On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a “conventional” bombing of Japan was underway, “Little Boy,” (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets’ plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets’ B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, “Little Boy” was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read “Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis” (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).
There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city’s 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before-only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.
According to John Hersey’s classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.
There were so many spontaneous fires set as a result of the bomb that a crewman of the Enola Gay stopped trying to count them. Another crewman remarked, “It’s pretty terrific. What a relief it worked.”
Just curious,
Where so the death statistics come from and who compiled them?
Military intelligence.
The same guys who handed you the questionable films of nukes and moon landings.
“conventional” indeed. How many innocent civilians were firebombed to death in numerous non-military cities? Truman is lucky the victors of war never stand trial for war crimes.
I mean this literally, THANK GOD FOR THE BOMB!!! American planners estimated the initial invasion of the home island alone would cost ONE MILLION American and Japanese lives!!! Note, that’s just for the initial invasion not the concoring of all the islands. The Bomb truly saved lives. Interesting side note. The Indianapolis was later torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese sub. An excellent book about the sinking and cover-up of the Navy’s negligence is “Fatal Voyage”. A real page Turner!
Wow the American millitary was concerned about Japanese lives. One million casualties. It’s funny how the Japanese put up such a shit defence of its northern most homeland island when the Russians invaded, they annexed it, still part of Russia , pisses off the japs. They surrendered in time and so stopped the ruskkies from capturing all of Korea, plus a Russian invasion of the rest of Japan so forcing a partition of today’s Japan just like Germany . Imagine if there was two Japan’s like Korea. They sure did surrender to the US just in time. That bomb was a godsend.
good article from tothepointnews.com about the bombing and a comparison of truman & trump–
tampared
It was the second atomic bomb deployed. The first was a 20 kiloton bomb detonated at Trinity Site, New Mexico on 7/16/1945.