Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear Attacks: Social and Economic consequences

In the early decades of the 1930's, the political situation between Japan and USA would be
starting to become critical, up to the point of menacing the citizens' apparently safety.
Everything started when the width of Japan's power began its growth all over the Indochina
and western Pacific area, threatening USA's control over this extremely important region
both economically and strategically.
When in 1940 the "diplomatic" warnings that the USA's government gave to the Japanese
were ignored, the real extension of the problem started to be noticeable; the American
country would be using extreme measures, such as cutting off the export of basic provisions
like oil that was an essential material for the Japanese industry and that fueled the Japanese
military.
Being cornered, Japan had the option of surrendering to the USA's attacks and diminish the
important expansion that had been doing all over the Asian Continent, or to counterattack to
this threats.
The decision was made on December 7th 1941, when the Japanese responded with a
surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.
This event marked the start of the war not only between Japan and USA, but between other
important nations like Germany, and Italy. Setting the stage for the bloody events that had
place in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
In the early morning of august 6th 1945, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, over 150,000
people were starting what would be the last day of their lives.
After arriving at the U.S. base on the Pacific island of Tinian, a more than 9,000 pound
bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29 bomber. The plane dropped the bomb, known as
Little Boy, by parachute at 8:15 in the morning, and it exploded 2,000 feet above
Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the
city.

This event marked the Japanese's final surrender against the USA's forces. However, on
August 9 Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 bomber, Bockscar, from Tinian. The
city of Kokura, Nagasaki, was the second target, the place where the plutonium bomb Fat
Man was dropped at 11:02 that morning. More powerful than the one used at Hiroshima,
the bomb weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast.
So, in august 10th 1945, exactly four days after Hiroshima, and one after Nagasaki,
Emperor Hirohito announced his countrys surrender in a radio broadcast. Marking the end
of World war II, and the beginning of the atomic age.
The events that had place in august of 1945 in Japan, would be causing massive
destruction, death, disease and long-term harm to human society and the environment. And
also would be determinant the start of a series of consequences that still would be haunting
their people even after more than half of a century.
To begin with, the people that did not die from the bomb explosion, did suffered the injuries
that this provoked, such as radiation post effects.
At first, people only showed superficial wounds mainly burns from rays and flames, and
lacerations from the blast and falling structures. However, by the first two months after the
explosion, people showed symptoms of damages by radioactive rays, such as loss of hair,
anemia, primary and secondary thermal burns, loss of white cells, bleeding, diarrhea, etc.
And approximately 10% of cases in this group were fatal.
By the third and fourth month came the secondary injuries, like disfiguration, severe scar
formations (called keloids), blood abnormalities, sterility (in both sexes), psychosomatic
disorders, etc.
And this was just the tip of the iceberg, because after seeing the destruction of what they
could call home and the death of thousands of people they had known, the Japanese people
were terrified; the social repercussions that this event had were enormous.
As might be expected, among the citizens the primary reaction to the bomb was fear,
uncontrolled terror.

And to that one-half and two-thirds of those that were interviewed in the Hiroshima and
Nagasaki areas confessed having such extreme reactions, not just for the moment but for
some time after that. As one survivor puts it:
"After the atomic bomb fell, I just couldn't stay home. I would cook, but while cooking I
would always be watching out and worrying whether an atomic bomb would fall near me".
The behavior of the living immediately after the bombings, as described earlier, clearly
shows the state of shock that hindered rescue efforts.
The two typical impulses were those: Aimless, even hysterical activity or flight from the
city to shelter and food. And whenever a plane was seen after that, people would rush into
their shelters, they would go in and out so much that they did not have time to eat. They
were so nervous they could not work. or live peacefully.
The accentuated effect of these bombs came not only from the surprise and their crushing
power, but also from the feeling of security among the citizens of the two places before the
attacks. Because even though Nagasaki had undergone five raids in the previous year, they
had not been heavy, and Hiroshima had gone almost untouched until the morning of 6
August 1945. In both cities many people felt that they would be spared, and the various
rumors in circulation supporting such feeling covered a wide range of wishful thoughts.
That's why when the attacks came, the hopelessness among the people grew, and the
constant fear of that something else could happen was there all the time. Making it more
difficult to move on.
Other of the consequences that the Japanese citizens would be suffering after the bombing,
were the economic ones.
To start with, more than half the bridges in the city were destroyed, along with heavy
damages to roads and railroads, which impeded communications with other cities, making
it really hard to make a recount of the damages and figure out what to do. Transportation
systems in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely crushed, along with electrical
signal systems.

Also there's the fact that the bomb exploded about 500m above a residential area, full of
schools, factories, and houses. And within a radius of 1 kilometer, the explosion of pressure
and heat smashed immediately houses and other structures, turning them into ashes; also
22.7% of the 51,000 buildings in the entire city were completely destroyed or severely
damaged.
Also, the food industry would be suffering severe damages, because besides the direct
destruction of crops or livestock, many farmers would be killed, injured, or permanently
disabled, leaving the food production system without the skilled manpower needed to
quickly renew its productivity. In addition, even if the skilled farmers were available, food
producing areas would be contaminated; soil radiation levels would be higher than what is
considered "acceptable" in peacetime for growing crops. There would also be residual
levels of radiation representing unacceptable occupational and general population
exposures.
And also even two years after the bombing the plants would be growing at ground zero
presaging the frightening genetic aberrations in humans that were to come: sesame stalks
would be producing 33 percent more seeds but 90 percent of them would be sterile.
Creating a serious economic income and food resources loss.
Even so, food, clothing, medicine, and other relief supplies in Nagasaki were, as well as in
Hiroshima, extremely scarce. Moreover, heavy rains hit both cities in September, making
the struggle to survive desperately difficult and miserable.
In addition, the local ability to mobilize health care personnel and restore medical facilities
was severely hampered by the overall loss of non-military economic wealth (65 billion yen
nationwide). And of this total, Hiroshima (884 million yen) and Nagasaki (380 million yen)
together suffered over 2% of the national total.
Also, in a key urban area, the costs of the immediate destruction and deaths would be easily
running into tens of billions. Because there would also be earnings losses directly related to
jobs lost by survivors or to reductions in the number of hours they work, potentially leading
to significant increase in regional and perhaps national unemployment levels.

Becoming for the country a pretty difficult recovery.

That's why I think that the events that had place in Japan in 1945, were atrocious, and not
even the threat for the USA's control over some resources or the destroy of a fleet has the
justification of what happened, because it didn't only killed thousands of innocent, harmless
people, but also destroyed an entire nation's stability, and the life of many generations of
people, due to the effects that this catastrophe had in their land and in their lives.
And I think that not even the fact that many years had passed would erase the memory of
the blood and tears that were spilled that day and all over the years due to human inability
of seeing further of their own desires and interests.

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J. Roses (december 29, 2011), The After-Effects of The Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima &
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