Hiroshima, Aug 6, 1945 and Aug 9, 1945, Nagasaki

Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945, Nagasaki-

Totals: 105,000 killed and 94,000 injured

As many know, the atomic bomb has been used only twice in warfare. The first was at Hiroshima, Japan. A uranium bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" (despite weighing in at over four and a half tons) was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945. The Aioi Bridge, one of 81 bridges connecting the seven-branched delta of the Ota River, was the target; ground zero was set at 1,980 feet. At 8:15 a.m. , the bomb was dropped from the Enola Gay. It missed by only 800 feet. At 8:16 a.m. , in an instant, 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 injured by a 10-kiloton atomic explosion.

The area of total vaporization from the atomic bomb blast measured one half mile in diameter; total destruction one mile in diameter; severe blast damage as much as two miles in diameter. Within a diameter of two and a half miles, everything flammable burned. The remaining area of the blast zone was riddled with serious blazes that stretched out to the final edge at a little over three miles in diameter.

Meanwhile in the United States a cartoonist sends a grim message -

I wonder if this was considered amusing at the time.

The New York Times reports to the nation

*****

Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki fell to the same treatment. This time a Plutonium bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was dropped on the city. Though "Fat Man" missed its target by over a mile and a half, it still leveled nearly half the city. In a split second, Nagasaki's population dropped from 422,000 to 383,000. More than 39,000 dead - over 25,000 people were injured.

Japan offered to surrender on August 10, 1945.

Statue in the Hiroshima Peace Park

The Monument to the Mobilized Students remembers nearly 7,000
Hiroshima school students who died in the atomic bomb blast.
They were 'mobilized' to demolish wooden buildings for firebreaks,
to produce food and to work in factories for the war effort.
The statue represents the Goddess of Peace with eight doves.
Thousands of paper cranes are left here by visitors seeking a world
in which children can live without fear of nuclear weapons.
The sign reading 'Peace' is made of folded paper cranes
glued onto a board.

*****

NOTE: Physicists who have studied these two atomic explosions estimate that the bombs utilized only 1/10th of 1 percent of their respective explosive capabilities.

*****

To remember the past is

to commit oneself to the future.

To remember Hiroshima is

to abhor nuclear war.

To remember Hiroshima is

to commit oneself to peace.

- Pope John Paul II 1981