Then why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki actually inhabited more than ten years after the nuclear attack? And now it's only over 7 years, and 1.4 million people have lived in such a prosperous place? In this issue, Shan Haijun will explain why Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, after the nuclear attack, can recover in such a short time.
On August 6th, 1945, three B-29 strategic bombers of the US Air Force entered Japan from the eastern Pacific Ocean, dropping the atomic bomb named "Little Boy" over the Xiangshan Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan. The nuclear material used by "Little Boy" is uranium -235, and its half-life of nuclear radiation has reached an astonishing 7 million years!
The "little boy" was dropped at an altitude of 947 meters, and detonated at a height of about 6 meters from the ground 43 seconds later. The explosion caused 91, casualties, and more than 7% of buildings in Hiroshima were destroyed by the explosion shock wave.
On August 9th, five B-29 strategic bombers of the US Air Force dropped the atomic bomb named "Fat Man" over the Pushang Catholic Church in Nagasaki, Japan, and carried out the second nuclear attack on Japan. The original target of "Fat Man" was Kokura, Japan, but on August 9, the local clouds in Kokura were too thick, so the target was temporarily changed to Nagasaki, Japan.
"Fat Man" was detonated at a height of about 5 meters from the ground, causing as many as 1, casualties, and more than 6% of the buildings in the city were destroyed by the explosion shock wave. Because the center of the explosion deviated from the expected target by about three kilometers, and the terrain of Nagasaki was more rugged than that of Hiroshima, the damage caused by "Fat Man" to Nagasaki was not as serious as that of Hiroshima.
The nuclear material used by "Fat Man" is plutonium -239, and its nuclear radiation half-life is 24, years. Although it is much less than the 7 million years of "Little Boy", 24, years is a very long time. After all, the history of human civilization is only a few thousand years.
at 5: 3 a.m. on July 15th, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb "gadget" was successfully tested in a desert area in Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA. In fact, it is incorrect to call the world's first atomic bomb "Thin Man" on the Internet. "Thin Man" is a nickname given to the shooting plutonium nuclear bomb in Manhattan project, but it was cancelled after it was technically considered unfeasible (plutonium contains plutonium-24 isotope, and the background neutron is too high to be detonated by shooting).
At that time, the United States was the first country in the world to develop an atomic bomb. In order to show its powerful military strength and establish its hegemony in the world, the United States exaggerated the power of the atomic bomb.
Moreover, since the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union entered a hostile "cold war" stage, so the United States deliberately publicized the power of the atomic bomb. Moreover, the hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union plunged into the "Cold War". In order to find allies in East Asia, the United States strongly supported Japan, which was in trouble after World War II. In order to get help from the United States, Japan helped the United States and exaggerated the power of the atomic bomb.
after all, the atomic bomb was just developed at that time, far less mature than the current nuclear technology, so it is much less powerful than today's atomic bomb. The nuclear radiation pollution caused by the current nuclear technology is really terrible, and it is possible that no one can live for hundreds or thousands of years.
for example, in 1986, the generator set of the fourth nuclear reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, now northern Ukraine, causing a serious nuclear accident, which is referred to as "Chernobyl incident" for short. The accident was rated as the first "seventh-level event" in history by the International Nuclear Event Scale, and the second accident was the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan on March 11, 211.
The "Chernobyl incident" caused nearly 8 tons of nuclear leakage pollutants! The nuclear radiation is about 4 times that of the two atomic bombs "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" combined! Thirty-one people were killed on the spot, and more than 2 workers were exposed to severe nuclear radiation. According to the "Greenpeace" survey, by 26, nearly 9, people had died, and another 27, people suffered from various degrees of nuclear radiation.
With the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as the center, more than 115, people in Fiona Fang were forced to evacuate within 3 kilometers, and now they have become no man's land, so Pripyat City was abandoned. Now more than 3 years have passed, Pripyat City has not come back to life like Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and it is still desolate.
According to relevant surveys, Pripyat City may remain desolate for centuries under the influence of nuclear radiation, because it will take hundreds of years for these nuclear radiation substances to be reduced to a level that does not endanger human and animal lives.
The fact that Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were able to rebuild their people so quickly proves that the power and harm of the atomic bomb at that time were not as great as expected, so Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to recover so quickly.
apart from the fact that the atomic bomb was not so powerful at that time, the rapid recovery of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan was also related to its geographical location and monsoon climate.
Japan is an island country on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, with a temperate maritime monsoon climate, which is mild and rainy all year round, especially rainy in June, typhoons in summer and autumn, abundant precipitation and obvious maritime climate characteristics. To sum up, due to the influence of maritime monsoon climate, the nuclear pollutants on the ground and in the air can be diluted and washed away by abundant rain, and flow into the ocean of vast expanse with the surface runoff.
Moreover, in order to improve the power of the atomic bomb when the United States launched a nuclear attack on Japan at that time, both the "little boy" and the "fat man" were detonated in the air at a height of 5 to 6 meters from the ground, and the nuclear radiation material was spread by the explosion shock wave. However, there are just many typhoons in summer and autumn in Japan, and this ocean monsoon quickly dilutes and takes away nuclear pollutants, so Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan can be restored and inhabited in just over ten years.
In addition, Japan's land area is only about 37, square kilometers, and its population soared by more than 1 million after World War II. The Japanese archipelago is located at the junction of the Eurasian continental plate, the North American plate, the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate, and was formed by the collision of four plates. Therefore, there are many volcanoes and mountainous terrain in the Japanese archipelago, and the land area suitable for living is actually not much. Due to the shortage of living space, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan can be rebuilt and revived within a hundred years, and the pressure of land supply and demand in Japan accounts for a considerable proportion.
Well, in this issue, Shan Haijun helps you to answer why Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan can be rebuilt and revived so quickly in just a few decades from three aspects: the atomic bomb power at the time of World War II, the climate of Japanese islands and the population pressure caused by the geographical characteristics of Japanese islands.