A Sad but Necessary Tragedy

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In September of 1951, Japan signed the Treaty of San Francisco which officially ended the tensions between itself and the United States. However before then, in August of 1945, the United States built two atomic bombs called Little Boy and Fat Man; but, they did not truly know the horrific and disastrous effects that these weapons were capable of (“The Avalon Project”). On August 6th and 9th 1945, the United States dropped these two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Little Boy and Fat Man detonated approximately 500-600 feet above the ground and caused a massive impact on Japan that are almost too horrific to describe (“The Avalon Project”). The outcome of the bombing had forced Japan to surrender the war in order to save the rest of their country from more bombings. However, Japan’s loss in World War II did not only negatively impact Japan. The aftermath of World War II on Japan had both beneficial and detrimental effects on Japan’s environment, political, and economic infrastructure.
During the war, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki decimated Japan’s environment. After detonation of the bombs, the immediate outcome was detrimental. In the two cities, the bombings demolished the buildings. In Hiroshima, a total of 76,000 buildings stood before the bomb, and afterward, 91% of those buildings weren’t standing anymore (The Committee 57). The atomic bomb had a very different effect on Nagasaki. Before the bombings 51,000 buildings stood before but after, only 65% of them still remained (57). The buildings, anywhere from zero to two miles away, became unrepairable (“The Avalon Project”). The loss of these buildings would, in the future, negatively affect Japan’s economy because it would for...

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...valon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/mpmenu.asp>.
The Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bomb in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social
Effects of the Atomic Bombings. Trans. Eisei Ishikawa and David L. Swain. English ed. New York: Basic, 1981. Print.
Lifton, Robert Jay. Death in Life Survivors of Hiroshima. Vintage Books ed. New York: Random,
1969. Print.
"History of Japan." Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Ed. Alan Campbell and David S. Noble.
Vol. 1. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993. Print.
Schull, William J. Effects of Atomic Radiation: A Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. New York: Wiley-Liss, 1995. Print.
"Japanese Economic Takeoff after 1945." Japanese Economic Takeoff after 1945. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

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