today, 62 years ago – Hiroshima
[continuation of – today, 62 years ago …
August 4
this building was a prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.
Till…
August 5:
23:15:17 GMT; (08:15:17 JST, Hiroshima, Japan; August 6.)
A thumb of a man on an aircraft, well and safely hidden behind clouds
pressed on a button that opened a door to drop destruction; like never seen before.
In an instant
that was just 43 seconds,
a city was gone, totally destroyed; and our world had been changed.
The gates of hell had been opened on earth for us, for the rest of our living history.
That aircraft had dropped a bomb, mere 5 tons of weight,
but packing the devastating power of 15 thousand tons of TNT.
It had been intentionally, brutally set to detonate before hitting ground
for maximum effect, so that no one and nothing could escape in hollows or trenches.
It exploded 580 meters
above the dome of the Industrial Promotion Hall of Hiroshima, Japan.
Raising a mushroom cloud, 8 miles high,
visible to the tailgunner of Enola Gay, the fleeing aircraft from 350 miles away.
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The building survived, just by being directly below the ‘hypocenter’ of the explosion.
But in that same instant, the rest of the city was reduced to rubble.
The radius of total destruction was about 1.6 km (1 mile),
with resulting fires across 11.4 km² (4.4 square miles).
Approximately 69% of the city’s buildings were completely destroyed,
and 6.6 percent severely damaged.
It was estimated approximately 70,000 people
were instantaniously vapourised and another 70,000 were injured and burnt.
[an estimated 90,000 was dead within two months,
Unborn babies died or were born with deformities.
and more people continued to die from radiation related illnesses.]
August 6
15:15 GMT
President Truman in his address to his nation:
“Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese army base.
That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.
… It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe… What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. . . .”
Only a psychopathic murderer
could call such an act as the greatest achievement in the history of science.
While these were the unspoken thoughts of
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘scientist’ who made the atomic bomb possible,
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.‘ I suppose we all thought that one way or another.
After Hiroshima, President Truman promised more,
“If they do not now accept our terms,
they may expect a rain of ruin from the air
the likes of which has never been seen on this earth.”
That was just the “Little Boy“, the “Fat Man” was still waiting.
the $2 billion spent in their development had to be justified,
for President Truman, there had to be more,
Europe had inconveniently ended.
and 70,000 was never enough,
there had to be a Nagasaki…
That barbaric act of destruction of civilians of Hiroshima was accepted as legal,
just because the bomb was dropped from a military aircraft,
and by personnel in military uniforms.
Had it been civilian aircrafts
and by persons in civilian clothes,
it would have been “terrorism”, and not war, regardless of the desired outcome.
62 years ago, today, a new era of combat and warfare had been defined.
It was the birth of pre-emptive strikes on a a distant enemy to force a surrender.
America had to occupy Japan, before the Russians walked in, but were scared to invade.
No longer were wars going to be won by courage, bravery or hardships of
the soldiers living in muddy trenches or crawling through minefields,
or charging out in the face of enemy cannons and rifle fire.
Wars were now for cowards,
who have the money and resources to build
weapons that were capable of destroying masses in instants
and dropping them from the safety of distant missile launchers and stealth bombers.
Who promises to use the same bomb on anyone else who dares to develop their own.
The story ain’t over, there was, and is, more to come...
The Genbaku Dome has been preserved as the Hiroshima War Memorial
America
WWII
History
Atomic Bomb
Hiroshima
War crime
… continued as – after Hiroshima]
earthpal said this on August 6th, 2007 at 08:31
The legacy of Hiroshima will always haunt us.
Nothing less than a global abolition of nuclear weapons is needed.
little indian said this on August 6th, 2007 at 08:51
Thanks earthie,
since the nuclear powers have not agreed,
every country should be allowed to have their own.
Let the nuclear playing field be truly level for the entire human race.
Since India developed their own,
China has stopped flexing their muscles,
Pakistan tested us at the Kargil War and withdrew.
If Saddam really had a nuclear arsenal,
there would not have been an American invasion.
neither would they contemplate an invasion of Iran.
Their loud barks against the N Korean, have now settled into a whine.
Like I have written, the world is dominated by cowards with N-bombs.
No one has dared challange China over atrocities in Tibet.
If you visit India you will find,
a whole generation of an almost entire Tibetan nation
living as eternal refugees along the northern border states of India.
Let every David have their Nuclear slings,
That is the only way to stop the Goliath that is America.
earthpal said this on August 6th, 2007 at 10:10
Well I’m dreaming of a totally nuclear-free world but I guess you can’t uninvent stuff.
Other than that, I totally agree with you.
Indeed, America is the only nation ever to have used “the bomb”.
little indian said this on August 6th, 2007 at 12:14
true earthPal,
we can dream of a nuclear-free world
maybe we may have one in future, radioactive, but N-free.
George Orwell wrote two months after Hiroshima,
that the atom bomb ushered into being an
indefinite “peace that is no peace”
Mankind is destined to live
happily ever after under a mushroom cloud.
S said this on August 7th, 2007 at 05:57
I had forgotten the date…your post sent chills down my spine!
little indian said this on August 7th, 2007 at 16:08
Thanks S,
62 years is a long time,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki is vague memory now.
We may well be witnessing the same again in Iran.
tumerica said this on August 8th, 2007 at 15:59
Thank you for this crazy-beautiful article. History not studied risks being repeated.
little indian said this on August 8th, 2007 at 16:36
Thanks tumerica,
thanks for stopping by to read my crazy 🙂 ramblings.
August is a special month for me, I was born in August,
but every August starts with thoughts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This year as a blogger I decided to write my thoughts.
Thanks again
Khirod said this on August 10th, 2007 at 16:11
Thanks for igniting the thoughts about Hirosima and Nagasaki. History repeats itself if we do not learn anything from it.
little indian said this on August 10th, 2007 at 17:05
Thanks for stopping by Khirod
I feel we may be seeing more of this topic before the year is out.
I sincerely hope to be proved wrong.
today, 62 years ago « “me no big chief… said this on August 13th, 2007 at 09:18
[…] … continued as – Hiroshima] […]
Jon said this on October 31st, 2007 at 14:40
Sadly for the US, this was necessary in order to save US lives in an invasion of Japan it’s self. Truman’s hand was forced and out of the destruction, Japan has risen anew as one of Freedoms best allies. The horror is beyond imaginable but in the long run, necessary. God save us all.
little indian said this on October 31st, 2007 at 17:07
Thanks Jon, for your comment.
I do not agree that it was necessary.
That is an excuse used by Americans to ease their conscience.
Eisenhower himself has written it was unnecessary. There cannot be any argument against it.
The Russians had started their invasion of Japan the day before Nagasaki. It was to deter Russian occupation of Japan, why the innocent civilians were vapourised.
Hitler thought killing the jews a necessity for his new world.
America will always have the blood of those hundred thousands of japanese on her hands. Anyone who continues to believe that it was a “necessary crime”, should rot in hell.
americansoilder said this on January 13th, 2008 at 07:10
may i rot in hell