Atomic Bomb question?

Question

How many people died in Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped
How many people died in Nagasaki when the atom bomb was droped

Answer 1

Less than who died in the incendiary attacks on Tokyo and other Japanese cities.... In a period of ten days starting March 9, a total of 1,595 sorties delivered 9,373 tons of bombs against Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe destroying 31 square miles of those cities most people think the most destuctive air raid in history was the Atomic Bomb. NOT SO. The Japanese empire was almost totally destroyed by summer 1945.

On March 9-10, 1945, an air raid on Tokyo killed an estimated 100,000 people in a single night of fire.

U.S. warplanes shower the sky with rivulets of fire, and thousands of corpses — many of them women and children — clot Tokyo's main river. Flaming victims plummet in agony from a burning bridge.

At this stage in the war, civilians on both sides were feeling the effect of total war...indiscriminate carpet bombing, V1/V2 attacks, and yes, the nuclear attacks.

Answer 2

It appears you've been given a whole bunch of numbers and yes, more people were killed in the Tokyo raid. Close second and third were Dresden and Berlin.
It HAD to be done. They would NEVER have surrendered.
I guess we're supposed to forget the Battle of Britain, the Rape of Nanking and all the nasty things the Germans and Japanese did.
"Rivulets of fire?" Saint Paul's Cathedral in the Battle of Britain.
Nagasaki was obviously necessary because they were too stupid to surrender after Hiroshima.

Answer 3

90 - 140K for Hiroshima, 90K for Nagasaki including post incident deaths.

Never did understand why Nagasaki was necessary ....

Answer 4

This is from page 12 (of 27) at www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp10.shtml :
The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki--
Total Casualties:
There has been great difficulty in estimating the total casualties in the Japanese cities as a result of the atomic bombing. The extensive destruction of civil installations (hospitals, fire and police department, and government agencies) the state of utter confusion immediately following the explosion, as well as the uncertainty regarding the actual population before the bombing, contribute to the difficulty of making estimates of casualties. The Japanese periodic censuses are not complete. Finally, the great fires that raged in each city totally consumed many bodies.

The number of total casualties has been estimated at various times since the bombings with wide discrepancies. The Manhattan Engineer District's best available figures are:

TABLE A: Estimates of Casualties: Hiroshima (H) -- Nagasaki (N)
Pre-raid population: 255,000 (H)-- 195,000 (N)
Dead 66,000 (H) -- 39,000 (N)
Injured 69,000 (H) -- 25,000 (N)
Total Casualties: 135,000 (H)-- 64,000 (N)

The relation of total casualties to distance from X, the center of damage and point directly under the air-burst explosion of the bomb, is of great importance in evaluating the casualty-producing effect of the bombs. This relationship for the total population of Nagasaki is shown in the table below, based on the first-obtained casualty figures of the District
Total Casualties:

Ground 0-1640 ft: 7,505 killed; 960 injured; 1,127 missing;
9,592 total; 24,700 killed per square mile
1640-3300 ft: 3,688 killed; 1,478 injured; 1,799 missing;
6,965 total; 4,040 killed per sq. mi
3300-4900 ft: 8,678 killed; 17,137 injured; 3,597 missing;
29,412 total; 5710 killed per sq. mi.
4900-6550 ft: 2,21 killed; 11,958 injured; 28 missing; 12,207
total; 125 killed per sq. mi.
6550-9850 ft: 112 killed; 9,460 injured; 17 missing; 9,589
total ;20 killed per sq. mi.

No figure for total pre-raid population at these different distances were available. Such figures would be necessary in order to compute per cent mortality. A calculation made by the British Mission to Japan and based on a preliminary analysis of the study of the Joint Medical-Atomic Bomb Investigating Commission gives the following calculated values for per cent mortality at increasing distances from X:

TABLE C: Percent Mortality at Various Distances Distance from X, in feet----Percent Mortality

0 - 1000 ft: 93.0%
1000 - 2000ft: 92.0 %
2000 - 3000 ft. 86.0 %
3000 - 4000 ft 69.0 %
4000 - 5000 ft 49.0 %
5000 - 6000 ft. 31.5 %
6000 - 7000 ft 12.5 %
7000 - 8000 ft. 1.3 %
8000 - 9000 ft. 0.5 %
9000 - 10,000 ft 0.0 %

It seems almost certain from the various reports that the greatest total number of deaths were those occurring immediately after the bombing. The causes of many of the deaths can only be surmised, and of course many persons near the center of explosion suffered fatal injuries from more than one of the bomb effects. The proper order of importance for possible causes of death is: burns, mechanical injury, and gamma radiation. Early estimates by the Japanese are shown in D below:

TABLE D: Cause of Immediate Deaths Hiroshima
Cause of Death Percent of Total
Burns : 60%
Falling debris : 30%
Other: 10%

Nagasaki
Cause of Death Percent of Total
Burns: 95%
Falling debris: 9%
Flying glass: 7%
Other: 7%


A very graphic book, written by Arata Osada, is called "Children of the A-Bomb" and describes in detail what happened to kids about the ages of 8-16 or thereabouts on those 2 deadly days. I read it when it was first published back in the late 1950's, and have never forgotten it. It is still available today, in English--of course.