Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki // Subscribe: // TIMESTAMPS BELOW
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There are probably many things you don’t know about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. For instance, did you know that the atomic bombing of Japan inspired the creation of Godzilla? How about the fact that the bombs’ codenames were take from “The Maltese Falcon”? Or that a group of gingko trees actually survived the nuclear blast? WatchMojo counts down ten fascinating facts about the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II.
If you’d like to learn more about WWII and nuclear weapons, watch our videos on World War II: Nuclear Bombings of Japan: Top 10 Strangest Unsolved Mysteries of WWII: and Top 5 Apocalyptic Nuclear Bomb Facts:
#10: The Bombs Birthed Godzilla
#9: Ginkgo Trees in the Area Survived (And Are Still Growing Today)
#8: The Hiroshima Peace Flame Will Burn Until All Nuclear Weapons Are Destroyed
#7: Nagasaki Was Not the Original Target
#6: The Bombs’ Codenames Were Inspired by “The Maltese Falcon”
#5: The First Flower to Bloom After the Bombing Became Hiroshima’s Official Flower
#4: The Japanese Detected the Bomber
#3, #2 & #1???
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Damn, American can bomb the shit out of civilians. That'll teach those civilians.
All I'm saying is that arrogant Japanese emperor made bombings a necessity but Americans can at least lose their 'Murica demeanor of cowboys and not be proud of being the only country who has dropped atmoic bomb in a war. Not being proud of it should not be that hard I suppose.
I can't wait for Watchmojo's video next week of Top Ten facts on the nuclear bombings of North Korea
godzilla was relaesed in 1954 the bomb droped in 1945
Actually, there are two shocking facts about the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which you didn't touch upon. What are they…? Glad you asked.
1) From a purely strategic standpoint, the atomic attacks failed in their intent, which was to cow the Imperial Japanese Military Command Authority into unconditional surrender. Although the emperor did decide to surrender, large portions of the Japanese Military high command were not terribly impressed by the atomic bomb attacks, and with good reason. Strictly speaking, Japanese military commanders had seen entire cities destroyed by the American strategic bombing campaign. Vast areas of Tokyo, itself, had been burned to the ground by fleets of the B-29 Super Fortress, as well as dozens of other Japanese cities and industrial facilities. It mattered little to Japanese commanders if these cities, towns, and facilities were destroyed by hundreds of planes dropping thousands of bombs, or one plane carrying one bomb. The Japanese, however, were very frightened of the prospect of a Soviet invasion of the home islands, which the Soviets were gearing up for in earnest, and would have launched simultaneously with the American invasion, starting in November of 1945. The Japanese were hopeful that public opinion in America would turn against a protracted and bloody invasion of the home islands, if the body count climbed high enough. However, the Japanese generals were under no such illusions when it came to the Soviets, a society in which public opinion counted for less than nothing, and Stalin would not have hesitated to sacrifice millions of Soviet troops, in order to bring Japan in to the Soviet sphere of influence, as he had done in Eastern Europe. Despite the bitterness of the war against America, Japanese leaders knew that occupation by American troops was far preferable to occupation by the Soviets.
2) The atomic bomb attacks, while killing more than 200,000 Japanese citizens in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in fact saved the lives of millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians who would have died in a full-scale joint American-Soviet invasion of the home islands. Estimates of Japanese deaths in such an invasion range from a conservative 1-3 million, while some climb as high as 7-10 million. Such numbers are reasonable to extrapolate, since the defensive strategies which would have been applied to resist American landings included sending waves of thousands of Japanese civilians running at American positions on suicide charges, wearing vests and belts packed with explosives, in order to slow the advance of American soldiers. Japanese civilians would have been forced, at gunpoint, to run at American troops, detonating their ordinance once in range of the troops, if they made it that far. So, millions of civilians would have died either by being shot by their own troops, being shot by American troops, or blowing themselves to pieces, in order to slow the American advance. In addition to which, hundreds of thousands, even millions of Japanese military and civilian personnel, working in industrial complexes which were manufacturing wartime materiel, would have been relentlessly hammered by an armada of bombers launched by the Air Force, flights of B-29s large enough to black out the sun, as they passed overhead. It was estimated that the total tonnage of bombs that were to be dropped on the home islands, from August of 1945 until the invasion was complete, would have been more than double the amount of tonnage that had been dropped in both the Pacific and European Theater of Operations, since the beginning of the war. Literally millions of tons of ordinace would have pounded Japan into dust, and millions of Japanese would have died.
I take some issue with some of these as I've studied the history of the Manhattan Project and the war bombings in depth over many decades. Their #4 item is not the generally accepted explanation for the naming of the two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man. "Little Boy" was named for FDR and "Fat Man" was Churchill. I've never heard the reference to the Maltese Falcon. I believe that's a stretch but possible, I suppose.
