Part VI - Why the weapons were used... revisionist speculation...

"Better an end with terror than a terror without end." (German proverb)

            In June of 1945, with the loss of the Japanese island stronghold of Okinawa, Emperor Hirohito stepped into the political arena and began pressing his aides and the civilian elements within the militarist government to find a way to surrender. Peace feelers began through the back channels in an effort to find out what America and the Allies would demand for a negotiated peace. The Allies had already outlined their demands at the Potsdam Conference requiring Japanese "unconditional" surrender. Since that would not protect the position of the Emperor as head of the Japanese State, Japan was not willing to entertain "unconditional "surrender. 
            With the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito appears to have broken with tradition and muddied-his-hands in the business of politics and government by directly interceding himself to force the militarist led government to end the conflict. Upon learning of the destruction of Hiroshima, it was by order of the Emperor that a scientific team was dispatched to the smoldering remnants of the city to determine if the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima was – in fact – Atomic. Three days later, on the same day that Nagasaki was obliterated and the Soviet Union declared war against Japan, the scientific team reported to the Imperial Palace that indisputable proof existed that showed the bomb was Atomic.

 



(Above: Emperor Hirohito was recognized by the Japanese people as nothing less than an Emperor-god. The first time his subjects ever heard his voice was over a recording, broadcast nationally announcing Japan's surrender.)

            Hirohito was Emperor of Japan from 1926 until his death in 1989. Insofar as the planning, the execution, and the ending of World War II, historians may never accurately decipher the real role Hirohito played in Japan's operational government. He certainly was not squeaky clean; however, while many of the militarists that ran the government and the war effort were ultimately executed for war crimes, Hirohito was never indicted by the allies. One thing is clear, though when he recognized that the end was at hand, he exercised his power as Emperor against the militarist government that exhibited a great willingness to fight it out to the end. The position Hirohito took to end the conflict was taken at great risk to his position and person.

            During the critical hours leading up to surrender, a telling but little discussed nugget of Japanese history shows just how tenuous the Emperor’s hold was on the militarist and the Army they (the militarist) still controlled. There was actually an attempted military coup against Hirohito by ranking junior officers in the Japanese Army. The Imperial Palace itself was surrounded and attacked. While there is no indication that the Navy was a part of the attempted coup, there was a substantial circle within the Japanese Army Officer Corps – including some key senior officers – that was aware of the pending attempt to prevent the Emperor from surrendering the country and ending the war.

            The ending of World War II in the Pacific was not unlike any other conflict between nations… it was messy. For over a year, since the loss of Saipan, Japan had known that their effort to defeat the allied nations was stacked against ever increasing impossible odds. Nonetheless, Japanese embrace of the Eastern philosophy adopting the Shinto warrior and Bushido Code made the process of surrender an option so extreme that the Western Allies were hard pressed to fathom the nation’s singular nationalist identity with the Samurai (warrior) code.

(Above: Emperor Hirohito at his enthronement coronation ceremony in November of 1928.)

            The face of Japan was the Emperor-god, Hirohito. Soldiers of the Japanese Army, Navy and Air Corps, repeatedly displayed blinding courage in the face of impossible odds to defend Emperor and homeland. It made no difference, uneducated or well educated, officers or enlisted/conscripted soldiers, virtually all were willing to give their life for the Emperor.  Throughout the war in the Pacific, over and over again the code of the Samurai was readily applied by the Japanese on the field of battle. U.S. and Allied Naval forces were appalled to witness the willingness of Japanese pilots to commit suicide in the infamous Kamikaze attacks; and, likewise Japanese ground forces repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to fight to a man, to die, rather than surrender.

(Above: Kamikaze just split seconds before contact with the battleship U.S.S. Missouri.)

            In the battle for Okinawa, which ended just six weeks prior to the A-bombings, Japanese troops had been cut off by U.S. Naval and Air forces from their supplies. Japanese forces were without any hope of reinforcement, there was virtually no Japanese air or naval support for the ground forces - what remained of the Japanese Air Forces was focused on Allied Naval forces with the infamous Kamikaze attacks.

(Above: When first introduced into warfare by the Japanese, the Kamikaze attacks were a complete surprise to American and Allied Naval forces. By the last year of the war, the destructive damage that could be delivered by one man in a single plane made the Kamikaze more feared than the Japanese Navy itself.) 

            By the time the ground fight began on Okinawa, Japanese forces were already malnourished; and, by the end of the battle, 82 days later, they were starving to death. Japanese ground forces at Okinawa were cut off and were left on-their own. By Western philosophy, Japanese forces had every right to surrender; after all, the largest American force ever surrendered - before or since - had done so under similar conditions when the Philippines fell to Japan in 1942. But, the Japanese would not surrender.

