1945 - Hiroshma Flashcards
What was the bomb a fruition of?
The Manhattan project.
Was a German programme of own but resources restricted so resources were put into b2 rocket instead.
US wanted to make it first.
16th july 1945, successful test and started to produce for military purpose (only two ever used).
What was the consequence of Little boy and Fat Man?
Little Boy bomb Hiroshima 6 August 1945 150000 short term deaths
Fat man bomb Nagasaki 9th August 1945 73000 short term deaths. Less heavily populated but held a significance through military, civilian population, Korean enslaved labourers etc.
Wanted to use both really to see what they both could do.
Why did they use the bombs?
No single authorized decision so no official doctrine that contains the logic behind decision to do it.
US narrative - save future US lives.
But they did not provide any clear figures for projected US loss of life. The statistics were illusory, kept changing.
However, the iInflated no. of US lives supposedly saved by the bomb shouldn’t obscure the fact Truman wanted to use the bomb even if statistics were smaller. Truman wanted to end war quickly, high priority.
Political scientists suggested the bomb wasn’t necessary. Truman knew it/ US administration knew it, used to intimidate stalin.
Truman had no reason not to drop the bomb, moral qualms were secondary. Allies had already bombed Tokyo, German cities etc.
Anti-Japanese racism, strengthened resolve, confirmed US military to use the bomb.
Examples of nuclear proliferation/ Race?
US 1945 nuclear monopoly until 1949 with USSR bomb testing.
Cold war structured by conflict between US and USSR.
MAD – deterrence, rush to arms race
Partial test ban treaty 1963 attempt to control arms race.
Comprehensive test ban treaty 1996
Korean war - Eisenhower considered to use nukes in 1953 to end conflict. Administration made highly detailed plans following armistice in case the conflict started up again.
What happened in Cuba?
Cuban missile crisis 1962 - Castro overthrows US backed dictator, looks to USSR for aid/ assistance.
Nuke weapons structured the cold war as seen here, most countries who wanted to remain neutral had to choose sides.
100 miles from coast of florida – threat
America had missiles in Turkey – threat to USSR
Blockade for a year under Eisenhower
Khruschev organised the removal of both bombs.
Were concept of offence and defence difficult to separate?
Yes, logic of deterrence leads to massive arms build to show that neither had a better advantage to survive (if bombed, don’t let them survive to bomb back MAD)
Examples of the arms race accelerating? Did it end?
1979 NATO double track decision
1983 strategic defense initiative (star wars), never happened.
Arms race end with collapse of soviet union as there was no longer any competition. The threat of arms simply receded.
History of attitudes to nukes?
1950s mobilisation, mass protests 1957/8 backed by prominent intellectuals/ socialist parties.
Collapsed in 1958 when socialist party backed out.
1960s no longer big mass phenomenon – attention focussed of Vietnam etc., new focus on nuclear energy rather than weapons.
1980s, significant protests against de-stationing of US missiles in western EU. This was a double track decision by NATO, an effort to get USSR to negotiate further arms reduction. A carrot for negotiation but also a stick because they put more of there own .
Was there no threat of nuclear war anymore?
The nuclear weapon threat never went away, just forgotten at times.
Nukes restructured international relations
A permanent existential threat but fears are only periodically activated.
