70 Years Since Hiroshima
POSTED BY: Magonsdaughter
UPDATED: Saturday, August 8, 2026 10:26
VIEWED: 23968
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Decisive act that stopped the deaths of millions, or biggest act of terror ever.....?
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Tens of thousands of people will gather in Hiroshima to mark 70 years to the day since the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb.
Representatives of more than 100 countries, including the US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, will be among those marking the anniversary in the city’s peace memorial park on Thursday morning.
Standing in the shadow of the shell of what was then the prefectural industrial promotion hall – now known simply as the atomic bomb dome – they will hear messages from survivors, local children and the city’s mayor. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will also attend.
Hiroshima and the nuclear age - a visual guide
Read more
Seven decades ago, the countdown to the first nuclear attack in history began in the early hours of 6 August 1945, when a US B-29 Superfortress bomber, escorted by two surveillance planes, took off from an airfield on the Pacific island of Tinian.
The Enola Gay, named after the mother of the plane’s pilot, Brig Gen Paul Tibbets, was carrying a 16 kiloton atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy; its target was Hiroshima, a port and major army base in western Japan, six hours’ flying time away.
As dawn broke in Hiroshima, its 340,000 residents were recovering from another sleepless night of false alarms after radar picked up a succession of US bombers flying overhead on missions further south.
Soon after 7am local time, a US weather surveillance aircraft escorting the Enola Gay triggered yet another air raid alert. The plane left the area and the all clear was sounded at 7.31am. Its message to the Enola Gay’s crew: “Weather good, possible to drop bomb.”
The explosion as the bomb hits Hiroshima
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A photograph taken by the US military shows the explosion as the bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, hits Hiroshima. Photograph: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/EPA
Forty-four minutes later, the Enola Gay released its payload. Below, people were preparing for an ordinary day at work, while young children set out for school, and older ones to factories to help Japan’s faltering war effort.
The city, the site of a large military headquarters, had so far been spared the heavy conventional bombing that had destroyed much of Tokyo and Osaka. Hiroshima residents were beginning to suspect that their city was next.
Brazilian Hiroshima survivors campaign against new push for nuclear power
Read more
The bomb exploded 580 metres (2,000ft) above a T-shaped bridge at the junction of the Honkawa and Motoyasu rivers, unleashing a blinding flash followed by a deafening boom.
About 70,000 people died instantly in the blast or from the firestorms that raged moments later. The death toll would rise to about 140,000 by the end of 1945. The explosion, equal to 12,000 to 15,000 tonnes of TNT, destroyed more than two-thirds of Hiroshima’s buildings across five sq miles.
Hiroshima three months after the atomic bomb was dropped
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Hiroshima, including the prefectural industrial promotion hall, seen three months after the atomic bomb was dropped. Photograph: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/AFP/Getty Images
Within 45 minutes of the attack, nuclear fallout mixed with ash and smoke from the firestorms to create a radioactive black rain that soaked survivors and did not abate until the fires began to burn themselves out in the evening.
As people staggered among the dead and dying in search of water and medical treatment, news began to spread to the capital, Tokyo, that something unspeakable had occurred in Hiroshima.
But wartime leaders did not receive confirmation that the city had been destroyed by a nuclear weapon until the following day, when the US president, Harry S Truman, said: “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima. It is an atomic bomb.”
Hiroshima’s fate, 70 years ago this week, must not be forgotten
Read more
At 8.15am on Thursda
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Decisive act that stopped the deaths of millions, or biggest act of terror ever.....?
___________________________________________________________
Tens of thousands of people will gather in Hiroshima to mark 70 years to the day since the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb.
Representatives of more than 100 countries, including the US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, will be among those marking the anniversary in the city’s peace memorial park on Thursday morning.
Standing in the shadow of the shell of what was then the prefectural industrial promotion hall – now known simply as the atomic bomb dome – they will hear messages from survivors, local children and the city’s mayor. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will also attend.
Hiroshima and the nuclear age - a visual guide
Read more
Seven decades ago, the countdown to the first nuclear attack in history began in the early hours of 6 August 1945, when a US B-29 Superfortress bomber, escorted by two surveillance planes, took off from an airfield on the Pacific island of Tinian.
The Enola Gay, named after the mother of the plane’s pilot, Brig Gen Paul Tibbets, was carrying a 16 kiloton atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy; its target was Hiroshima, a port and major army base in western Japan, six hours’ flying time away.
As dawn broke in Hiroshima, its 340,000 residents were recovering from another sleepless night of false alarms after radar picked up a succession of US bombers flying overhead on missions further south.
Soon after 7am local time, a US weather surveillance aircraft escorting the Enola Gay triggered yet another air raid alert. The plane left the area and the all clear was sounded at 7.31am. Its message to the Enola Gay’s crew: “Weather good, possible to drop bomb.”
The explosion as the bomb hits Hiroshima
A photograph taken by the US military shows the explosion as the bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, hits Hiroshima. Photograph: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/EPA
Forty-four minutes later, the Enola Gay released its payload. Below, people were preparing for an ordinary day at work, while young children set out for school, and older ones to factories to help Japan’s faltering war effort.
The city, the site of a large military headquarters, had so far been spared the heavy conventional bombing that had destroyed much of Tokyo and Osaka. Hiroshima residents were beginning to suspect that their city was next.
Brazilian Hiroshima survivors campaign against new push for nuclear power
Read more
The bomb exploded 580 metres (2,000ft) above a T-shaped bridge at the junction of the Honkawa and Motoyasu rivers, unleashing a blinding flash followed by a deafening boom.
