I: The Bomb
The 1/10,000 of a Second that Changed History
0245 take off
0300 started final loading of gun
0315 finished loading
0605 headed for Empire from Iwo
0730 red plugs in
0741 started climb. Weather report received that the weather over primary and tertiary targets was good but not over secondary target* * Hiroshima was the primary, Kokura the secondary and Nagasaki the tertiary target.
0838 leveled off at 32,700 feet
0847 electronic fuses were tested and found to be OK
0940 course west 0909 target Hiroshima in sight
Then, at precisely 09.15 1/2 (Tinian time) the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Thus reads the diary of Naval Captain William S. Parsons of the B-29, "Enola Gay".
Nicknamed "Little Boy", this bomb weighed 9000 pounds and was 120 inches long with a diameter of 28 inches. 43 seconds after the drop it exploded, releasing an estimated 50,000,000° C. of heat. 1/10,000 of a second later a fireball formed 180 feet in diameter with an internal temperature of 300,000°. A shock wave raged through the entire city at 2.8 miles per second. Amplified by heat rays, it had the incendiary and destructive power of 20,000 tons of TNT. Some 20,000,000,000,000 (20 trillion) calories of energy were released. This was August 6, 1945.
Fight to the Finish
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, World War II had steadily intensified to a desperate fight to the death. Japan with irresistible drive had swept over Malay and the Philippines, then Java and finally Burma, conquering Southeast Asia in about half a year. However, the tide turned at the naval battle of Midway in June, 1942, and Japan began to retreat. Air attacks on the homeland increased in number and severity.
Hiroshima, like all of Japan, had determined to fight to the finish. In the October 20, 1943 issue of Hiroshima City Hall News appeared the following bulletin: "Since the war grows more mercilessly intense each day, the City of Hiroshima has made sweeping changes in employee working hours. With the same heart as our soldiers on the battlefield, we push fearlessly along the road to victory ..." This meant that all holidays had been abolished; the week became Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Friday !
On March 17, 1945 after a suicidal defense, Iwo Jima fell. On April 1, the American Marines took Okinawa and air raids on Hiroshima Prefecture intensified. 290 B-29's dropped 58 incendiary bombs on Kure and Ondo on June 22nd, killing 69 people. On the night of the first of July, 1817 died. The attacks on Kure and the surrounding areas persisted throughout July, wave after wave; then they suddenly ceased, and on August 2nd and 3rd there was not even the shadow of a wing.
On Hiroshima City, itself, there was an attack in April, when one B-29 dropped ten bombs here. After that there were no real air raids, only occasional reconnaissance, or planes dropping leaflets calling for surrender. Why ? The people whispered around such reasons as, "Because Hiroshima is a strong Buddhist Center," and, "Because the Nisei children of many Hiroshima emigrants live in America."
However, one primary reason lay in the fact that military Hiroshima spread out as it was on its delta so that distances and the extent of destruction could easily be measured, had been chosen as target for a totally new bomb, in the hope that the results would rob the Japanese people of their will to continue the war.
What Nobody Knew
What no one here knew was that after successful tec in the Alamagordo, New Mexico desert, preparations of a nuclear bomb were under way. On the night before the Milky Way stretched in splendor across the sky. It was Sunday, but no longer a holiday and the people doze weary from their labors. At 21:20 a siren shattered this silence and at 21:27 came the signal, "Planes overhead ev tinguish lights." Again at 12:25 on the morning of the sixth and once more at 7:09 the sirens went. With the repeated hurrying in and out of shelters, it was a sleepless night.
In the morning, when the all-clear sounded, a hot midsummer sun shone in a deep blue sky. Now groups of returning night workers began to mingle with the day shifts on their way to work. Civilian district officers, self-defense civilian guards, governmental officers, factory watchmen and military workers from the war materials factories, and then gathering, group after group, the volunteer civilian corps and secondary school students mobilized for the only service they could render their country, that of clearing away houses for fire breaks. .. for a brief interval they could all enjoy release from the anxieties of the night.
Flash, Roar, Heat Blast
This was the scene when an urgent communique came from the Chugoku Military Command to Hiroshima Central Broadcasting, NHK, in the center of town. Masanobu Furuta sprang to the microphone. "Military Command announces. . . three large enemy planes... over Saijo... The broadcast was cut short by an eye-stabbing flash, a searing heat blast and a heaven-splitting roar to wrench the earth from its orbit. No one knew what had happened, only that people turned to charcoal here and there... or were tossed through the air... or crushed under falling buildings.
Limbless or headless bodies rolled about or piled up like logs on the ground, and around and between them writhed the still living, their flesh torn and tattered.
On Tinian Island, less than an hour after the bomb's release, a message was received from the Enola Gay, "Results clear-cut, successful in all respects." The island went wild with excitement. "We did it! We gave it to Hiroshima!" And in the assembling area, to the accompaniment of the frantic joy of the troops, scientists went quietly on with preparations for a second nuclear bomb, to be dropped on Nagasaki.