August 6-19, 2015 Current Events Lesson Plan
Current Event: Hiroshima
On August 6, tens of thousands of people stood for a minute of silence, broken only by the tolling of a single bell, at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, to mark the anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the city. Seventy years ago, a U.S. Army plane, the Enola Gay, dropped the first nuclear weapon used in warfare on the Japanese city. The explosion killed from 70,000 to 140,000 people. The single bomb destroyed about 5 square miles (13 square kilometers) of the city. After Japanese leaders failed to respond to the bombing, the United States dropped another bomb on Nagasaki on August 9. It killed about 40,000 people. Later, thousands more died of injuries and radiation from the two bombings. On August 14, Japan agreed to stop fighting and World War II unofficially ended. Much controversy has surrounded U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb. Without the atomic bomb, the Allies almost certainly would have invaded the Japanese home islands, with heavy estimated casualties on both sides. There is some evidence, however, that Japan might have surrendered even had the bomb not been used. Of the more than one million hibakusha, as Japan calls those who survived the bombings, around 180,000 are still alive today.
Objective:
World War II (1939-1945) was the most destructive war in history. It killed more people, destroyed more property, and disrupted more lives than any other war in history. Historians believe that about 50 million to 60 million civilians and soldiers died during the six years of fighting. As a result of the war, much of Europe and parts of Asia lay in ruins. In addition to the tens of millions of people who died, millions more were starving and homeless. The war brought about the downfall of Western Europe as the center of world power. It led to the dominance of the Soviet Union and the United States, and set off a power struggle between the two countries called the Cold War. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the people and battles of World War II.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. Ask your students to name military and political leaders of World War II. (Famous military leaders include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Montgomery, George S. Patton, and Erwin Rommel. Famous political leaders include Winston Churchill, Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin.)
2. Have your students debate, “How would the world be different today if World War II had never been fought?” Or, they can debate, “How would the world be different today if the Axis countries had won World War II?”
3. Ask your students to debate, “Since civilians help supply a country’s war effort, it is acceptable to target civilians during war?”
4. Ask your students to rank the 5 most significant historical events of the 20th century. Possible event to discuss include the assassination of Franz Ferdinand (leading to World War I), bombing of Hiroshima, discovery of penicillin, rise and fall of the Soviet Union, Great Depression, Holocaust, moon landing, rise of computers and the Internet, Russian Revolution, Treaty of Versailles.
5. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the World War II: Asia and the Pacific timeline.