Hiroshima bombing
Hiroshima in the
aftermath of the bombing
For decades this photo was misidentified as the mushroom
cloud of the bomb that formed at c. 08:16. However, due to its much greater
height, the scene was identified in March 2016 as the firestorm-cloud that engulfed
the city, some three hours after the bombing.
The air raid warning had been cleared at 07:31, and many
people were outside, going about their activities. Eizō Nomura was the closest
known survivor, being in the basement of a reinforced concrete building (it
remained as the Rest House after the war) only 170 meters (560 ft) from ground
zero at the time of the attack. He died in 1982, aged 84. Akiko Takakura was
among the closest survivors to the hypocenter of the blast. She was in the
solidly-built Bank of Hiroshima only 300 meters (980 ft) from ground-zero at
the time of the attack.
Over 90 percent of the doctors and 93 percent of the nurses
in Hiroshima were killed or injured—most had been in the downtown area which received
the greatest damage. The hospitals were destroyed or heavily damaged. Only one
doctor, Terufumi Sasaki, remained on duty at the Red Cross Hospital.
Nonetheless, by early afternoon the police and volunteers had established
evacuation center at hospitals, schools and tram stations, and a morgue was
established in the Asano library. Survivors of the blast gathered for medical
treatment, but many would die before receiving any help, leaving behind rings of
corpses around hospitals.
Most elements of the Japanese Second General Army
headquarters were undergoing physical training on the grounds of Hiroshima
Castle, barely 820 meters (900 yd) from the hypocenter. The attack killed 3,243
troops on the parade ground. The communications room of Chugoku Military
District Headquarters that was responsible for issuing and lifting air raid
warnings was located in a semi-basement in the castle. Yoshie Oka, a Hijiyama
Girls High School student who had been mobilized to serve as a communications
officer, had just sent a message that the alarm had been issued for Hiroshima
and neighboring Yamaguchi, when the bomb exploded. She used a special phone to
inform Fukuyama Headquarters (some 100 kilometers (62 mi) away) that "Hiroshima has been attacked by a new
type of bomb. The city is in a state of near-total destruction."
Since Mayor Senkichi Awaya had been killed at the mayoral
residence, Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, who was only slightly wounded, took
over the administration of the city, and coordinated relief efforts. Many of
his staff had been killed or fatally wounded, including Lieutenant Colonel Yi
U, a prince of the Korean imperial family who was serving as a General Staff Officer.
Hata's senior surviving staff officer was the wounded Colonel Kumao Imoto, who
acted as his chief of staff. Soldiers from the undamaged Hiroshima Ujina Harbor
used Shin'yō-class suicide motorboats, intended to repel the American invasion,
to collect the wounded and take them down the rivers to the military hospital
at Ujina. Trucks and trains brought in relief supplies and evacuated survivors
from the city.
Twelve American airmen were imprisoned at the Chugoku
Military Police Headquarters, about 400 meters (1,300 ft) from the hypocenter
of the blast. Most died instantly, although two were reported to have been
executed by their captors, and two prisoners badly injured by the bombing were
left next to the Aioi Bridge by the Kempei Tai, where they were stoned to death.
Eight U.S. prisoners of war killed as part of the medical experiments program
at Kyushu University were falsely reported by Japanese authorities as having
been killed in the atomic blast as part of an attempted cover up.
The fires created by the atomic bomb detonation carried
large amounts of ash into the clouds in the atmosphere. One to two hours after
the explosion, a "black rain"
fell as a tarry combination of ash, radioactive fallout, and water, causing
severe radiation burns in some cases.
Japanese realization
of the bombing
The Tokyo control operator of the Japan Broadcasting
Corporation noticed that the Hiroshima station had gone off the air. He tried
to re-establish his program by using another telephone line, but it too had
failed. About 20 minutes later the Tokyo railroad telegraph center realized
that the main line telegraph had stopped working just north of Hiroshima. From
some small railway stops within 16 km (10 mi) of the city came unofficial and
confused reports of a terrible explosion in Hiroshima. All these reports were
transmitted to the headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff.
Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Army Control
Station in Hiroshima. The complete silence from that city puzzled the General
Staff; they knew that no large enemy raid had occurred and that no sizable
store of explosives was in Hiroshima at that time. A young officer was
instructed to fly immediately to Hiroshima, to land, survey the damage, and
return to Tokyo with reliable information for the staff. It was felt that
nothing serious had taken place and that the explosion was just a rumor.
