of the nuclear bomb and the partner accompanying it to fix the parameters of the explosion met and continued to circle in anticipation of the third aircraft. He had to take photographs. But the third member of the group did not appear.

After forty-five minutes of waiting, with only fuel left to make the return flight, Operation Sweeney commander takes fateful decision. The group will not wait for the third plane. The weather, which had been favorable for bombing half an hour ago, had deteriorated. The group is forced to fly to defeat the alternate target.

On August 9, at 7.50 am, an air raid signal sounded over the city of Nagasaki, but after 40 minutes it was canceled. People began to come out of hiding. At 10.53, considering two enemy aircraft that appeared over the city as reconnaissance aircraft, they did not raise the alarm at all. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made like a blueprint.

A group of American aircraft made an absolutely identical maneuver. And this time, Japan's air defense system, for unknown reasons, did not respond properly. A small group of enemy aircraft, even after the attack on Hiroshima, did not arouse suspicion among the military. The atomic bomb "Fat Man" exploded over the city at 11:02 am, burned and destroyed it to the ground in a few seconds, instantly killing more than 40 thousand human lives. Another 70 thousand were on the verge of life and death.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Effects

What did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki entail? In addition to radiation contamination, which will kill those who survived for many years to come, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a global political significance. She influenced the opinion of the Japanese government and the determination of the Japanese army to continue the war. This is the result, according to the official version, that Washington was seeking.

The bombing of Japan with atomic bombs stopped Emperor Hirohito and forced Japan to officially recognize the demands of the Potsdam Conference. This was announced by US President Harry Truman five days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Date August 14, 1945 for many inhabitants of the planet was a day of joy. As a result, the troops of the Red Army, stationed near the borders of Turkey, did not continue their movement to Istanbul and were sent to Japan after the declaration of war by the Soviet Union.

Within two weeks, a crushing defeat of the Japanese army was inflicted. As a result, on September 2, Japan signed the act of surrender. This day for the entire population of the Earth - significant date. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did its job.

Today, there is no consensus even in Japan itself about whether the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified and necessary. Many scientists after 10 years of painstaking study secret archives World War II come to different opinions. The officially recognized version is that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the price the world paid for ending World War II. History professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa takes a slightly different view of the "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" problem. What is it, an attempt by the United States to become a world leader or a way to prevent the USSR from taking over all of Asia as a result of an alliance with Japan? He believes that both options are correct. And the destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki are something absolutely not important for global history from the point of view of politics.

There is an opinion that the plan developed by the Americans, according to which the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was to take place, was a way for the States to show the Union its advantage in the arms race. But if the USSR had managed to declare that it had powerful nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the United States might not have dared to take extreme measures, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not take place. This development of events was also considered by specialists.

But the fact remains that it was at this stage that the largest military confrontation in the history of mankind formally ended, albeit at the cost of more than 100,000 civilian lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The power of the bombs detonated in Japan was 18 and 21 kilotons of TNT. The whole world recognizes that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to World War II.