![]() ![]() The aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing (Image credit: Getty/ MPI / Stringer) Practically everybody within a radius of 6,500 feet was killed or seriously injured and all buildings crushed or disemboweled." Nagasaki "Then the blast blew the broken bodies at 500 to 1,000 miles per hour through the flaming, rubble-filled air. "In the following waves people’s bodies were terribly squeezed, then their internal organs ruptured," wrote a journalist with LIFE magazine. ![]() ![]() On the ground, however, the scene was more horrific than spectacular. "As we got farther away, we could see the base of the mushroom and below we could see what looked like a few-hundred-foot layer of debris and smoke." Robert Caron, according to Atomic Heritage. "The mushroom itself was a spectacular sight, a bubbling mass of purple-gray smoke and you could see it had a red core in it and everything was burning inside," said the Enola Gay's tail gunner, Staff Sgt. The enormous blast instantly destroyed most of the city and claimed some 140,000 lives, according to the BBC. The bomb exploded about 1,900 feet (580 meters) over the unsuspecting city. Inside the Enola Gay's bomb bay was "Little Boy."Īt 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay's bay doors opened and "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima. 6, a B-29 airplane named Enola Gay (after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, according to Time magazine) took off from Tinian, an island roughly six hours from Hiroshima by air. Situated on a coastal plain, the city was an important manufacturing and military center - at least 40,000 military personnel were stationed in Hiroshima during the summer of 1945.įor these and other reasons, the city was selected as the first target of an atomic bomb attack. In 1945, Hiroshima, Japan, was a city of about 255,000 people that was largely untouched by the war, according to a paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The damage caused by the Hiroshima bombing (Image credit: Getty/ Bettmann / Contributor) ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |