Education About Asia: Online Archives

Web Gleanings: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and World War II in the Pacific

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image of a stopwatch
Kengo Futagawa’s Watch Futagawa (59 at the time) was crossing the Kannon Bridge (1,600 meters from the
hypocenter) by bicycle on his way to do fire prevention work. He jumped into the river, terribly burned. He returned home, but died on August 22, 1945.
Image and caption from the Hiroshima Archive site:
http://www.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/photo3-4.html

HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI

Title: A-Bomb WWW Museum

URL: http://www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/

Although this site is fairly crude from a technical standpoint, several areas are useful. There is information about today’s Hiroshima Peace Park in the form of a series of photographs as well as photos taken inside the Peace Memorial Museum. In addition, there are interviews from survivors, the second generation, and children of today.

Title: Hiroshima Archive

URL: http://www.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/

There are two sections to this site: one is a directory, the other a gallery of photographs. The directory contains many citations both online and offline of pertinent information about the bombing of Hiroshima, grouped by subject. The gallery is comprised of the work of photographer Hiromi Tsuchida.

Title: Remembering Nagasaki

URL: http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/mainn.html

This site was created by the Exploratorium in San Francisco as part of their Memory exhibit, which ran from May 1998 to January 1999; the online version will be retained indefinitely. There are four major sub-pages on the site: the photographs of Yosuke Yamahata; Atomic Memories, where people share their recollections of having learned about the bombing; Commentary, where still more recollections are posted; and Commemorations, a listing of films and links to online sites.

Title: Documents Relating to the Development of the Atomic Bomb

URL: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/hiroshim.htm

On this site one will find links to a huge number of original documents. They include letters and memoranda from Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Groves, Navy Secretary Forrestal, President Truman, and many others. Also included are excerpts from diaries— Henry Stimson, Admiral Takagi, and others—as well as leaflets dropped over Japan and top secret cables sent shortly before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Title: The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association

URL: http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/ ERC-1.htm

Here is the history of the Manhattan Project. This sub-page—Educational Research Center—is easier to use than the home page with its very busy look. It has an outline where one can navigate the site subject by subject. There are timelines, photographs, technical items about bombs, a history of Los Alamos, New Mexico, and many other subjects of interest.

Title: The Men Who Bombed Hiroshima

URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4718579.stm

On the sixtieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the BBC ran a series of articles, along with videos, pertaining to the surrender of Japan and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This article relates the experiences of several crew members of the Enola Gay. In the right column of this page are links to other articles, including stories of survivors and descriptions of the bombings in Nagasaki and in Hiroshima.

Title: Atomic Bomb Decision

URL: http://www.dannen.com/decision/index.html

These documents, the majority from July 1945, were written by scientists and other interested parties regarding the use of the atomic bomb. Since this Web page is part of the Leo Szilard Web site, there are several documents of his, including a petition to President Truman asking him to forestall the use of the bomb.

Title: The Avalon Project: The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

URL: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/abomb/mpmenu.htm

The Avalon Project at Yale University has digitized hundreds of documents in law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government dating from the eighteenth century. This document was produced by The Manhattan Engineer District, June 29, 1946, under the direction of Major General Leslie R. Groves. It details the effects of the two bombings; it describes the nature of the casualties and lists the number of dead and injured. It speaks in general about atomic bombs and the characteristics of their damages.

PACIFIC WAR

Title: World War II in the Pacific

URL: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/index.html

On this page are photos from battles of World War II in the Pacific taken from the US National Archives. There are short descriptions associated with each photo; the photos are arranged chronologically beginning in 1942 and ending in 1945. There is a link to a very detailed 1941–1945 timeline of the War in the Pacific.

Title: World War II in the Pacific History Resources

URL: http://www.historesearch.com/ww2pacificmil.html

The Histor eSearch sites are aimed at students and teachers of history. On this page are links to information about the Pacific Theater of World War II grouped by category: General, Battles, Biographies, etc.

Title: World War II in the Pacific

URL: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/ worldwariipacific.htm

This site has articles written in a simple, basic manner. Several of the topics have more documentation than others. The sections on Pearl Harbor and on the atomic bomb have the most information. A few links in other sections are broken, which is unfortunate. There are also some pop-up advertisements, another negative aspect of the site.

Title: Online Bookshelves: WWII—Asiatic-Pacific Theater

URL: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/online/Bookshelves/ WW2-Pac.htm

The US Army has put together this site; most of the articles deal with campaigns in the Pacific during WWII. Each is fairly detailed, with maps and photographs, descriptions of operations, and an analysis of the successes and failures. There is also a “Reader’s Guide,” a summary of books written about the US Army in World War II, as of 1992.

Title: USAF Museum—Combat in the Pacific—WWII

URL: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/combatp.htm

The USAF Museum, physically located in Ohio, has gathered a large number of short articles online that describe air combat during World War II. From Pearl Harbor to New Guinea to Corregidor to Iwo Jima, the articles are brief, but detailed, and provide photos.

Title: The Final Months of the War with Japan

URL: http://www.odci.gov/csi/monograph/4253605299/ csi9810001.html

This is a comprehensive monograph produced for the CIA about the role of intercepted communications in military planning during the final stages of the Pacific War. The author claims the following: “This study was not intended as an argument for or against the use of the atomic bomb against Japan.” It is up to the reader to evaluate whether or not the author was successful in accomplishing his stated goal.

Title: After the Day of Infamy: “Man-on-the-Street” Interviews

URL: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html

On December 8, 1941, field workers for the Smithsonian Institute were asked to collect the reactions of “ordinary Americans” to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A second collection of reactions was gathered in the early weeks of 1942. More than 200 interviews were conducted, and these are in the form of audio files with accompanying transcripts.