I-Search Paper (WW2 Atomic Bomb)

For centuries before the 1900's, when people think of weaponry, they think of simple weapons like swords and bows and arrows, shields and spears, eventually nearing the 1900's, simple musket guns. If you ask about weaponry during and after the 1900's, they think bombs, machine guns, tanks. More specifically, people think of nuclear weaponry. After both world wars, military weapons were upgraded for more damage by a large margin. I found this really interesting and wanted to know more about how much of a difference did weaponry change did they affect countries around the world. I already knew how one of the major evolutions in military weaponry was the Atomic bombs that were dropped in the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the biggest and most popular difference in weaponry that happened in the 1900's. After doing more research into it, I found that it had the most impact on the world than any other singular weapon used once. I ended up researching: What were the affects of the Atomic bomb dropping in WW2? After looking through some primary sources, I basically found the answer to my research question.

After I posted my research question on the I-Search Paper Plan Padlet, I got a response from Professor Klann. She commented a very useful site where I managed to find both my primary sources. When I searched the website, there weren't many primary sources onWW2, but the two that I came across were very useful. The first primary source I chose was the first came up on a plane log of the "Enola Gay", the plane that piloted the Hiroshima bomb. . It took off from an island on the Northern Mariana Islands called Tinian in the Philippine Sea. It shoed the major time points of where the plane was and what it was doing. It dropped the bomb on 9:15 in Mishima, Hiroshima (the targeted area). By 10:52, the pilot could not see the mushroom cloud, "368 miles from Hiroshima, mushroom cloud no longer visible" (Hiroshima Log of the Enola Gay, https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/hiroshima-log-enola-gay). It took precisely an hour and 37 minutes just for the pilot to not see the cloud, 368 miles away from the target. This showed me how relatively big the bomb was, and how devastating it would be.

The second primary source that I found was a declaration of surrender on a Japanese public broadcast to its citizens. As I read through it, I thought it was a basic surrender statement. However, in the middle of the statement, they talked about why they were surrendering. A quote from the broadcast shows this, "Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization." (The Jewel Voice Broadcast, https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/jewel-voice-broadcast). They talk about that the reason that they surrendered was because "the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb" I thought that if a government was willing to say that they surrendered because they were overpowered by another country, it meant something. I would think that the whole world would know obviously why they surrendered. What caught my eye, however, was when they said, "but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization." Were the bombs that devastating to them it would end human civilization?

Before I started researching my research question, I already knew, as well as most people, that the atomic bombs were horrible. But after doing the research, it dawned on me just how bad it was. Thousands of entire families were vaporized in an instant, with thousands more to die from the nuclear winds. I was think how crazy it must be for a pilot to record all this data while knowing that they just dropped something that would wipe-out so many people. My research question was narrowed down a lot after knowing how broad it was. The atomic bombs that were dropped was a story in itself that I thought should be researched on its own.

My research question did change to a more specific question, as I stated before. It was answered from the primary sources that I found. Although after reading the sources I did have a few questions that I thought of. One, how did all bombers in WW2 feel when they were dropping bombs things that would kill clusters of families either in an instant or over time? Do all soldiers feel the same way after shooting other soldiers with their own families? And finally, when the Japanese government said that the bombs could wipe human civilization of both sides of the war kept using them, what say now with bombs MUCH stronger than the original Atomic bombs and how did people during the cold war with this realization feel that it could happen at any moment? All in all, the answer to my research question was the the affect of the atomic bombs were devastating to hundred of thousands of people, and it opened many doors of power too what was thought to be impossible to many governments, but was proven otherwise.