A Park around Tokyo
Situations around Hiroshima in August of 1945
The US military dropped the world's first nuclear weapon called the atomic bomb onto Hiroshima, a military city of Imperial Japan with the population, at that time, of about 350,000 in August 1945.Leaders of the US military at the time was under strong pressure from American citizens and the American Government requesting to finish the war against Imperial Japan as fast as possible without spending more money and sacrificing more American soldiers while Germany had already surrendered. On the other hand, fanatic leaders of the Japanese Army were determined to face the expected ground war on the Japanese mainland. The too-brave samurai tradition seemed to force them to fight against invading US troops and die in battles on the Japanese ground. They were persuading the Emperor to approve the desperate plan to carry out the final ground war on the Japanese main land.
However, the Emperor started to feel uneasy about the expected outcome of the plan, thus thinking about ceasefire. In line with Emperor's mind, the Imperial Japanese Government sent an emissary to Moscow to ask the Soviet Union to work as an intermediate for ceasefire between Imperial Japan and the U.S. and the Allies. However, the Soviet Union was already determined to join the Allies and start battles against Imperial Japan, so that Moscow did not make a clear answer to help Imperial Japan.
The Potsdam Declaration, a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces, had been already issued to Imperial Japan in July, but the Imperial Japanese Government did not yet make it clear whether or not it accepted the Declaration due to strong objections from the Imperial Army.
At the time, the Battle of Okinawa on the Okinawa Islands was over with 20,000 deaths on the American side and 200,000 deaths on the Japanese side. But the Imperial military continued to send total 1,900 Kamikaze suicide attack planes to Okinawa. (Even one Japanese fighter plane flew up in the sky before Hiroshima, trying to shoot down a U.S. B-29 bomber carrying the atomic bomb, on August 6, but could not catch it due to a lack of enough fuel.)
Therefore, the Imperial Japanese military and allied troops led by General MacArthur expected U.S. landing operation on the Japanese mainland to be launched sooner or later. However, the Imperial Army still kept a million troops in the Chinese mainland. Indeed, no generals of the Imperial Army thought that they were losing the war in China. The Soviet Union, the most grave potential enemy of Imperial Japan, still kept the the Japanese–Soviet Non-aggression Pact. Put simply, it was the calm before the storm in early August of 1945. And then, a B-29 bomber with the atomic bomb loaded started to fly 2,740 km from Tinian Island to Hiroshima, taking 6 and a half hours on one way. It reached Hiroshima and dropped the atomic bomb at 8:15 a.m., August 6, killing about 100,000 citizens among 350,000 residents only on the day. It is said that total 560,000 people, including those who visited the city after the bombing, were exposed to radiation.
Although the U.S. announced that it had used an atomic bomb over Hiroshima soon after the bombing, the Imperial Japanese Government sent scientists to Hiroshima to confirm that it was really a nuclear attack. It is true that the Imperial Japanese military had also studied how to make an atomic bomb, but Japanese scientists gave up the idea due to lack of materials and resources. Even Germany had given up the plan to make atomic bombs in WWII. So, the concept of the atomic bomb was not new to Japanese elites. Therefore, Imperial Japanese elites got shocked to see how advanced the U.S. science and technology were.
But, the fanatic leaders of the Imperial Army did not immediately decided to stop the war. The Emperor and the prime minister could not persuade them to decide ceasefire. Accordingly, it needed another atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki and invasion by Soviet troops to Manchuria, South Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, unilaterally abolishing the Japanese–Soviet Non-aggression Pact, for the Imperial Government, including the Imperial Army and Navy, to decide ceasefire and accept the Potsdam Declaration.
Accordingly, many Japanese, including the Emperor, were spared their life, although total 3 million Japanese civilians and soldiers were killed, while only less than 3,000 American soldiers had been killed in the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941.
Today, Japanese people rather blame the Imperial military more than the U.S. military or the U.S. Government for the damage of the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack, since if the Imperial military had given up the war, as good spirit samurai, before the atomic bomb attack, so many people, including about a dozen of U.S. soldiers having been taken as prisoners in Hiroshima, should not been cruelly killed.
Though President Obama did not apologize to Hiroshima victims for the ruthless atomic bomb attack targeting mostly Japanese civilians when he visited Hiroshima in August 2016, his visit was accepted as expression of his compassion to Hiroshima victims. So far as now, Mr. Obama is the only U.S. President who has ever visited Hiroshima whose population is about 1.2 million recently.
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Mark 8 King James Version (KJV)
6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.
7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.
8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.
9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.