The Little Boy and the Fat Man

 At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, time stopped forever for 70,000 people belonged to the Hiroshima city of Japan. Another 100,000 people died by the end of that year.

Hiroshima city was the main target for the atomic bombing mission of the American air force and Nagasaki was the alternative target. Colonel Tibbets was the commanding pilot of the B-29 bomber aircraft named “Enola Gay” which was designated for the fateful mission to deliver the atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

Early warning radars in Japan had detected the fast approaching aircrafts and had given a warning to the people to go to the air-raid shelters a soon as the planes were sighted.  This was a routine alert and nobody in their wildest dreams would have imagined that within sixty minutes they were going to face the worst ever man-made destruction and that the event would change the history of the world for ever.

At 7:31 the first B-29 bomber was sighted and it flew over the city at 32,000 feet and after sending a message to “Enola Gay” that the weather was clear over the target, it turned out to sea and vanished. “All clear” siren was sounded in the city and the people heaved a sigh of relief. Colonel started his bombing mission and exactly at 8.15AM the bomb known as the “Little Boy” was released. (The code name of that bomb was “Little Boy” and the code name of the bomb released over Nagasaki after three days was “Fat Man”).

The little boy had a fission material of 64 kilograms of Uranium-235. By the time it reached the detonation height of nearly 2000 feet and got exploded, Colonel Tibbs had travelled 18.5 kilometres away from Hiroshima and still he could feel the shockwaves.

The little boy was responsible for the gruesome death of thousands of innocent people including many “little boys and girls”

By the blast, more than 70,000 people were instantaneously killed and another 70,000 were injured. More than 90% of the medical personnel were killed. Entire downtown of the city was wiped out. Hiroshima city was totally cut off from the rest of the country, and all communication systems were completely dead. An officer from the headquarters flew to Hiroshima to investigate what had happened. He was shocked to witness the unimaginable destruction. He reported the terrible news to the headquarters and relief measures were started getting organized.

Japanese media announced to the outside world that “Practically all living things, human and animals were literally seared to death”

Apart from the immediate casualties, the delayed effects on those who were exposed to the radiation, especially children, included the development of Cancer and other medical problems. The foetus of many pregnant mothers had suffered brain damage. Several children born to the survivors had genetic defects and other problems.

 

No More Hiroshimas

Hiroshima is a city that stands as a symbol of human destruction and also as a beacon of hope and peace. I visited Hiroshima on 30^th September 1993 along with a multi-national group of trainees undergoing some technological training in Japan.

We visited Hiroshima Memorial Park, which consisted of various structures in memory of the atomic holocaust. In the middle of the park there was a monument that holds a cenotaph of all the people died in the bombing of Hiroshima. The “cenotaph” is defined as a “memorial built to honour people whose remains are interred elsewhere or whose remains could not be recovered”.

 

One of the important structures was the “Hiroshima Peace Museum”. Inside the museum the relics of the atomic holocaust were preserved – shredded school uniforms of innocent children, their lunch boxes with carbonized contents, charred remains of people and their belongings etc.  At the time of blast a man was sitting on the steps of the entrance of Sumitomo Bank 250 metres from the “Ground Zero”. His shadow was permanently imprinted on the stone by the intense heat. This stone kept in the museum had become known as the “stone of a human shadow”

There was a model of the destroyed city made with remarkable details, from the available photographs. There is also the well-known and intimidating picture of the giant mushroom cloud raising smoke and debris over the city. The ghastly spectacle of the ultimate human misery unfolded beneath the mushroom cloud was too much for any sensitive person could bear. It was so shocking and depressing that I hurriedly finished seeing the exhibits and came out. My hand was trembling when I tried to write my impressions in the visitors’ book kept there.

There was a domed building near the epicentre of the bomb explosion, the remains of which were preserved in the same way as it was on the day of the holocaust after the bombing. This building had become the most famous symbol of the attack on humanity by nuclear weapons. On the wall of that building there was a plaque and the engraving on it said that the ruin is “preserved to symbolize our wish that there may be No More Hiroshimas”

Arthur Koestler in his book “Janus: a summing up” writes as follows: “If I were asked to name the most important date in the history and prehistory of the human race, I would answer without hesitation, 6^th August 1945. From the dawn of consciousness until 6^th August 1945, man had to live with the prospect of his death as an individual; since the day when the first atomic bomb outshone the sun over Hiroshima, mankind as a whole has had to live with the prospect of its extinction as a species”