What is an Atomic Bomb?

An atomic bomb is a weapon with exceptional explosive power that occurs from the sudden release of energy upon the fission or splitting of the nuclei of a heavy element such as plutonium or uranium. 

There are two basic ways that nuclear energy can be released from an atom. In nuclear fission, scientists can split the nucleus of an atom into two smaller fragments with a neutron. Whilst nuclear fusion involves bringing together two smaller atoms to form a larger one. In either process, fission or fusion, large amounts of heat energy and radiation are given off. The discovery of nuclear fission can be accredited to the work of Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. 

In the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a uranium gun-type fission bomb named "Little Boy" was released on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945 and a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb termed "Fat Man" detonated over Nagasaki on the 9th of August 1945. These bombings produced the deaths of approximately 200,000 Japanese civilians and affected thousands of others even countless decades after they were released. Although, was all this pain suffered on the Japanese side worth the end of a war that may have caused additional prolonged pain in the long run?