            In the face of such odds Japanese human losses were enormous: 107,539 soldiers killed and 23,764 sealed in caves or buried by the Japanese themselves; only a small portion of the force - 10,755 - were captured or surrendered. The Japanese also lost 7,830 aircraft and 16 combat ships.

            Since many Japanese-Okinawan residents fled to caves to escape the battle, they were subsequently also entombed. The precise number of civilian casualties will probably never be known, but the lowest estimate is 42,000 killed - somewhere between one-tenth and one-fourth of the civilian population perished; though, by some estimates the battle of Okinawa killed almost a third of the civilian population. (The US Army figures for the 82 day campaign showed a total figure of 142,058 civilian casualties, including those killed by artillery fire, air attacks and those who were pressed into service by the Japanese army.)

             Revisionist historians so often speak to how decimated Japanese war industries were; and, how by August 1945 Japan’s ability to wage war was waning to the point of becoming defenseless. Further, their argument goes that it was not necessary to wipe those cities from the face of the Earth because the war was substantially already over. However, this argument does not hold water as just six weeks before the dropping of the A-bombs, over 12,000 American boys had been killed or were missing in action on that spit of ground in the Pacific called Okinawa.

            Revisionist somehow fail to recall that just 6 weeks before the US destroyed two modern Japanese cities with two Atomic bombs, that the battle for Okinawa proved to be the bloodiest battle of the entire Pacific War for America. Thirty-four allied ships and craft of all types had been sunk, mostly by Kamikazes, and 368 ships and craft damaged. The fleet had also lost 763 aircraft.

            Total American casualties in the operation numbered over 12,000 killed and 36,000 wounded. America, from the start of the battle in March through the end of the fight in June, averaged loosing 440 boys being wounded and 153 boys killed in action, every day, for those 82 days. Over 600 American boys a day were being sacrificed at Okinawa. In fact, American losses at Okinawa were so heavy as to illicit Congressional calls for an investigation into the conduct of the military commanders.

            While the loss of American life was a fraction of what Japan was enduring, Japanese citizens and soldiers embraced the Shinto warrior code. To the American population back home, the thought of loosing 600 men a day to death and dismemberment was nothing short of appalling. Not surprisingly, the cost of this battle, in terms of lives, time, and material, weighed heavily in the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan just six weeks later.

            Revisionist historians will point to the ongoing back-channel diplomatic attempts that were being made by the Japanese diplomatic corps as proof that Japan was ready to end the conflict. The argument goes that America never needed to use these weapons to annihilate two cities and kill a quarter-million people. However, revisionist historians need look no further than the militarist that, up until Hirohito became directly involved and took his stand, still controlled the government. These were the same militarist that had left 107,000 troops to perish on Okinawa.

            To prove to the reader that Okinawa was not just some fluke of Japanese leadership gone insane, let us examine Saipan. The battle for the island of Saipan adds reinforcement to the willingness of the Japanese soldier to give his life for his Emperor. Saipan was the scene of the largest Banzai (suicide) charge of the war. By 7 July 1944 - 9 months before Okinawa and more than a year before the Atomic bombs were employed - U.S. forces had completely cut the Japanese ground forces from their supply lines and the Japanese forces had nowhere left to retreat on the island. The Japanese commanding officer Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured."

            At dawn, with a group of a dozen men carrying a great red flag in the lead, the remaining able-bodied troops (about 3,000 men remained out of an initial force of 30,000) charged forward in the final attack. Amazingly, behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. (One U.S. soldier recounted how he shot and killed a Japanese soldier armed with a pistol. Upon drawing near the dead soldier, the American serviceman noticed his victim was wearing a bandage around his head. Upon further investigation, he learned the victim was completely blind, both eyes covered by the bandage. The Japanese soldier had elected to join the fight and fire in the direction of the enemy... rather than surrender.)

            This rag-tag Japanese force slammed into the American front lines with such force that they very nearly overwhelmed both Army and Marine units. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th U.S. Infantry were almost destroyed, losing 650 killed and wounded. However, the resistance of these two battalions, with the help of Headquarters Company (the clerks and non-combat arms folks) 105th Infantry, and elements of 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines (an artillery unit) resulted in over 4,300 Japanese killed. (Note that the number of dead is almost half again greater than the 3,000 able bodied troops Saito had launched the attack with… those other 1,300 troops consisted of men able to still breath and “pull a trigger” but otherwise should never have been in battle. Simply put, Japanese forces on Saipan fought to a man – and the Japanese civilian population did too.)

