Ryan Hare

Expository 3

The Weapon of Annihilation

Harry S. Truman once called the atomic bombing on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as “the greatest thing in history.” How can a weapon of mass destruction be glorified like this? The blast kills thousands of people and the radiation is a known cause of diseases such as cancer and leukemia. Furthermore, it destroys the environment. The atomic bomb is an invention that has harmed society and the world would be better off without it.

The atom bomb is a weapon that has the power to kill massive amounts of people. No matter who the enemy is the weapon will always end up killing innocent people. There is no way. The ways that these people are forced to die is cruel and inhumane. On August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima was the target of the first atomic bomb used against civil population in history. Intense thermal heat emitted by the fireball caused severe burns and loss of eyesight and thermal burns of bare skin occurred as far as 3.5 kilometers from directly below the explosion. Within one kilometer of ground zero, most people were exposed to thermal rays and died. Many were trapped under buildings and burned to death. The number of people killed is massive. Immediately after the blast, 70,000 Japanese were instantly killed and the same were instantly injured.

The blast is not the only damaging effect of the atom bomb. Radiation from the bomb is leaked into the environment and has harmful effects on humans. In Hiroshima, symptoms appearing in the first four months were called acute. Acute symptoms that were seen were general malaise, fatigue, headaches, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, abnormally low white blood cell count, bloody discharge, anemia, and loss of hair. The studies of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation on exposed A-bomb survivors show that severe mental retardation was seen mostly among the children who were exposed to radiation at 8-15 weeks of gestation. Ionizing radiation can also alter DNA. Cell damage and death that result from mutations in somatic cells occur only in the organism in which the mutation occurred but mutations that occur in sex cells (can be transmitted to future generations. However, these genetic effects may not appear until many generations later. The worst effect of radiation is that it causes many diseases, some of which are incurable. Cataracts, leukemia, breast, thyroid, lung, and stomach cancer are all diseases that have been caused by the radiation in atomic bombs. Cancer, for example, is produced if radiation does not kill the cell but creates an error in the DNA and eventually contributes to the loss of control of cell division. Since Cancers caused by radiation do not differ from other cancers due to other reasons, it is difficult to measure the rate of cancer due to radiation. There are many terrible damages to the human body caused by radiation in atomic bombs.

 One cannot imagine the destruction to the environment after an atomic bomb is used. A shock wave occurs after an atomic and a rapid expansion of air, called the blast, follows it. A mushroom cloud filled mainly with dust and gases fills the air. The gases cause an expansion of a blast wave that creates static overpressure and dynamic overpressure, which have the power to crush buildings and create winds. The static overpressure in Hiroshima caused ninety-one and nine tenths percent of all the buildings to be destroyed. Wooden houses within 2.3 kilometers of ground zero collapsed and concrete buildings near ground zero had ceilings crushed and windows and doors blown off. The dust, gasses, and radiation fill the atmosphere. In the area affected, the dust blocks the rays of sunlight, causing plants and animals to die. Radioactive debris can be deposited by black rain over a wide area. Fire is also a cause of destruction of the environment. The heat from the explosion can cause building to catch fire and trees to burn from the inside, leaving the hollow trunks behind. The atomic bomb, in short, destroys everything in its path.
 The atomic bomb has the power to annihilate all of society that is close to the explosion and even affects society miles away. The massacre of mankind, the horrifying results of radiation exposure, and destruction to the environment are all reason why the world would be a better place if the atomic bomb was never invented.