Hiroshima, 6 August 1945

Posted: Friday, August 06, 2010 by Travis Cody in
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On 6 August 1945, 65 years ago today, Colonel Paul Tibbets flew his B-29 Enola Gay from Tinian Island in the Marianas to Hiroshima, Japan. At 08:15 local time the first atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, dropped through the bomb bay doors. As Tibbets banked away, the bomb fell for 57 seconds before detonating 2,000 feet above the city.

Three days later, Major Charles W. Sweeney flew his B-29 Bockscar loaded with the second atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, to Kokura, Japan. Cloud cover over the primary target forced Major Sweeney to fly on to Nagasaki, where he dropped Fat Man at 11:01 local time. The bomb fell for 43 seconds and detonated 1,540 feet above the city.



On 15 August, Japanese Emperor Hirohito read to his people via radio broadcast the document of surrender.  On 28 August, the occupation of Japan began.  And on 2 September 1945, aboard USS Missouri, the official instrument of surrender was signed and World War II came to a close.

"I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."  (Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto)

"I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did... I sleep clearly every night". (Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets USAF)

“If you give me the same circumstances, hell yeah, I'd do it again.” (General Tibbets)

"Every positive value has its price in negative terms... the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima."  (Pablo Picasso)

"Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human duty. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than physics"  (Bernard Baruch) 

"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."  (Albert Einstein)

4 comments:

  1. I always feel a little sick when I see that picture.
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  1. Everything's eventual, unfortunately.

  1. Even thought both these bombs took a lot of life,they saved a lot of them as well. it would have been an extremely costly in American lives during the battle of the Japanese homeland.

  1. Jeni says:

    It is an unfortunate consequence of war that many lives must ultimately be sacrificed for the conflicts to come to an end. As dreadful as the outcome of those bombings was, that war would/could have continued on for a long time had this route not been chosen. For the greater good of mankind, it was a very difficult but I still believe it was also the wisest choice in the end.