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Population Dynamics of Hiroshima

There are currently more people inhabiting the world today than in any other period of history. Populations, varying by region, have fluctuating tendencies. During times of prosperity and good fortune, people tend to reproduce at more rapid rates; an example of this would be the Baby Boom of the United States that took place following World War II up until the 1960s. Although prosperity is great, elsewhere in the world, other populations are effected by War, Famine, Disease and Cataclysmic events. For example, African villages, despite having extremely high reproduction rates, lack the medicine and technology necessary to fight of illness. In our study of population dynamics, and in continuance with our study of World War II, we will enter the Japanese town of Hiroshima. The year... 1945-- World War II had been showing no signs of letting up on the Pacific Front, after fierce battles like Iwo Jima. Hiroshima was a town relatively untouched by the war, as the allied forces for some reason continuously left the target alone as it conducted its destructive air raids.

Many Japanese people had the intuition to leave their homes, and take refuge elsewhere with family members in neighboring towns, but the majority, continued on with their lives, ignoring the air raid sirens set off by the Empire when an airplane was sighted. In August of 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman made a bold move to end the war by issuing an ultimatum out to Japan, promising that if they did not surrender immediately, they would suffer "prompt and utter destruction." After the Japanese ignored his request, Truman decided to drop the bomb foremost on this heavily populated city so that its after effects, if successful, would leave a deep psychological scar on the Japanese psyche. The attack on Hiroshima would in fact leave a cataclysmic footprint not only on the empire, but on the entire world, setting the stage for a new era in history, where tens of thousands of people and big cities alike can potentially be wiped off the map in the split of an atom.