Modern Chemical Warfare Essay Example

popular throughout the war, but regained its usefulness in World War II.

World War II

As World War II started in the late 1930s, modern technology had sprouted, and so did the chemical weapons. Because of the Japanese, in 1938, there was The Treaty of Versailles, which tried to ban the use of noxious gases and submarines, but just like with World War I, it was disobeyed.

The Japanese never used chemical weapons against Westerners but they did use it against people in their reign of terror throughout Southeastern Asia. Some of the gases that they used were sneezing gas, chemically called diphenylchlorarsine (2(C6H5)AsC), and mustard gas (C4H8Cl2S).

During World War II, Germany discovered three new chemical weapons: tabun (C5H11N2O2P), soman (C7H16FO2P), and sarin (C4H10FO2P). However, the Germans never used these weapons against the allies.

Some chemical weapons the Germans did use in World War II were against many of their own people in Concentration Camps. The two gases mainly used were carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrogen cyanide (HCN).

The ending on World War II was caused wholeheartedly by chemical warfare. The first Atomic Bombs, and the only ever used against humans were deployed on August 6 and 9, 1945, when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Atomic Bomb

Inside the atomic bomb, there is fission, or dividing, of nuclei of specific isotopes of uranium and plutonium. It is as powerful as thousands of tons of TNT, otherwise known as Trinitrotoluene (C7H5(NO2)3). Collisions between neutrons and the atoms of uranium and plutonium cause the atoms to split into pairs

of nuclear fragments releasing energy and more neutrons.

The newly released neutrons hit other atoms, continuing many more fission reactions until the material is too scattered and cannot continue. The intense explosion is a release of enormous amounts of energy in the form of heat and a massive shockwave. The damage occurred is almost unimaginable, with pressure waves, flash burns, high winds, and a deadly radiation in the form of gamma rays and neutrons. Living matter is destroyed, and soil and water are contaminated also.