The Bombing of Japan: the Atomic Bomb In Japan, the bombing of civilians reached a new level with the use of the first atomic bomb. Japan was especially vulnerable to air raids because its air force had been virtually destroyed in the course of the war and its crowded cities were built of flimsy materials. Attacks on Japanese cities by the new American B- 29 Superfortresses, the biggest bombers of the war, began in June 1944. By the summer of 1945, many of Japan’s industries had been destroyed, along with one- fourth of its dwellings. After the Japanese gov-ernment ordered the mobilization of all people between the ages of thirteen and
sixty into the People’s Volunteer Corps, President Truman and his advisers feared that Japanese fanaticism might mean a million American casualties. This concern led them to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima ( August 6) and Nagasaki ( August 9). The destruction was incredible. Of 76,000 buildings near the center of the explo-sion in Hiroshima, 70,000 were flattened, and 140,000 of the city’s 400,000 inhabitants died by the end of 1945. Over the next five years, another 50,000 had perished from the effects of radiation. The dropping of the first atomic bomb marked the start of the nuclear age. After the war, Truman’s decision to approve the use of nuclear weapons to com-pel Japan to surrender was harshly criticized, not only for causing thousands of civil-ian casualties but also for introducing a frightening new weapon that could threaten the survival of the human race. Some have even charged that Truman’s real purpose in ordering the nuclear strikes was to intimidate the Soviet Union. Defenders of the decision argue that the human costs of invading the Japanese home islands would have been infinitely higher had the bombs not been dropped, and that the Soviet Union would have had ample time to consolidate its control over Manchuria.
