None of us can afford to forget the devastation wrought by
the first Atomic Bomb used in anger on August 6, 1945.
I was a very young child but I vividly remember the incredulous
shock of this event. It felt like the world shuddered but it was really
the mass extermination of over 200,000 people in a blinding
few seconds ~ a few seconds that indelibly touched the
consciousness of every inhabitant of this planet.
I think the whole world mirrored what Enola Gay co-pilot Robert
Lewis wrote in his diary after looking back at the growing
mushroom cloud ~ " MY GOD , WHAT HAVE WE DONE ? "
Here's a must read pictorial review of the day the world changed forever.
Allen L Roland
The Day The World Changed Forever
August 6, 1945
August 6, 1945
Enormous Atomic Cloud
About one hour after the bombing on 6 August 1945. Photo: the U.S. Army.
Kengo 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.
After being released, it took about a minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion. Little Boy exploded at approximately 8:15 a.m. (Japan Standard Time) when it reached an altitude of 2,000 ft above the building that is today called the "A-Bomb Dome."
Little boy
The July 24, 1995 issue of Newsweek writes: "A bright light filled the plane," wrote Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb. "We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud...boiling up, mushrooming." For a moment, no one spoke. Then everyone was talking. "Look at that! Look at that! Look at that!" exclaimed the co-pilot, Robert Lewis, pounding on Tibbets's shoulder. Lewis said he could taste atomic fission; it tasted like lead. Then he turned away to write in his journal. "My God," he asked himself, "what have we done?" (special report, "Hiroshima: August 6, 1945") note: Paul Tibbets was Colonel, not "Lt. Colonel," when he was the pilot of the Enola Gay.
The Little Boy generated an enormous amount of energy in terms of air pressure and heat. In addition, it generated a significant amount of radiation (Gamma ray and neutrons) that subsequently caused devastating human injuries.
The people who saw the Little Boy often say "We saw another sun in the sky when it exploded." The heat and the light generated by the Little Boy were far stronger than bombs which they had seen before. When the heat wave reached ground level it burnt all before it including people.
The strong wind generated by the bomb destroyed most of the houses and buildings within a 1.5 miles radius. When the wind reached the mountains, it was reflected and again hit the people in the city center. The wind generated by Little Boy caused the most serious damage to the city and people.
The radiation generated by the bomb caused long-term problems to those affected. Many people died within the first few months and many more in subsequent years because of radiation exposure. Some people had genetic problems which sometimes resulted in having malformed babies or being unable to have children. It is believed that more than 140,000 people died by the end of the year. They were citizens including students, soldiers and Koreans who worked in factories within the city. The total number of people who have died due to the bomb is estimated to be 200,000. WWW Museum
The Target The building which is now known as the A-bomb Dome was built in 1915 as the Hiroshima Prefectural Products Exhibition Hall. Later the name was changed to the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall and finally to the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. It was designed by Jan Letzel, a Czech architect, and, as the city's most elegant and artistic building, was a source of pride for Hiroshima citizens. To the west of the building was a unique T-shaped bridge, the Aioi Bridge, which served an important role of joining east and west sections of the city with the Nakajima and Yoshijima districts to the south. The Aioi Bridge is said to have been the target when the A-bomb was dropped. Research to date has indicated that the actual point where the A-bomb exploded was approximately 300 meters southeast of Aioi Bridge, approximately 580 meters above the Shima Hospital in the district that was previously called Saiku-machi. (The ground directly below the point where the bomb exploded is referred to as the hypocenter.)
The Fireball at the Instant of Explosion The temperature of the air at the point of explosion reached several million degrees Celsius (the maximum temperature of conventional bombs is approximately 5,000 degrees. Several millionths of a second after the explosion a fireball appeared, radiating white heat. After 1/10,000 of a second. the fireball reached a diameter of approximately 28 meters with a temperature of close to 300,000 degrees. At the instant of explosion, intense heat rays and radiation were released in all directions, and a blast erupted with incredible pressure on the surrounding air. Of the energy released, approximately 35 percent was in the form of heat rays, 50 percent as blast wind, and 15 percent as radiation (5 percent as initial radiation and 10 percent as residual radiation).
The Mushroom Cloud The cloud generated by the disturbed air resulting from the explosion was lifted upward by strong currents. As the pillar of radiation-laden smoke reached the bottom of the stratosphere, it spread out horizontally to a diameter of several kilometers, forming the shape of a mushroom cap. After developing into this final stage, the mushroom cloud was dispersed by the wind and dissipated into the surrounding air.
An Eyewitness Account by a Middle School Student The following is from an eyewitness account by a middle school student who was in a classroom during the bombing. The student managed to escaped the collapsed school building but suffered injuries. "I'll never forget that day. After we finished our morning greetings in the schoolyard, we were waiting in the classroom for our building demolition work to begin. Suddenly a friend by the window shouted 'B- 29!' At the same instant, a flash pierced my eyes. The entire building collapsed at once and we were trapped underneath. I don't know how long I remained unconscious. When I came to, I couldn't move my body. Cuts on my face and hands throbbed with pain. My front teeth were broken and my shirt soaked in blood. As I crawled along, encouraging myself, I somehow managed to poke my head out of the wreckage. The school that should have appeared before my eyes was nowhere to be seen. It had vanished and only smoldering ruins remained. Beyond the school toward the center of town, all I could see was a sea of flames. I was so terrified I couldn't stop shaking. Moving my body a little at a time, I was finally able to work free of the collapsed structure. Making sure to head upwind to escape the fires, I made my way staggering haphazardly through the rubble of the city and escaped."
Shigeru was a first-year student at the Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Middle School #2 and was mobilized everyday with his classmates to work on clearing demolished buildings. He was exposed to the A-bombing on August 6 in Nakajima Shinmachi (currently Peace Memorial Park), approximately 500 meters from the hypocenter. His mother walked around the A-bombed city looking for her son, eventually finding him with a lunch box strapped around his stomach. The body was unidentifiable, and the lunch box, with its contents that he never ate, was burned black. (Approximately 500 meters from hypocenter. Courtesy of Shigeko Oremen) City of Hiroshima
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