Friday, April 8, 2016

Journal 8 - Randi Goney

Part One) What struck me as important was seeing all the effects of the atomic bombs multiple years after they were dropped. Especially the years directly following the bomb, "It was the atomic bomb deposited some sort of poison on Hiroshima which would give off deadly emanations for seven years." Of the people that survived the bomb, they still had painful effects on their bodies from the explosion and radiation. I think it is just heart breaking to see these people survive, and then die later in life from effects of the bomb that had lingered with them. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge for instance, he died because of bomb later in life, "On November 19th, 1977, with a doctor, a priest and Yoshiki-san at his side, this explosion-affected person took a deep breath and died." The book left me thinking about the other atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Was Nagasaki worst than Hiroshima? Who were the survivors from that explosion? Everything that was explained in Hiroshima, I would like to see and know about Nagasaki as well. I definitely want to remember to consider all the different perspectives of a topic before generating an opinion. Perspectives such as the United States at the time of the war or Japanese citizens at the same time. Although dropping the bombs seem very inhumane, in which they are, it was the correct decision at the time for the United States.

Part Two) For the research portion, I researched the fire bombings in Hamburg during World War II. Hamburg was the first place to encounter "fire" warfare in 1943. The goal of these bombings were to destroy large areas completely by wiping out the people and all buildings. The "window" tactic was used in the bombing of Hamburg. This includes dropping foil strips out the windows of the plane to confuse the Germans and their radar systems. The bombing of Hamburg occurred on July 24th, 1943 at approximately 9 o'clock PM. The bombs consisted of high explosives, incendiary, phosphorus and napalm. Due to the massive amount of explosives, some buildings went up in flames that reached over twenty feet high. Altogether, almost nine thousand tons of bombs were dropped on Hamburg that affected an area of about eight and a half square miles. As a result, about forty-five thousand civilians were killed along with about one thousand servicemen. After the bombings, the city never reached its full potential of population and output as it was before the destruction.
Birds eye view of the destruction in Hamburg as a result of the bombs.
The best link from my research was this, https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/ww2/projects/firebombing/websitemenu.htm

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