            Saipan begs another question, too. At the end of the battle for the island, over the last few days, how did over 20,000 Japanese civilians muster enough courage to commit suicide? They did it because of their belief in the Shinto code of the Samurai... the warrior code. They did it because their Emperor told them to kill themselves before being taken prisoner by the American forces. They did it because death was preferable to dishonor... they were civilians. Mothers and fathers killed their children before killing themselves. Mothers threw their babies into the sea before jumping to their deaths. Whole families jumped to their deaths, together. Many waded into the sea and drowned themselves. This was not mass suicide, this was personal. This was individuals electing to follow a strict code of honor. This act was repeated from various points around the island over the last few days before Americans took full control. American soldiers tried to entice Japanese civilians to surrender with promises of food and care. Still, of the 25,000 civilians on the island, over 20,000 took their own lives rather than surrender.

(Above: Today, Banzai Cliff offers a wonderful view of the ocean. You stand a 100 or so feet straight above the ocean. There is no reef so the waves break directly onto the side of the cliff. You can see fishermen standing right on the edge with their fishing line dangling 100 feet below. The name came from the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at the end of the Battle of Saipan. Rather than surrender, Japanese families lined up on the cliff's edge from youngest to oldest. Each in turn gave the one in front a push.)

(Above & Below: Suicide Cliff is 820 feet above sea level with most of that being a vertical drop to the rocks just behind the last Japanese command post. It provides cool breezes and breathtaking views of the ocean and the hills of Northern Saipan. Suicide Cliff has a similar history as Banzai Cliff. The name came from the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at the end of the Battle of Saipan.)

 

            In the face of such actions by the Japanese military and civilian populations, by August of 1945 President Harry Truman probably did not give much credit to diplomatic hopes of Japan accepting the Potsdam Declaration. I am sure Truman felt that stringing along the war to see if or when the Japanese might eventually throw-in-the-towel was not seen as a viable option.

            Those revisionists who profess some back-room cloak-and-dagger reasons for America using Atomic weapons base their position on pieces of information that - loosely tied together - give an impression of facts that are un-provable and are; therefore, useless. To the revisionist historians and American detractors that bemoan the fact that America destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, needlessly, they should take the proven record of the facts and then try and second guess President Truman and his decision to use these weapons. Let us review:

1. Over a year prior the use of Atomic weapons and in spite of hopeless odds, repeatedly Japanese Army, Naval, and Air forces - along with huge numbers of Japanese civilians - had demonstrated their willingness to continue to fight and die for Emperor and homeland.
2. The militarist that had run the government and the war effort remained firmly in power up to the very end. By the time that Emperor Hirohito forced the issue of a negotiated peace, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were already destroyed.
3. Factions within the Army attempted a military coup against the Emperor in an attempt to head off surrender.
4. Given points 1-3 above: The Japanese diplomatic corps that was searching desperately for a negotiated peace would have stood little hope of swaying the militarist that were in control to follow a diplomatic arrangement to end the war.

             None of the afore indicate any willingness on the part of Japan to accept the unconditional terms of surrender outlined in the Potsdam Conference. That said the American public also enters into the decision-formula.

             American dead and maimed were still coming home from Okinawa when Truman was approving the bombing orders on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Again, at this point in time no one gave a hang about taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the Japanese Empire. (Common sense has to enter into this process at some point. Try to picture a sitting American President telling families, communities, and an American press corps that, “The American Government is going to take await-and-see position to see if a negotiated peace can be worked out." After Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, the Kamikaze and Banzai attacks… after the bloody island hopping campaign, and Okinawa sitting on America's chest like a boulder... stringing along the war was never an option Truman had available to him. Had he attempted to apply that option, the American public might well have rioted; and, rightfully so. Worse, while American boys continued to die while a negotiated peace was being explored, what if the public learned that we had a weapon that would have ended the war - but were never used? Most assuredly, the American public would have rioted, and rightfully so.
            This author does recognize that there existed other good, but secondary, reasons to use the Atomic weapons in August 1945. No one doubted that after the war ended there would be a return of East verses West. The post World War II world was going to be a contest between the Communist Soviet Union and the Democracies headed up by the United States. The only real question was: Would the next world war be, frigid (later named the Cold War), or would the next world war be another hot/shooting war?

            The rub was simple; at the close of WWII the Soviet Union under Stalin had the largest standing army in the world. However, with America holding the ultimate weapon, the Soviet military power could be checked. Still, that would require the Soviet Union – and the rest of the world – be made aware of the destructive potential of an Atomic bomb. By using the weapons against Japan, America accomplished two very credible objectives with the Soviet Union:

1. The United States possessed the ultimate weapon; and, just as important
2. It would use it.

           Over the coming decades, these two facts paid fantastic dividends for the Western Allies when dealing with the Soviets. Even after the Soviets caught up with weapons technology, there was no question about whether or not the United States would use the modern versions of these nuclear weapons. It came down to an issue of credibility; and the United States had rock solid credentials in that category that dated back to August 1945 - the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki underwrote the guarantee that America would use them. 