About 70,000 people died instantly in the blast or from the firestorms that raged moments later. The death toll would rise to about 140,000 by the end of 1945. The explosion, equal to 12,000 to 15,000 tonnes of TNT, destroyed more than two-thirds of Hiroshima’s buildings across five sq miles.
Hiroshima three months after the atomic bomb was dropped
Hiroshima, including the prefectural industrial promotion hall, seen three months after the atomic bomb was dropped. Photograph: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/AFP/Getty Images
Within 45 minutes of the attack, nuclear fallout mixed with ash and smoke from the firestorms to create a radioactive black rain that soaked survivors and did not abate until the fires began to burn themselves out in the evening.
As people staggered among the dead and dying in search of water and medical treatment, news began to spread to the capital, Tokyo, that something unspeakable had occurred in Hiroshima.
But wartime leaders did not receive confirmation that the city had been destroyed by a nuclear weapon until the following day, when the US president, Harry S Truman, said: “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima. It is an atomic bomb.”
Hiroshima’s fate, 70 years ago this week, must not be forgoNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
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Decisive act that stopped the deaths of millions, or biggest act of terror ever.....?
Hmm, maybe both.
It's not personal. It's just war.
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Originally posted by kpo:Quote:
Decisive act that stopped the deaths of millions, or biggest act of terror ever.....?
Hmm, maybe both.
No.
Terrorism is aimed at civilians.
Not an entire Empire which has foisted War upon the world. The definition fails epically.
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'Act of terror' can be interpreted two ways - as a 'terrorist' act, or more simply and literally, an act that inspires terror.
The Hiroshima bombing was not a terrorist act, but it's hard to argue that it doesn't fit the second definition. The whole point of it was to terrorise the Japanese government and nation into surrender.
It's not personal. It's just war.
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The Allies waged acts of terror against civilians in world war 2, the bombing of Nagasaki,Hiroshima, Dresden...the unpaletable side of war is that at times the aim is to kill as many civilians as possible in order to demoralise.
I suppose it depends upon whether you think the means justifies the ends in these matters.
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Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
The Allies waged acts of terror against civilians in world war 2, the bombing of Nagasaki,Hiroshima, Dresden...the unpaletable side of war is that at times the aim is to kill as many civilians as possible in order to demoralise.
I suppose it depends upon whether you think the means justifies the ends in these matters.
I have to agree with you magon. The Allies did as much damage to Germany as the 2 A-bombs did in Japan. Both with the same goals. Break the enemy and get them to surrender.
The point of the allied bombing campaigns was generally to degrade the enemy's ability to wage war. Destroy its factories, munitions stores, transport hubs, military facilities etc. Bombing targets were always chosen with these things in mind.
The allied bombing campaigns might seem cold-blooded and vindictive, and to an extent they probably were. But that doesn't mean they were pointless slaughter. They undoubtedly shortened the war and thereby saved lives, possibly even more than they killed. Here is a passage from the Wiki page on the bombing of Hamburg (1943), which describes the destructiveness, but also the effectiveness:
Quote:
Operation Gomorrah killed 42,600 people, left 37,000 wounded and caused some one million German civilians to flee the city.[3] The city's labour force was reduced permanently by ten percent.[3] Approximately 3,000 aircraft were deployed, 9,000 tons of bombs were dropped and over 250,000 homes and houses were destroyed. No subsequent city raid shook Germany as did that on Hamburg; documents show that German officials were thoroughly alarmed and there is some indication from later Allied interrogations of Nazi officials that Hitler stated that further raids of similar weight would force Germany out of the war.
Other things that need to be considered when looking back at this controversial aspect of history:
1. WWII was total war - countries throwing everything they had at each other in a life or death struggle (particularly in the case of Britain which faced down Nazi Germany almost alone at one point). You don't sweat too much about enemy civilian casualties when your entire nation, and way of life, is on the edge of the precipice.
2. For several years after the fall of France and before the Allied invasion of Italy there was no 'Western front' - only limited campaigns in North Africa, Greece, the Balkans etc. Consequently for a long time there was no direct way for Britain and later America, to wage land war against the Nazis. Thus, the only way to fight the Nazis and degrade their ability to wage war, besides supplying the Soviets with massive amounts of war material, was to bomb German industrial cities.
3. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had shown no regard for civilian life in their actions - think of the Japanese' sadistic slaughter of hundreds of thousands in Nanking, or the Nazis' starvation of a million people in the siege of Leningrad.
It's not personal. It's just war.
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There's a MAZDA Plant there now, thought I'd throw that in....boom.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Other things that need to be considered when looking back at this controversial aspect of history:
1. WWII was total war - countries throwing everything they had at each other in a life or death struggle (particularly in the case of Britain which faced down Nazi Germany almost alone at one point). You don't sweat too much about enemy civilian casualties when your entire nation, and way of life, is on the edge of the precipice.
2. For several years after the fall of France and before the Allied invasion of Italy there was no 'Western front' - only limited campaigns in North Africa, Greece, the Balkans etc. Consequently for a long time there was no direct way for Britain and later America, to wage land war against the Nazis. Thus, the only way to fight the Nazis and degrade their ability to wage war, besides supplying the Soviets with massive amounts of war material, was to bomb German industrial cities.
3. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had shown no regard for civilian life in their actions - think of the Japanese' sadistic slaughter of hundreds of thousands in Nanking, or the Nazis' starvation of a million people in the siege of Leningrad.
That's well stated. You clearly have a better-than-average knowledge of WWII. I guess you've read a lot of books and/or watched a lot of History Channel shows. It's too bad most people know nothing about it today.
My grandfather landed with the Army in Oran, Algeria in November, 1942 as part of Operation Torch. He fought the Nazis in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy. He was 18 years old. I've always had a hard time coming to terms with that because I know what I was like when I was 18.
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