On
August 6, 1945, the Enola gay bomber
flew above Hiroshima and dropped Little boy,
a Uranium- 235 bomb. The pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets pressed the button just 1900 feet above the ground,
and Enola gay
turned out to be the first aircraft to
drop an atomic bomb.
Little Boy was ready for delivery by July 31. On August 2, Hiroshima
was specified as the primary target, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternates.
The raid was set for August 6. Kyoto was also in the list but spared as one of
US leaders spent honeymoon there!
It
was 8.15AM
Little boy
has 3-metre length and 4400 kg in weight. It took away the lives of more than one
lakh people around 13Kms and turned the area to ash. The city, boiled at 2500 degree
Centigrade. The half-burnt people rushed in panic and crawled as the city
turned to a graveyard. 46% people died due to heavy radiation. The bomber turned to a 180° and
ran away as fast as it could. The crew could see a bright flash. Shortly after
that, the first shock wave hit the plane. It returned to Tinian Island, the base station.
Three days
later, US again dropped, this time, Fatman in Nagasaki, the other town in Japan. Boxcar, sometimes called Bock's Car, the United
States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber
dropped Fat Man, nuclear
weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki
Why
Hiroshima?
Hiroshima was selected as the main target since it had
remained largely intact by bombing raids, and the bomb's special effects could
be clearly calculated. It was believed that bombing an urban area might break
the fighting will of the Japanese people. Hiroshima was a major port and a military
headquarters, and therefore a strategic target. Also, visual bombing, rather
than radar, would be used so that photographs of the damage could be taken!
Since Hiroshima had not been seriously harmed by bombing raids till then, these
photographs could present a quite apparent depiction of the bomb's damage.
Sadako
Sasaki affected radiation at the age of two. She
was two kilometres away from where the bomb exploded. Most of Sadako's neighbours died, but Sadako wasn't injured at all.
But later developed acute leukaemia after being
exposed to radiation during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There was a
belief that making of 1000 paper cranes would get her wishes. In the hospital bed ,
she could complete 644 only, balance completed by her friends and buried all
with her.
I
had a chance to visit Hiroshima. From my station in Nagoya, it was a long
journey passing through Tokyo, by bullet train. Though public transport is excellent service in Japan, it’s also expensive. When I expressed my wish to visit
Hiroshima, my host was insensitive and surprised to know that she has never
been in there, nor aware of the cause that led to this tragedy. So is the case
of many youngsters there. I think Japan has nothing against the other countries they battled in the war and they just
want a world of peace.
After, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, nuclear weapons are not used for war. However, there are bombs much stronger than Little boy and Fatman with many countries.
Today is August 9
The Nagasaki day
