WWII EC: The Atomic Bomb

NOTE: The following Extra Credits are for both US and World History classes. They are separated into topic areas, so read the directions to know what to do for each.

The Atomic Bomb

ADD NEW A BOMB VIDEOS

Extra Credit: The Atomic Bomb -Watch the following videos about the impact of US's use of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. US President Truman said he chose to use the bomb because it would allow the Allies to avoid an invasion of Japan, which most estimated would have been very costly to both the lives of Allied soldiers and Japanese civilians. After viewing the movies, write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.

Extra Credit: A Tale of Two Cities - The War Department produced this film in 1946 about the atomic bomb and its impact on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1946, the U.S. War Department produced a twelve-minute film about the atomic bomb, called A Tale of Two Cities. The two cities were, of course, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (The War Department, by the way, ran the Army and the Army Air Force. It was merged with the Department of the Navy in 1947 to become today’s Department of Defense.) Watch the movie and answer the following questions related to the film:    

Questions to consider

1. How would you describe the tone of the script and the narrator? Do you think it is appropriate to the topic?
2. How would you describe the music? Why might it have been chosen? Do you think it is appropriate?
3. The narrator says that there were 20,000 Japanese military personnel in Hiroshima, who are “among the missing.” Why would they be considered “missing”?
4. The priest who witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima says that the “deadly rain” that followed the bombing was just a rumor. By this time, though, the effects of nuclear fallout — radiation spread by the explosion — were well known to the army, and thousands of Japanese people had died from “atomic sickness.” Why does the film not mention this?
5. Does the film portray the atomic bomb as “just” a bigger bomb, or as an entirely new kind of weapon?
6. Why would the War Department have made a film like this?
7. What can you tell from this film about the way most Americans felt about Japan and the Japanese people by the war’s end?
8. How do you imagine this film would have been received in 1946?
9. How does the film make you feel today?