75th Anniversary of Hiroshima: Student Lesson

By Syd Golston

Watch the NewsHour video on the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima atomic bombing below with your students and read the article below (click here for transcript). You may wish to stop the video at 2m:22s, for the sake of time. Ask your students: Should U.S. presidents have the sole authority to launch a nuclear attack?

Anniversary of Hiroshima Atomic Bombing

Seventy-five years ago, on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The United States had offered a surrender, the “Potsdam Declaration,” promising the Japanese an immediate and devastating attack if surrender was refused. Japan rejected the offer. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/potsdam-declaration/

In his decision to attack with nuclear weapons, President Truman cited the push of the Japanese military in the Pacific during the previous three months that had caused overwhelming American military deaths. Some historians have argued that the bombs were also a display of force intended to check the the Soviet Union.

One million leaflets were dropped on August 1 over Hiroshima and surrounding areas of Japan, warning the residents to evacuate. The power of the atomic bomb was emphasized, with the imperative to evacuate the city. https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/warning-leaflets

The plane that carried the bomb, called the Enola Gay after the mother of pilot Colonel Paul Tibbetts, dropped a 9,000 pound uranium bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima at 8:15 am in the morning. The blast completely destroyed five square miles of the city. https://allthatsinteresting.com/hiroshima-aftermath-pictures

Estimates of the instant deaths were 90,000, but the resulting fires and lingering deaths extended to an approximate 135,000 people. The unspeakable suffering of the victims inspired the accounts of six victims in the book “Hiroshima,” originally printed in a single edition of the New Yorker magazine. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima

Despite the terrible aftermath, the Japanese government did not surrender. A second atomic bomb was dropped three days later on the city of Nagasaki. Finally, at noon on August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan. For more information on the development of the atomic weapons and the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, see https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

Additional Resource:

Learn how young people in Japan are rushing to document Hiroshima survivors’ memories as the population of survivors dwindles.

Republished with permission for PBS NewsHour Extra.