            So, did American (and the world) benefit from the destructive example offered to the world when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were annihilated? Answer: Absolutely; the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was employed and the world has recoiled from ever using nuclear weapons in another war. Does that alter the fundamental fact that America’s focus of winning and ending the war remained centered on defeating the Japanese Empire? Answer: Absolutely not; Truman could ill afford taking a "wait-and-see attitude towards a Japanese conditional surrender. The example made to the Soviets was a by-product of winning and ending World War II.

            Is the world a more dangerous place because America used Atomic weapons? Answer: No, absolutely not; in fact, use of these weapons - while in the pre-hydrogen bomb/thermonuclear era, probably save the world from experiencing the impact of the next generation (megaton size) nuclear weapons which most certainly would have been capable of endangering mankind's survival. Also of note, Japan was working on an Atomic weapon. Both the Japanese Army and Navy had extensive nuclear weapons programs. Germany, too was in the process of delivering bomb-grade Uranium ore to Japan when Nazi Germany surrendered. The U. S. Navy intercepted and escorted the German submarine carrying the precious uranium cargo back to American waters where it was confiscated.

            Also, remember that it only took the Russians a few short years (1949) to duplicate the U.S. - albeit via espionage - with their own Atomic weapons; then, add to that Great Britain (1952), France (1960), China (1964), etc. No, the fact that the U.S. was the first to use the weapons is only semantics in play. You name the country, you pick a war, some one else would have used these weapons sooner or later... and, perhaps with a far less favorable outcome.

Part V - Burying the dead took too long... Hiroshima is no more...

            The attempt to get a person’s mind around the totality of the destruction wrought by man’s first infantile steps into the Atomic Age is nearly futile. To simply state that the event was ‘Hellish’ fails to give it the degree of understanding it deserves. Nonetheless, if mankind has ever developed Hell on Earth, this event must surely sit atop of that accomplishment-of-misery. Simply stated, what had happened in July in the desert at Alamogordo with the Gadget was unbelievable; but, what happened to Hiroshima with Little Boy... the terror & destruction of a modern city… was, and remains, beyond human comprehension. The dead that perished quickly were the lucky. 

            As you read about and view the results of the bombing, bare in mind that due to Pacific geologic fault activity, Japan had stringent building codes; much higher than was the rule in the United States. Had a weapon of this magnitude been used on an American city of comparable size, the devastation would have been even worse than what you will see happened to Hiroshima.

            Death came via any of the following four means:

            Silent Thermal Pulse/Flash: Everything at the hypocenter (area directly under the blast point) was vaporized – nothing remained. Steel and concrete fared no better than tissue paper. Up to 1/2 of a mile, granite melted; it was literally fused into quartz. At 1 mile from the blast point, wood and railroad ties spontaneously ignited. Up to 1 ¼ miles, clothes on exposed persons spontaneously ignited; dark colored clothing absorbed the heat (burning the skin) while light colors reflected the heat.

            Blast Pressure: The Hiroshima Bomb, Little Boy generated up to 6.7 tons per square meter at the hypocenter; The Nagasaki Bomb, Fat Man generated up to 10.0 tons per sq. meter at the hypocenter. This phenomenon also agitated the firestorm process by fanning the firestorms working outward (and then back in) as nature tried to cool the source of the intense heat.

            The best way to understand blast pressure is to mark a 39” x 39” square on the floor; next, step inside the square. Now, try to imagine 6.7 tons of rock being dropped on you, all in the same instant. That was the blast pressure delivered by the Uranium-235 bomb, “Little Boy” upon Hiroshima. At Nagasaki, the Plutonium-239 weapon, “Fat Man” delivered 10 tons of blast pressure per square meter. Bodies were ripped apart like the bursting of a child’s delicate bubbles; and, concrete and steel were swept aside like a child’s sand castle. The city was literally swept away being wiped from the face of the Earth.

