Hiroshima

August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima (Japan)

'Little Boy', the first atomic bomb used in war and
done so against a densely populated civilian population, Hiroshima.
The "little boy" bomb used TNT charges
to blow two subcritical masses of 235U together.
It had a yield of 10 kilotons. At 2:45 a.m. on Monday, August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off from Tinian, a North Pacific island in the Marianas, 1,500 miles south of Japan. The twelve-man crew were on board to make sure this secret mission went smoothly. Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot, nicknamed the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother. At the time this photo was made, smoke billowed 20,000 feet above Hiroshima while smoke from the burst of the first atomic bomb had spread over 10,000 feet on the target at the base of the rising column.

Watch found among the ashes, stopped at the time of the explosion (8:15 am) Target cities were chosen because they had been otherwise relatively untouched during the war. The Target Committee wanted the first bomb to be "sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it was released." (in . Kurzman, Day of the Bomb) Navy Captain William S. Parsons ("Deak"), chief of the Ordnance Division in the "Manhattan Project, thought while arming "Little Boy": "I knew the Japs were in for it, but I felt no particular emotion about it."

Two-thirds of Hiroshima was destroyed. Within three miles of the explosion, 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings were demolished.

Third dgree burns from heat rays heal very slowly. She was 2 km from the hypocenter when the bomb exploded. October 4, 1945, Hiroshima Red-Cross Hospital. 7 years after the bombing, hastily-dug graves were found. 252 bodies. Hiroshima, July 30, 1952.

Hiroshima's population has been estimated at 350,000; some 70,000 are killed immediately; about 145,000 persons perished from the bombing by the end of 1945; another 70,000 died from radiation within five years. In 2005, Hiroshima officials place the total toll, including fatalities due to the effects of radiation in the subsequent decades, at over 230,000.

When he received word of the bombing of Hiroshima, President Truman exclaimed, "This is the greatest day in history!"

August 9, 1945, 11:02 - Nagasaki (Japan)

The schedule of the second bombing was determined by the waiting only for a sufficient amount of plutonium-239, not by considerations of giving Japan time to surrender. On August 9, only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, another B-29, Bock's Car, left Tinian at 3:49 a.m. The first choice target for this bombing run had been Kokura. Since the haze over Kokura prevented the sighting of the bombing target, Bock's Car continued on to its second target. At 11:02 a.m., the atomic bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped over Nagasaki.

The "fat man" bomb was a ball of 239Pu crushed together by TNT. It was used against Nagasaki and had a yield of 20 kilotons.

Approximately 40 percent of Nagasaki was destroyed.

A shadow of two people and ladder projected and burnt onto a wooden house. Photo: Eiichi Matsumoto. Aug 10, 1945, about 2:00 p.m. Nagasaki. At Michi-no-O Station,3.6km from the hypocenter, a mother feeds her baby, waiting for help. Aug 10, Nagasaki. The charred remains.700 meters from the hypocenter.

With a population of 270,000, approximately 35,000 people died at Nagasaki in the immediate blast, approximately 70,000 people died by the end of the year.