The bit about Nagasaki not being an original target is also twisted. As noted below in the comments, Nagasaki was among the cities chosen for possible bombing but was not the primary for the 2nd bomb on August 9th. The primary target which I cannot recall at the moment, was clouded over and so the crew chose Nagasaki as weather was deemed acceptable there. Even at that the crew of Bock's Car, the bomb plane, almost had to drop the plutonium bomb by radar (again, due to clouds) when suddenly a break in the cloud cover appeared allowing a visual drop. It was not an ideal drop but they got the job done. The rest is history.
Kyoto was crossed off the bomb list not just because one of the generals "liked" the city due to a visit. It was crossed off due to the significance of Kyoto having many sacred religious attributes. If Americans bombed that city, it would only incite further resistance in bringing the war to a quick end. Yes, the U.S. insisted on unconditional surrender and many of the comments below suggest that we could have ended the war only if we had met a number of the conditions proffered by the Japanese at the time.
One has to be able to fully comprehend the mindset of our country at that time. The anger over the unmitigated attack on Pearl Harbor in '41 was still fresh in mind, not to mention the way that the Japanese treated POW's at the time. Ever hear of the Bataan Death March?? Add to that the way that Japan treated the Chinese when they invaded there in ~1937. You truly have to immerse yourself in the history of the time to understand what they did and, more importantly, why. War is never pretty and WWII was one of the bleakest wars in all of man's history. There is so much more I could say on this topic but I'll leave it and hope I've made a point or two.
dude the Japanese are brutal af. this is why we had to take away their military lmao you cant play with your toys if youre gonna beat everyone up with them.
i knew a few of these
Does it bother anyone else how she says Hiroshima
"LIT"
We should've wiped out the Soviet Union too
Number 2 is not true. Lots of people survived both bombings. Especially alot of people who weren't in Hiroshima or Nagasaki those days lmao.
Really? The FIRST thing you have to cite in response to the world's greatest tragedy is a movie reference / pop culture?!!
Some cancerous comments here claiming "they deserved it":v lol!No one fuckin deserves nuclear attacks!!How about you get bombed for the wrong things your government does?But wait that's not even necessary as US conspired and killed their own people in 9/11.
'The bomber was detected by Japanese radar'? I was unaware that the Japanese had radar in WWII.
Number 1 is the best thing to tell someone that thinks America is pure 100% evil by dropping the bombs. Even though the leaflets didn't say that the attack would be nuclear they STILL did state that we were about to attack, and even stated several key cities. Yeah Hiroshima wasn't on there, sorry but that's war. In translation the pamphlet says "We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately". So we did still tell them the truth technically.
Japan killed a lot of civilians why don't libtards ever mention that
Ik every thing about atomic bombs
Am i the only one who thought of Fallout right away when they called one of the nukes "fat man" lol
If we don't learn about history, History will Repeat !
Every fallout fan knows the thumbnail is just the fallout 4 trailer tinted brown.
Here comes the angst Japanese, the edgy Europeans and the fucked up irrelevant Muslim goat fuckers
Who's watching because of trump?
so that asshole decided to bomb Nagasaki(a city with zero military bases just because he vacationed at the one with bases.so fucked up.watch"White light,black rain"an hbo doc.I't almost makes you sick to be American
I know japan wasn’t good then but still America doesn’t have the rights to do such a thing
Top 1: japs were disgusting evil fucks and deserved it.
For those of you you who support the head Cheeto, Trump, this is what's coming if you want to bomb N Korea
That flame won't go away
And now after usa killed over a hundred thousand people of Japan
We are now allies
Gay
The cities were fire bombed, not "nuked". Nuclear weapons= jewish scam
real terrorists are us govt…. and ofcause islam… both of them are disease to the planet…
In a history channel program, the bombardier said that kyoto was covered with smoke from a previous bombing on another city. Said they circled for 45 min or so waiting. This was a second delay, and they decided to change targets because the drop was supposed to be in visual conditions. Don't think the bombardier was lying. I guess I can't find out doing a google search, because they are flaming butt orifices.
Facts: they happen, but few get it right. I just want the truth. Enjoy your dime on me.
americans are legal monsters and terrorists only they have right to terrorise people all over the world..yet they will pretend always to be victims lol
1:34 ohw damn
1:33 it buffered and yea
If u think america is good for what they did then u must be stupid
If the allied forces wanted to save millions of people through the atomic bombings, then they should had accepted the Hitler's peace treaty in 1940. Hey, but guess what? NO.
Little boy was secretly w2s
You ass whole
Wouldn't that have been B29's dropping the leaflets?
If you are within the area of a hyper Center which is about a kilometer each direction for Nagasaki forget it you're going to become Vapor Duck and Cover is not going to help you will be turned into carbon plasma basically which will just dissipate. Anywhere else you can Duck and Cover but you still going to receive 3rd degree burns within 2 km the shock wave will still move over you and liquify your lungs maybe if you're on the outskirts yeah duck & cover is a good idea
the real terrorists
i hope that lunatic hit the us of shit with thier own taste of nuke