            Radiation: Which way the wind blew could have saved or doomed an individual that morning, too. Approximately 20% of victims died from - Gamma, Beta and Neutron radiation exposure. In the atmosphere, as Mother Nature attempted to cool the fireball as it escalates into the upper atmosphere, it began to rain “Purple Rain” (pop song). This rain was charged with radio active fallout that came back to Earth in the raindrops. This process further exposed plant and human life to dangerous levels of radioactive fallout. Fallout also returned to Earth without the help of rain; and, in its ashen state, it was just as dangerous as in its rain-induced liquid state. But the wind patterns determined where and how much of this fallout was spread around the outlying areas of the doomed city. Radiation sickness was measured in three phases:
            Phase one was hours up to a few days – symptoms included nausea, headache, diarrhea, malaise, and light (100-101) fever.             Second phase followed at approximately 10 to 15 days – hair started falling out, severe diarrhea, sever (105-106) fever.             Third Phase followed at approximately 25 to 30 days - blood disorders, gums began bleeding , abrasions appeared over large portions of the body, drop in red blood cell count (anemia), drop in white blood cell count (fights infection), temporary reproductive process was halted – men became sterile and women stop menstruating, and most pregnancies resulted in miscarriage.
            Even those that survived the blast and regained their health later were found to face disorders of malignant cancers such as those associated with thyroid, breast, lung, and salivary gland tumors. Also, due to the half life of some types of radiation, any woman exposed to too much radiation that August morning in 1945 might carry it with her to her eventual death. This also meant that later a pregnant mother would often pass the radiation sickness on to the developing fetus. This led to extremely high incidents of physical and mental birth defects. An example: A ten year old little girl survives the blast in Augusta 1945.  Fast forward to August 1955; and the now twenty year old young lady is happily married and expecting her first born child. Unfortunately, due to the radiation exposure she absorbed in 1945, her chances of having a child afflicted with some form of birth defect was a very big, real risk with which she and thousands of other female survivors had to contend.

(Above and below: Short video clips from the "Lost Generation Remembers" recounted by survivors concerning examples of radiation burns and sickness from radioactive fallout. You will see and hear more from Mr. Tamiguchi, below. Jane Fonda is the narrator)

            Fire Storm: This is a natural phenomenon resulting from the unbelievably intense heat that was emanating outward in all directions. Basically, the silent heat pulse represented what was an instantaneous, man-inspired, sun/star-on Earth. On the ground, anything combustible, and not vaporized at ground zero, spontaneously combusted as the heat moved outward. Fires need oxygen to feed upon, and horrific winds were rapidly whipped up. While nature was attempting to cool the source of the intense heat; supplying massive winds meant feeding the fires in towards the vortex . The more oxygen that fed the fire, the more the fire spread outwards to find combustible materials. Winds reached well beyond tornado intensity - today, estimates are up to 470 miles an hour from a 20 megaton blast. Also, inwards towards the center of the fire’s source, there became a void of oxygen; therefore, those that did not perish in the initial blast were suffocating while in the process of being burned to death.
            Following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war came to a very rapid close. Japan would be occupied by the United States; however, unlike Germany, Japan remained sovereign. There was no carving-up of Japan into multiple zones as was the case with Germany. Also, Emperor Hirohito remained the sovereign head of Japan. The United States' military governor, General Douglas MacArthur, ran the real show; still, Japan maintained its national identity and territorial integrity. The bottom line is, America did not get its unconditional terms for surrender met. Compared to Germany, Japan's terms were decidedly better.

            Oddly, the world received virtually no accurate information (especially photographs) about Hiroshima & Nagasaki. This was no accident; on September 18, 1945, just over a month after Japan had surrendered, General Douglas MacArthur, as Military Governor of Occupied Japan, imposed a strict code of censorship on the newly defeated nation. It read, in part: “nothing shall be printed which might, directly or by inference, disturb public tranquility.”

           Fearing public backlash, the “public tranquility” MacArthur cited in his decree was not directed at the newly conquered Japanese populace; the target was intended to keep the American public in the dark. The following is the visual proof of why our government “locked down” any information – especially visual – from getting back to main street America.

(Above and below: Dark colors absorbed the heat, light colors deflected it. Depending on an individual's  distance from the blast, and the color of the clothes they put on that morning, they may have been spared or suffered horribly. This youngster, even though the position of his body placed him in harm’s way, was wearing a light colored head covering that protected his forehead and hair while the rest of his exposed clothing facing the heat source absorbed the heat. The woman below can be seen to have had the strap of a sack slung over her shoulder; the white cloth reflected the heat.)

(Above: A victim of the Hiroshima bomb as seen at the Ujina Branch of the US First Army Hospital in Hiroshima. The thermal rays emitted by the explosion burned the pattern of this woman's kimono into her back. Signal Corps, A.O.O., September 1945)
 

(Above: Including his chest and the left side of his belly, this 16 year old boy had thermal burns on more than one-third of his body. He managed to leave the hospital after 3 years and 7 months. He went on to become the father of two children. "In the early stages, the only treatment I received for my burns was the application of a mixture of ash and oil as a substitute for medicine. I do not know how many times I yelled "kill me!" because of the severe pain and desperate feeling. Thereafter, as a result of the several operations I underwent, I escaped death and returned to work.   Since I have once given up my life, I wish to dedicate my new life to the struggle against atomic bombs."  Mr. Tamiguchi)

(Above: This is Mr. Tamiguchi the 16 year old young man in the preceding picture.)

