(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Aakanksha Jha explores the historical context of the world’s first atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.)
The first atomic bomb codenamed ‘Little Boy’ was dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, obliterating the Japanese city of its 70,000-80,000 souls. The atomic weapon, used by the US for the first time on an enemy target during WWII, caused immense loss and unprecedented destruction. Its effect is still being felt today.
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Every year, on August 6, Hiroshima Day is observed to remember the tragic anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city. On its 79th anniversary, let’s see how the horrifying bombing underlines the significance of the commitment to build a safer world.
Prelude
During WWII, for the first time in the recorded history of mankind, fission properties of radioactive elements were used to create a weapon of mass destruction. The gun-type device with a uranium core was released over Hiroshima by a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay on August 6. Three days later, on August 9, the US dropped a second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” on another Japanese city Nagasaki.
This was a rather grim end to the escalation caused by Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939. The second edition of the Great War was known for the clash of personalities and ideologies. Dictatorial regimes of Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Gen. Hideki Tojo in Japan, Antonio Salazar in Portugal, Juan Peron in Argentina, and Francisco Franco in Spain were against the Allied nations consisting of Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Axis powers represented totalitarian dictatorial regimes with absolutist ideals whereas the Allied Powers were committed to the new modern sensibilities of self-determinism, democratic form of government, anti-racialism, etc. However, the question remains as to why the need for dropping the atomic bomb on Japan was felt even after Germany surrendered in May of 1945 and Italy way back in Sept of 1943.
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Attack on Pearl Harbour
The answer perhaps lies in the deep waters of the Pacific. After the surrender of Italy and Germany, the theatre of war had shifted to the Pacific Ocean between unlikely enemies – the US on the Hawaiian Islands and the unrelenting Japanese on the Western Pacific.
It was a surprise Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 that brought war to the shores of the US.
The base was attacked by 353 Japanese Imperial Air Force planes, killing 2,404 US military and civilian population. This led to a deep military crisis between the US and Japan.
The first half of 1945 was uncharacteristically fierce between Japanese and US militaries. A general call of chronology fails to explain the use of atomic bombs. In February 1945, the US invaded the Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and captured it after suffering 30,000 casualties.
In April 1945, the US invaded the Japanese island of Okinawa at the cost of about 50,000 casualties. But Japan lost its larger vestiges of Air Force and Navy due to retaliatory strikes by the US. All these were done while progress was ongoing in the Manhattan Project.
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Manhattan Project
On the morning of July 16, 1945, in the arid swathes of White Sands Missile Range of Alamogordo, New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer exclaimed and quoted the Gita saying, “Now I have become death”. The famous scientist, widely known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, cited the line in view of the successful detonation of a plutonium device nicknamed ‘Gadget’. His words were recorded by Project General L.R. Groves in a memorandum submitted to the War Secretariat.
The success of the project gave an added advantage to the US military arsenal. Ideas were now debated in the diplomatic circles of allies as to how to use this newfound weapon. Subsequently, on July 26, the Big Three Allied forces, i.e. the US, Britain and the Soviet Union gathered at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, Germany. They issued an ultimatum for Japan and asked for its unconditional surrender.
As per the military archives of the US, several other options were discussed before the decision to detonate atomic bombs was reached. This included either a demonstration of the bomb off the coast of Tokyo with minimal damage or a full-scale invasion of the Japanese Island code-named Olympia in October 1945. It was, however, the personal experience of former US President Harry Truman that also acted as a catalyst in the decision.
Japan’s response to the Potsdam declaration
Truman participated in the First World War and suffered heavily in France as a soldier. He lost his sons and nephews in the Second World War. What weighed in his mind was also the legacy of former President Franklin Roosevelt who talked of ‘unconditional surrender’ as the first prerequisite for lasting peace.
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Hence, after a thorough permutation and combination of probabilities, the Truman administration authorised the use of Atomic weapons anytime after August 3, 1945. This came after Japan neglected and remained cold to the Potsdam declaration.
Norman Cousins, an American political journalist commented in his oft-cited essay ‘Modern Man is obsolete’ on the beginnings of Nuclear War. This shaped the way forward for the next diplomatic task of disarmament, de-escalation and establishing a new world order.
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India and nuclear disarmament
To date, as per the United Nations data, about 13,400 nuclear weapons reportedly remain in our vicinity with over 2,000 tests conducted worldwide. The first attempt towards disarmament was made in 1946, which established a Commission to deal with problems related to the discovery of atomic energy and its peaceful use in the United Nations General Assembly. Since then, several nuclear disarmament structures and forums have come into existence.
These include the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, also known as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was signed in 1963 but has yet to enter into force, and the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
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India participates in the Geneva-based Conference of Disarmament and remains committed to the goal of global, non-discriminatory and verifiable nuclear disarmament. India keeps up the demand for internationally verified Fissile Material Cut off Treaty.
India’s reservation to NPT and CTBT along with TPNW remains one of the most decisive policy decisions. To date, the NPT signed in 1968 recognises only the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, Russia, the UK, France and China) as nuclear weapon powers and mandates that other countries can be a party to the NPT only as a non-nuclear weapon state. This was and is principally against the security and integrity of the nation and the sovereign right to defend itself.
India has pledged to continue with its voluntary and unilateral moratorium on further nuclear testing. It is the only nuclear weapon state to declare that it believes its security would be enhanced, not diminished, in a world free of nuclear weapons.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial
The Genbaku Dome ruins perhaps need our sobering attention as we reflect on the disasters of Nuclear War. The industrial promotion centre at Hiroshima took the barrage of atomic radiation directly overhead. Almost the whole city turned into dust but the industrial complex remains intact.
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Now known as the ‘Hiroshima Peace Memorial’, Genbaku in Japanese means atom bomb. History came full circle when former US President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima, Genbaku Dome on May 27, 2016 and met a Hibakusha survivor, i.e. a survivor of the atomic attack on Hiroshima. Entering new atomic nomenclature in the Japanese dictionary and the atomic radiation in the genes of many Japanese men and women are the starkest living archives of human war history.
Post Read Question
Why is Hiroshima day recalled as the horrific day in the history of humankind?
Discuss the prelude to the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What are the geopolitical implications of WWII? How did it bring about a paradigm shift in the international order?
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How does the Hiroshima day underline the significance of nuclear disarmament? Discuss the stand of India in the global nuclear order.
(Aakanksha Jha teaches at the Delhi University.)
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