The Impact of Fat Man
by The dropping of the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima had failed to persuade the Imperial Japanese government to formally surrender and thus end the Second World War. Therefore President Harry S. Truman made the decision to launch a second atomic bomb strike against the city of Nagasaki.
A second B-29 Super Flying Fortress long-range bomber dropped the Big Boy atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki on the morning of the 9th August 1945. President Harry S Truman believed that Big Boy being dropped would end the pointless resistance of the Imperial Japanese government.
Over all the Fat Man atomic bomb had the same destructive power as the Little Boy atomic device that had been dropped upon the city of Hiroshima only three days earlier. The only reason that the number of fatalities was lower than the earlier attack on Hiroshima was because Nagasaki had a lower population.
Just like Hiroshima the city of Nagasaki suffered unprecedented levels of destruction, with 75,000 people dying as a direct result of the Fat Man atomic bomb being dropped. Around another 75,000 Japanese people died as a result of radiation sickness and increased levels of cancer in subsequent decades.
As a direct impact of the Fat Man atomic bomb being dropped the Imperial Japanese government did surrender, knowing that their country could not cope with a third atomic bomb strike being carried out by the United States Air Force. The Japanese knew that they would have been powerless to stop another atomic bomb being dropped by the United States Air Force.
The Fat Man atomic bomb being used enhanced the United States’ position, as the world’s only atomic power in 1945. The Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin was determined to develop its own atomic bombs, which contributed to the beginning of the Cold War. The British and the French were also determined to develop their own force of atomic bombs to assist in maintaining their status as great powers.
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