(Above: Suffering beyond belief.)

(Above: Within the initial 8 seconds after detonation, up to 100,000 people died and another 100,000 people were doomed. This youngster’s carbonized corpse indicates that he was probably a 12-15 year old male, mobilized into the local industry to meet the badly needed war labor efforts. From middle school into high school (up to the age to serve in the military) children made up a large portion of the Japanese labor force.  For health reasons, his corpse was among the tens of thousands burned or buried in mass graves by the Japanese Government to prevent disease.)

 

(Above: This is the eye of a blinded victim unfortunate enough to have been looking in the general direction of the blast. At such an intense luminosity, the brightness of the heat pulse at the instant of the detonation welded the retina to the pupil of this victim’s eye.)

            In a moment, Hiroshima was wiped from the face of the Earth. At the hypocenter, the silent heat pulse vaporized everything and working outward from that point varying degrees of carbonization took place. Much like erasing a chalkboard, the immense blast pressure collapsed and destroyed everything in its path. The spontaneous ignition of combustible materials initiated a firestorm that burned for hours and only ended because there was nothing combustible left to feed its flames. As if this were not horrific enough, later - years later in many cases - thousands would suffer before succumbing to radiation sickness.

            Below are still pictures of the remains of Hiroshima. Suffice to say, the conquering US Army of Occupation found very little remained to “occupy”. Due to structural concerns, the Army Corp of Engineers condemned all but six buildings that remained in the city-proper. A paltry half-dozen buildings out of a city of 350-400,000 populace, was all that remained. What the bomb had not wiped away, US Army Corpsmen finished with their bulldozers.

(Above: View of Hiroshima looking toward the financial district.)

(Above: As can be seen in the photo with the remains of the church, Christianity had made inroads into Japanese culture. While certainly a minority, Christians were not persecuted in Japan.)

(Above: The aiming point for the Enola Gay's bombardier, Tom Ferebee, was the T-shaped Aioi River Bridge. The cruising speed for the huge B-29 was 220 mph; and, the Enola Gay was at 36,000 feet when the bomb was released. The fact that Ferebee came so close to hitting the mark, from that altitude and speed, is a credit to his skill and the training the crew had received in the Utah desert at Wendover Army Airfield.)

(Above: This photograph was taken 2 hours before this man’s death at the request of an American Army surgeon. This soldier's symptoms recorded a typical description of the acute nature of radiation sickness. The photograph shows a 21 year-old soldier who was in a wooden house situated a mile from the hypocenter. Since he was indoors, he was saved from burns, but, as he received cuts on his back, right elbow, and stomach, first-aid treatment was given to him; however, he became a subject of interest as the result of the following: August 18 --Hair falling out is noticed; August 19 --Bleeding from gum, and purplish subcutaneous hemorrhage starts to appear as in the photograph; August 30 --Is hospitalized in the Ujina Branch of the Army Hospital, and on the 31st becomes feverish; September 1 --Tonsillitis occurs and with a sore throat he can not eat. Bleeding from gums does not stop, and subcutaneous hemorrhage multiplies on face and upper half of body: September 2 –slips into semi consciousness and starts to talk in delirium. September 3 --Died at 9:30 p.m.)

(Above: This 11 year old girl was in her home approximately 2 miles from the hypocenter. She received no observable physical injury. However, within a week of the blast, she had many of the same symptoms as the soldier in the prior slide. She did recover, but died in 1971 from cancer related radiation exposure from 1945. She was 37 years old.)

(Above: This is a video collection showing the extent of the types of injuries that existed. Be advised that it is graphic.)

(Above: The shadows to the left side of the bridge are where people were at the time of the detonation. A person absorbed the heat pulse, thereby protecting the surface material behind him/her.)

(Above: The remains of A-bomb victims were still being recovered years after the bombing. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and surrounding areas occasionally will still find sites of hastily made mass graveyards of A-bomb victims. Due to the utter number of victims buried, it is not an unusual occurrence for this situation to take place. However, the picture is misleading. The truth is that the Japanese Government quickly realized – for health reasons – that mass burial was not an option… most victims were cremated. Due to the sheer number of dead, they could not dig the mass graves fast enough; therefore, the government had to resort to mass cremation.)

