Jaydev Jana

The atomic bombing raids on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US during World War II, on 6 August and 9 August 1945, respectively, marked the first use of atomic weapons in war. The bomb, Little Boy, dropped on Hiroshima was a gun-assembly fission bomb, which used uranium, whereas Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, was an implosion fission bomb, which used plutonium. Short-term impacts included immediate death from blast, heat, and radiation sickness. And long-term consequences involved increased cancer rates, particularly leukaemia, and other health issues among survivors and their dependents, along with psychological trauma. Roughly half of the total deaths occurred on the first day. In Hiroshima, an estimated 140,000 people died, and in Nagasaki, around 74,000 people died, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Every year, 6 August is observed as Hiroshima Day to remember the tragic event of World War II.   

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused two important global effects: the end of World War II on 2 September 1945 and the beginning of the “Cold War” together with the proliferation of atomic bombs (alternately named as nuclear weapons). The English writer George Orwell coined and popularised the term “Cold War”. On 19 October 1945, he, in his 1945 essay, “You and the Atom Bomb”, used…read more on NOPR