What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima?

By Jess Brallier, Who HQ and Tim Foley

Hiroshima is where the first atomic bomb was dropped. Now readers will learn the reasons why and what it's meant for the world ever since.

By August 1945, World War II was over in Europe, but the fighting continued between American forces and the Japanese, who were losing but determined to fight till the bitter end. And so it fell to a new president--Harry S. Truman--to make the fateful decision to drop two atomic bombs--one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki--and bring the war to rapid close. Now, even seventy years later, can anyone know if this was the right choice? In a thoughtful account of these history-changing events, Jess Brallier explains the leadup to the bombing, what the terrible results of it were, and how the threat of atomic war has colored world events since.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Release date: Mar 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781524792671

Jess Brallier

Jess Brallier is a publisher, author, and web publisher. He has authored or co-authored more than thirty books, including both adult’s and children’s titles. In 1995, Brallier founded the children’s publishing imprint, Planet Dexter. He has won book publishing’s LMP Individual Achievement Award in recognition of his marketing campaigns for three New York Times bestsellers. A native of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, Brallier is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Boston University. He resides in West Hollywood, California, with his wife.  

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019034738

ISBN 9781524792657 (paperback)

ISBN 9781524792664 (library binding)

ISBN 9781524792671 (ebook)

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Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright

What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima?

Japan . . . . . . . .

World War II

The Manhattan Project

Decision Time

The Bombing of Hiroshima

Stories of Survivors

The War Ends

What Followed

The Peace Museum

Photographs

Timelines

Bibliography

About the Author

What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima?

In the early morning on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber flew toward Japan. The plane was named the Enola Gay after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. In its cargo was a weapon unlike any the world had known.

As the bomber flew closer to its target, Tibbets revealed to his crew what the secret weapon was. Their plane was carrying the first atomic bomb that would ever be used in war.

The bomb was nicknamed Little Boy. And it was going to be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Below, the 350,000 citizens of Hiroshima were beginning their day. Eating breakfast, walking to school, reading a newspaper, arriving at work. They had no idea what was about to happen.

At 8:15, the Enola Gay’s bomb bay door opened, and Little Boy was dropped. Less than a minute later, the atomic bomb exploded.

Suddenly, for miles in all directions, fires ignited. Metal melted, and sixty thousand buildings were destroyed. About seventy thousand people died instantly or were fatally injured. Eventually, over two hundred thousand people would die from the bomb.

For the first time ever, an atomic weapon had been let loose. Its ability to kill and destroy was nearly beyond imagination. Who decided to drop it? And why? Was the decision right or