Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the untold story Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the untold story On August 6th 1945, the first Atomic Bomb, "Little Boy," was dropped on Hiroshima, and three days later on August 9th 1945, the second atomic bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan's industrial capital. The decision to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan was a poor one considering the damage, the devastation, and the amount of people left dead, injured, or suffering the loss of a family member or a friend, all for the sake of quickly ending the ongoing War. When the Japanese had realized that they were the only ones left in the war, Germany their ally, was already beaten out of the war and all efforts were now concentrated at them, the Japanese began suing for a peaceful end to the war. Apart from the fact that Japan had been suing for a peaceful end to the war, there were a number of alternative routes of action that the Americans had at their fingertips, and could have taken advantage of at a moment's notice, which could have possibly saved a lot of lives, both American and Japanese. After analyzing the amount of damage and the amount of lives lost as a result of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, it becomes evident that dropping the bomb was not worth a quick end to the war. Much of why Japanese surrender took so long to come through reverts back to the Samurai Tradition in Japan. First, the Emperor didn't not intervene in political affairs as he was considered to be above such petty human politics, and second, the Japanese code of honor which puts death before dishonor. The Americans had intercepted messages from the Foreign Minister Togo, to Ambassador Sato expressing the desires of the Emperor for a peaceful end to the war, "[h]is Majesty the Emperor, mindful of the fact that the present war daily brings greaterevil and sacrifice upon the peoples of all belligerent powers, desires from his heart thatit may be quickly terminated" (Alperovitz 23).
