The Use Of Atomic Bombs Against Japan.

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History Coursework        Thomas Sawkins 11B

The Use Of Atomic Bombs Against Japan

        The photograph in source A shows graphic evidence of how the dropping of the atomic bomb caused catastrophic damage on a part of Hiroshima. It gives evidence that the bomb caused large amounts of damage, and explains the high death toll. There are a few buildings in the picture just standing with everything else wiped out by the blast. It does however not show how radioactivity has affected the area; it just shows the physical devastation. The photo has visual impact that would be difficult to explain in words. We know Hiroshima was a built up area but the photograph depicts an area showing little sign of habitation. This picture has been taken perhaps from a tall building or a helicopter to show the extent of the damage over quite a large area. The buildings have been reduced to nothing more than fine rubble apart from a few buildings. If this source were a bird’s eye view photograph then it could show the devastation the bomb caused more clearly. There is always a risk with photographs that they do not depict the full story as tampering could occur.

Source B is a Newspaper article written for the British public. It describes how people continue to die from the after affects of the atomic bomb. The source has a date, is a primary source, a reason and an audience. This makes the source useful for understanding the long-term affect of the bomb but is less useful at seeing short-term effect. I think that the effect of the ‘A’ bomb was a mystery to the Americans which makes this source quite interesting “people who were not injured in the bombing are still dying mysteriously from an unknown something”. This is because radiation sickness was a new type of illness, which was not known about until the dropping of the bomb.

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I think that both sources are useful pieces of evidence of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb particularly when applied together. This is due to them both complimenting each other by showing both long and short-term affects of the dropping of the atomic bomb. I do however think that source ‘B’ is more important than source ‘A’ because after the bomb was dropped it led to a campaign for nuclear disarmament.


        Source C was spoken by the new American president Harry Truman in 1945, the day after the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. His speech was ...

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