The staff officer went to the airport and took off for the
southwest. After flying for about three hours, while still nearly 160 km (100
mi) from Hiroshima, he and his pilot saw a great cloud of smoke from the
firestorm created by the bomb. After circling the city to survey the damage
they landed south of the city, where the staff officer, after reporting to
Tokyo, began to organize relief measures. Tokyo learned that the city had been
destroyed by a new type of bomb from President Truman's announcement of the strike,
sixteen hours later.
After the Hiroshima bombing, Truman issued a statement
announcing the use of the new weapon. He stated, "We may be grateful to Providence" that the German atomic
bomb project had failed, and that the United States and its allies had "spent two billion dollars on the
greatest scientific gamble in history—and won". Truman then warned
Japan: "If they do not now accept
our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has
never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land
forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the
fighting skill of which they are already well aware." This was a
widely broadcast speech picked up by Japanese news agencies.
The 50,000-watt standard wave station on Saipan, the OWI
radio station, broadcast a similar message to Japan every 15 minutes about
Hiroshima, stating that more Japanese cities would face a similar fate in the
absence of immediate acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and
emphatically urged civilians to evacuate major cities. Radio Japan, which continued
to extoll victory for Japan by never surrendering had informed the Japanese of
the destruction of Hiroshima by a single bomb.
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov had informed
Tokyo of the Soviet Union's unilateral abrogation of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality
Pact on 5 April. At two minutes past midnight on 9 August, Tokyo time, Soviet
infantry, armor, and air forces had launched the Manchurian Strategic Offensive
Operation. Four hours later, word reached Tokyo of the Soviet Union's official
declaration of war. The senior leadership of the Japanese Army began
preparations to impose martial law on the nation, with the support of Minister
of War Korechika Anami, to stop anyone attempting to make peace.
On 7 August, a day after Hiroshima was destroyed; Yoshio
Nishina and other atomic physicists arrived at the city, and carefully examined
the damage. They then went back to Tokyo and told the cabinet that Hiroshima
was indeed destroyed by a nuclear weapon. Admiral Soemu Toyoda, the Chief of
the Naval General Staff, estimated that no more than one or two additional
bombs could be readied, so they decided to endure the remaining attacks,
acknowledging "there would be more
destruction but the war would go on". American Magic codebreakers
intercepted the cabinet's messages.
Purnell, Parsons, Tibbets, Spaatz, and LeMay met on Guam
that same day to discuss what should be done next. Since there was no indication
of Japan surrendering, they decided to proceed with dropping another bomb.
Parsons said that Project Alberta would have it ready by 11 August, but Tibbets
pointed to weather reports indicating poor flying conditions on that day due to
a storm, and asked if the bomb could be readied by 9 August. Parsons agreed to
try to do so.
Nagasaki
Nagasaki during World
War II
The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest seaports in
southern Japan, and was of great wartime importance because of its wide-ranging
industrial activity, including the production of ordnance, ships, military
equipment, and other war materials. The four largest companies in the city were
Mitsubishi Shipyards, Electrical Shipyards, Arms Plant, and Steel and Arms
Works, which employed about 90 percent of the city's labor force, and accounted
for 90 percent of the city's industry. Although an important industrial city,
Nagasaki had been spared from firebombing because its geography made it
difficult to locate at night with AN/APQ-13 radar.
Unlike the other target cities, Nagasaki had not been placed
off limits to bombers by the Joint Chiefs of Staff's 3 July directive, and was
bombed on a small scale five times. During one of these raids on 1 August, a
number of conventional high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city. A few hit
the shipyards and dock areas in the southwest portion of the city, and several
hit the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works. By early August, the city was defended
by the 134th Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the 4th Anti-Aircraft Division with four
batteries of 7 cm (2.8 in) anti-aircraft guns and two searchlight batteries.
In contrast to Hiroshima, almost all of the buildings were
of old-fashioned Japanese construction, consisting of timber or timber-framed
buildings with timber walls (with or without plaster) and tile roofs. Many of
the smaller industries and business establishments were also situated in
buildings of timber or other materials not designed to withstand explosions.
Nagasaki had been permitted to grow for many years without conforming to any
definite city zoning plan; residences were erected adjacent to factory
buildings and to each other almost as closely as possible throughout the entire
industrial valley. On the day of the bombing, an estimated 263,000 people were
in Nagasaki, including 240,000 Japanese residents, 10,000 Korean residents,
2,500 conscripted Korean workers, 9,000 Japanese soldiers, 600 conscripted
Chinese workers, and 400 Allied prisoners of war in a camp to the north of
Nagasaki.
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