#hiroshima70

[ipsnews]

“Our world still bristles with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons, and policy-makers in the nuclear-armed states remain trapped in provincial thinking, repeating by word and deed their nuclear intimidation” – Kazumi Matsui, mayor of Hiroshima

[thesandravic]

70 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 2015

[historicalfirearms]

Hiroshima Headlines

Above are some of the front pages of newspapers from around the world showing how people first heard about the bombing of Hiroshima with the atomic bomb.  

From Britain to the Philippines, Canada to the US the bombing dominated the headlines with mixed attitudes.  The Free Philippines printed in liberated Manila lead with ‘Hiroshima Goes Pfft!’ and the Daily News ran with ‘A City Vanished’ while the New York Herald Tribune and the British Daily Express recognised that the atom bomb changed war forever. 

Within hours of the bombing the implications are already recognised with articles about the dangers of radiation and the question of whether the bombing violated international law.  Just two days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and the world’s media were again amazed by the destructive power of an even larger atom bomb. 

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[historicalfirearms]

I felt the city of Hiroshima had disappeared all of a sudden, then I looked at myself and found my clothes had turned into rags due to the heat. I was probably burned at the back of the head, on my back, on both arms and both legs. My skin was peeling and hanging.

Akihiro Takahashi, a 14-year-old school boy who survived the bombing of Hiroshima

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[historicalfirearms]

Hiroshima: Before and After

In these aerial photo mosaics assembled by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Physical Damage Division (Pacific Theatre) show the devastation caused by the 16 kiloton ‘Little Boy’ atom bomb which detonated above the Japanese port of Hiroshima. The first taken in April 1945 when targets were being considered and the second taken on the 11th August 1945, days after the bombing to gauge the destruction caused. These images capture the citywide scale of the destruction which fanned out from ground zero at the Shima Surgical Clinic.

The B-29 Superfortress carrying the bomb - Enola Gay’s original aiming point had been the Aioi Bridge 800 feet from the clinic.  The actual blast immediately destroyed 1.1 mile radius (as the bomb airburst most of the blast was directed downward) with a further 5 mile radius being destroyed by flash fires.  Over 70% of the city’s buildings were destroyed or damaged.  The wooden buildings immediately caught fire, the city’s firebreaks proved ineffective, while the earthquake resistant public buildings fared better - with some surviving the blast despite being just 200 metres from ground zero.

The estimates of the death toll vary from 80,000 up to 166,000.  Equalling 30% of the population of Hiroshima and a large portion of its garrison killed in the bombing.  

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Image One Source

Image Two Source

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[todaysdocument]

Aerial views of Hiroshima, before and after the Atomic Bomb

[Pre-attack mosaic view of Hiroshima, Japan.], 4/13/1945 

[Post-attack mosaic view of Hiroshima, Japan.], 8/11/1945 

Series: Photographs Used In The Report Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, 1947 - 1947.  Record Group 243: Records of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, 1928 - 1947

More posts on the 70th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

[todaysdocument]

“Results clear out successful in all respects.  Visible effects greater than any test.  Conditions normal in airplane following delivery.”

Telegram from Admiral Richard Edwards to Admiral William Leahy Regarding the Hiroshima Bomb

From the series: Subject Files, 1945 - 1953.  President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration), 1945 - 1960

A matter-of-fact telegram reporting on the successful delivery of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The magnitude of devastation caused by the bomb is only alluded to in the comment “Visible effects greater than any test.”

[historicalfirearms]

Hiroshima

This haunting segment of from a documentary features contemporary newsreel footage from the bombing and aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 70 years ago today.  The film shows aerial and ground shots of the destruction of the city as well as the victims who were horrifically burnt and injured.  The human cost of the bombing was immense but it would take a second atom bomb to bring the war to an end.

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