“I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.”  General George S. Patton, US Army

Part IV - Tibbets and the Enola Gay ride into history...

"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." The Hollow Men, T. S. Eliot

(Above: The race to build an Atomic bomb was rapidly drawing to a close. America and her Canadian and British allies had endeavored to build an Atomic weapon out of fear that Nazi Germany was already ahead of them. However, by the time the weapon was built and tested, Germany had surrendered and was out of the war. Japan remained; and, therefore became the focus of the new weapon.)            
            On the night of March 9-10, 1945, the United States fire bombed the capital of Japan, Tokyo. In three separate waves, flying at low altitude, covering approximately 6 hours of constant bombing, 334 B-29 Super-fortresses dropped 1,667 tons of incendiary bombs on the city. This ignited a fire storm that actually killed more people than the bomb dropped by Colonel Tibbets in the first use of an A-bomb five months later against Hiroshima.

            There is a great difference between the two bombing runs, though. While both bombing missions destroyed most of their targets; the Hiroshima Uranium-235 bomb “Little Boy” was one bomb that weighed slightly less than 5 tons. The Tokyo mission dropped 1,667 tons of incendiary bombs used against that target. Also, the Hiroshima A-bomb was carried by one plane. It took 334 planes used against Tokyo.
            The Enola Gay and “Little Boy” did virtually the same thing to Hiroshima that took 334 planes, 3 separate bombing raids - while dropping three million three hundred and thirty four thousand pounds of incendiary bombs – to do to Tokyo. Moreover, the Tokyo raids took place over a 6 hour time span; the Enola Gay & “Little Boy” were able to do it in approximately 8 seconds. 8 Seconds is all it took to doom the city.
            Hiroshima was a city of approximately 350 to 400,000 people in August of 1945; it was also headquarters to the Imperial 2nd General Army. When the Atomic bomb detonated, the fireball from "Little Boy" was 6 football fields wide; and, at its core, the heat matched that of the surface of the sun. Within the area on the ground directly under the epicenter (called the hypocenter) everything was vaporized. Literally, people burned like tissue paper; nothing was left. There was no pain; there was no dying process for these people; they simply ceased to exist. There were no charred remains, no bones, no teeth or dental remains, nothing.  This is the primary reason there remains - and will always remain - such a wide gap in the estimated total of deaths at Hiroshima... at the hypocenter, very near the heart of the city, there simply was nothing left to count.

(Above: Today, the Enola Gay hangs in the US Air & Space Museum located next to Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. In the 1990s a literal war between political peace activist and veteran’s groups erupted when the Enola Gay was slatted to be displayed at the Washington DC Smithsonian Museum. This caused an outcry from the peace activist and the government of Japan. When the idea was mothballed by US officials, veteran’s groups responded to insure the plane took its proper place in the museum. The eventual result was to have the plane fully restored and placed in the Air & Space Museum in Chantilly.)
 

(Above: The Enola Gay’s flight crew, training officer Colonel Paul Tibbets is standing 2nd from right. Navigator Theodore “Dutch” van Kirk - in the middle standing next to Tibbets - is the sole remaining survivor of either of the two historic flight crews that were responsible for the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)
 

(Above: The science of killing… to insure the entire city was exposed to the weapon, “Little Boy” was detonated by altimeter at 1885 feet over the city of Hiroshima. That guaranteed an umbrella effect that would blanket most of the city.  The mission took place on 06 August 1945 and detonated at 0815. In order to give the pilot and crew enough time to escape, the bomb free-fell for 43 seconds before detonating. “Little Boy” weighed approximate 4.5 tons and had a 12.5 Kiloton yield. It was 12 feet long x 28 inches in diameter and was a Uranium bomb (U-235) comprised of 1/13^th of an ounce of fissionable material. Sited and dropped by hand, it was very close to “on target”. The aiming point was the T-shaped Aioi Bridge which was the main bridge close to the heart of the city.)

            The B-29 Enola Gay was named after the mother of pilot, Paul Tibbets. Due to the bomb's weight, Tibbets had to use all 1.8 miles of runway to get the weapon off the ground. Liftoff was 0245 from Tinian Island. It was a 13 hour round-trip flight. Tibbetts and other members of the crew, napped on the way to the bombing target.

            The mushroom cloud was visible from the air for almost 400 miles.

