A Japanese Witness's Story

My late grandmother, Michiko Kumazawa, was 11-years-old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; she was living in Tokyo at the time. The air raids during the war were so bad that she had to go to Fukushima with her school, almost as an indefinite field trip, in order to stay safe while her parents still worked in Tokyo. She and her mother were peace activists; her mother participated in a protest against nuclear weapons in New York City among a crowd of more than a million people in 1982 (which my father happened to be at, way before he met my mother). Michiko made sure to educate my mother on what had happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, but never had hostile feelings towards America. She knew that my mother always wanted to go to America, but unfortunately passed away before my mother could. However, my mother is confident when she says that Michiko would have been happy to hear that my mother got married and had a child with an American, and she got her grandmother's, Michiko's mother's, blessing when she got married. So, many Japanese people who witnessed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not hate America, but rather hated America's actions and just wanted peace for the future, just like my grandmother always did.

-Toscana Finke

Contextualizing Hiroshima

When the war began in Europe, the United States' strategy was to be isolated and remain neutral. However, that changed when Japan surprise attacked Pearl Harbor, an American territory. The attack on Pearl Harbor prompted the U.S. to join WWII. As the U.S. fought overseas, J. Robert Oppenheimer lead the Manhattan Project which researched and developed the first nuclear weapon. In result of the creation of atomic bombs, Harry S. Truman decided to drop them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9 of 1945. Americans saw the bombings as a victorious end to WWII while the Japanese perceived it as a ruthless attack on innocent civilians. 

- written by Sarah Velasquez

Doubt in the U.S.

"It is my opinion the the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was taught not to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying woman and children."

-Admiral William D. Leahy, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Leahy served in WWII.




"US Responses to Dropping the Bomb." Nuclear Files. Nuclear Files, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2017. <http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/hiroshima-nagasaki/us-responses-to-bomb.htm>.

Hiroshima After the Bomb

The bomb dropped in Hiroshima destroyed almost every building in the city.

135,000 citizens were killed in the dropping of the atomic bomb.

The atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima was the first to be used during a war.

The bomb left many injured as well.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3186815/The-nightmare-aftermath-Hiroshima-Parents-carry-burned-children-past-corpses-rubble-rare-photographs-taken-days-atomic-bomb-killed-140-000-people.html

Survivor's Grief

"It wasn't a human, it was a thing. My mother was killed as a thing. Not as a human."

-Mikiso Iwasa, Hiroshima survivor who's mother was burned beyond identification



Tienabeso, Seni, Diana Alvear, and Kaoru Utada. "Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Attacks Call for Nuclear-Free World." ABC News. ABC News Network, 06 Aug. 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2017. <http://abcnews.go.com/International/hibakusha-survived-hiroshima-nagasaki-nuclear-free-world/story?id=11334084>.

Truman and the Atomic Bomb

"The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have no added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development."

- President Harry S. Truman, August 6, 1945 in his statement announcing the bombing of Hiroshima




"Primary Resources: Announcing the Bombing of Hiroshima." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2017. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/truman-hiroshima/>. 

Recollections of a Survivor

The atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th, 1945 killed 135,000 citizens. For many survivors, the day is one they will never forget. Yoshitaka Kawamoto, who was 13 when the bomb was dropped, recalled finding one of his classmates alive with, "his skull cracked open, his flesh... dangling out from his head" (Document D). Though in war, many Japanese citizens felt victimized by the event as it killed many innocent civilians.