World War Two essays

World War Two essays World War II was a time of death, destruction and sorrow. The events that took place during this period did, and still do appear quite unbelievable to many people. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki introduced for the first time the power of nuclear weaponry, and the attack on Sydney Harbour by Japanese mini-subs demonstrated the cruel ability of many nations to take innocent lives. World War II was a time for leadership and dominance, the startlingly persuasive Adolf Hitler prime example. Analysing these events carefully is essential if the significance of World War II is to be fully understood. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were perhaps the most significant events of World War II. On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber took off on a secret mission from Tinian Island in the South Pacific. Its destination was Hiroshima, Japan, and aboard was a 9400-pound atomic bomb, codenamed Little Boy . Just a few months earlier, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, had made a decision; based largely on his exclusive knowledge that a singular bomb could destroy an entire city, to drop an atomic bomb on Japan following three and a half years of the United States direct and constant involvement in World War II. Japans defeat was vitally important in the United States desire for the war to end, and thus the first ever atomic bombs to be used in combat were constructed. The target of Little Boy was the Aioi Bridge in central Hiroshima, and when the bomb exploded just 280m away from its designated target at 8:15am, its shockwaves destroy ed everything within a four-kilometre radius of the epicentre. Fat Man , the bomb dropped on Nagasaki just three days later at 11:02am , unleashed a force comparable to Little Boy. The nature of the bombings was so shocking, so incomprehensible, that their impact continues to be ...