Today, as I contemplate the bombings of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945), I am thankful for our leaders who favor diplomacy over war. And, yes, I am biased.
[My father's ancestors lived in Kaita, 4th district, a Japanese village located approximately 7 kilometers south of Hiroshima. His great-grandfather left Japan and settled in Hawaii in 1856. My dad was born in Los Angeles in 1925.]
War does not determine who is right - only who is left. ~Bertrand Russell
The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. ~Albert Einstein
The bomb that fell on Hiroshima fell on America too. It fell on no city, no munition plants, no docks. It erased no church, vaporized no public buildings, reduced no man to his atomic elements. But it fell, it fell. ~Hermann Hagedorn, The Bomb That Fell on America
ReutersHiroshima, August 06, 2007First Published: 11:20 IST(6/8/2007)Last Updated: 11:29 IST(6/8/2007)
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Monday marks the 62nd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.Following are some facts about the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing World War Two to an end.
HIROSHIMA:
* At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay dropped a 10,000-pound uranium 235 bomb on Hiroshima, instantly killing about 78,000 people. By the end of 1945, the number of dead had reached about 140,000 out of an estimated population of 350,000.
* The bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," exploded about 600 metres above the centre of the city, setting off a surge of heat reaching 4,000 degrees Celsius across a radius of about 4.5 km.
NAGASAKI:
* Three days later, at 11:02 am on August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a 10,000-pound plutonium-239 bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man", on Nagasaki. Continued...
* It exploded about 500 metres above the ground, instantly killing about 27,000 of the city's estimated population of around 200,000. By the end of 1945, the number of dead due to acute radiation exposure reached about 70,000.
TOTAL KILLED:
* Japan has so far recognised the total number of victims who died of radiation illness and injuries in Hiroshima as 253,008 and in Nagasaki as 143,124.
* Apart from this, last year the city of Hiroshima added for the first time the words "Many Unknown" to the ledger of the victims' names placed in a container at the cenotaph of the Peace Memorial Park.
Sources: Reuters; Radiation Effects Research Foundation (www.rerf.or.jp)
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
For this blessing, I am grateful.
Amen.
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