(Above: The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima about one hour after the bombing. The photo was taken from a U.S. observer plane over the Seto Inland Sea about 80 miles from the hypocenter. U.S. Army photo courtesy of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation)

            After dropping the bomb, in order for the Enola Gay to escape from being knocked out of the sky, Tibbets had to pick up as much speed as possible. This required the Enola Gay to turn into a 159 degree, steep banking dive. 43 Seconds after dropping the bomb, a tingling in Tibbets' teeth told him of the successful detonation. The bomb's radioactive forces were interacting with the lead fillings in his teeth. As the plane raced away, the shockwave from the blast raced toward them at 1,100 feet per second. When the shockwave hit, the plane was approximately 9 to 10 miles away from the point of detonation. Then, a second shockwave slammed them. This was the result of the force of the blast emanating back off the surface of the Earth; and, it was almost as powerful as the initial shockwave.

            The mushroom cloud boiled up over 45,000 feet high, 8 miles into the atmosphere. The city had completely disappeared, incinerated under a blanket of smoke and fire. They radioed back to Tinian that the primary target had been bombed visually with good results. Upon arriving back at Tinian, they were debriefed and given a quick medical checkup. The interviewers were skeptical of their accounts of the blast.

(Above: This video clip features archival footage that is woven together with a BBC production dealing with the Hiroshima bombing of 06 August 1945.)
 



(Above: Comments by retired Brigadier General Paul Tibbets made for the Smithsonian TV production, “The Men Who Brought the Dawn”.)

            The news of the atomic bomb was promptly announced to the world by President Truman. The Japanese were given an ultimatum, to accept the Potsdam call for unconditional surrender, or face further atomic attacks. Having failed to surrender, three days later, on August 9th, Major Chuck Sweeney, in Bock's Car, dropped the second atomic bomb, Fat-Man on Nagasaki.
 

(Above: Dropped on Nagasaki on 09 August 1945 at 1102, “Fat Man” was named after Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, an ally whose mother was an American. The approximate weight of the weapon was 4.5 tons; it was a Plutonium bomb (P-239) with a 22.1 Kiloton Yield. The weapon was delivered by the B-29 flying super fortress, Bock’s Car & piloted by Major Charles Sweeney. “Fat man” was detonated by altimeter at 1635 feet; however, it completely missed the city - the epicenter was over a valley adjacent to Nagasaki but outside the city. The weapon still destroyed approximately 2/3s of the city and killed approximately 70,000 people. Unlike Hiroshima, due to the vegetation in the valley over the epicenter, there was no firestorm visited on Nagasaki.)
 

(Above: Bock’s Car; currently on permanent display at the US Air Force Museum located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.)

(Above: The crew of another B-29, The Great Artiste, flew Bock’s Car and was commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney (top right, standing). This crew also piloted the scientific plane on the mission that annihilated Hiroshima and thus were among the select few to witness the destruction of both cities.)

            It should be noted that Nagasaki was not the primary target; Kokura was the primary drop site. When Major Sweeney arrived over Kokura, it was clouded over. Having waited as long as possible, he eventually decided to move to the secondary target, Nagasaki.

            Nagasaki was home to the Mitsubishi Steel works and also was home to one of the Japanese war production torpedo factories. Both industrial targets placed the city high on the list of atomic targets.

            Once Sweeney arrived over Nagasaki, it too was clouded over. Nonetheless, he could not make it back to Tinian Airfield carrying a 10,000 lb. atomic bomb in the belly of the aircraft.  To attempt to land in such a state could have led to the incineration of the island.

            To add to Sweeney’s problems, his fuel became critically low. Having spent more time than he should have afforded, Sweeney eventually took Bock’s Car to an area where there was a partial break in the cloud cover over Nagasaki; the bombardier quickly sited the bomb and released the payload. Literally “out of fuel”, Sweeny eventually had to perform an emergency landing at Okinawa. This happened even though there was no tower clearance to land the craft and the runway was designated as too short to accept the huge B-29.  He was nonetheless successful landing the aircraft.
 

(Above: This photo was taken very near the exact moment of detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki. This photograph truly captures the remarkable event. Notice the three people in the foreground, as yet unaware that anything has happened. The destruction of Nagasaki followed that of Hiroshima by three days and compelled Japan to surrender, ending World War II.   Photo: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum/Corbis)

 

(Above: Dr. Harold Agnew, with the plutonium core of the Nagasaki bomb. Most of the case's housing consists of lining to protect its currier, Dr. Agnew.)

 

(Above: Historical archival footage of the Nagasaki blast taken by one of the escort planes. The video appears so clean (no clouds in the sky) because of the effect made by the blast pressure shockwave. The shockwave instantly removed all cloud cover from the range of the blast area. A closer look at the previous photograph gives the reader a good idea of cloud conditions over Nagasaki that morning.)

(Above: Archival footage of "Fat Man" and the Nagasaki bombing which were taken by elements on the ground at Tinian and in the air by one of the trail planes. The video used here is by way of the BBC)