The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

In the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off from the island of Tinian and headed north by northwest toward Japan.  The bomber’s primary target was the city of Hiroshima, located on the deltas of southwestern Honshu Island facing the Inland Sea. Hiroshima had a civilian population of almost 300,000 and was an important military centre, containing about 43,000 soldiers.
The bomber, piloted by the commander of the 509th Composite Group, Colonel Paul Tibbets, flew at low altitude on automatic pilot before climbing to 31,000 feet as it neared the target area.  At approximately 8:15 a.m. Hiroshima time the Enola Gay released “Little Boy,” its 9,700-pound uranium gun-type bomb, over the city.  Tibbets immediately dove away to avoid the anticipated shock wave.  Forty-three seconds later, a huge explosion lit the morning sky as Little Boy detonated 1,900 feet above the city, directly over a parade field where soldiers of the Japanese Second Army were training.  Though already eleven and a half miles away, the Enola Gay was rocked by the blast.  At first, Tibbets thought he was taking flak.  After a second (reflected from the ground) hit the plane, the crew looked back at Hiroshima.  “The city was hidden by that awful cloud . . . boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall,” as Tibbets recalled.  The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 15 kilotons (the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT).
THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF NAGASAKI
Then there was the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. For some context, the next break in the weather over Japan was due to appear just three days after the attack on Hiroshima, to be followed by at least five more days of prohibitive weather.  The plutonium implosion bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” was rushed into readiness to take advantage of this window.  No further orders were required for the attack.  Truman’s order of July 25th had authorised the dropping of additional bombs as soon as they were ready.  At 3:47 a.m. on August 9, 1945, a B-29 named Bock’s Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura.
The aircraft commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, then ordered the arming of the bomb only ten minutes after take-off so that the aircraft could be pressurised and climb above the lightning and squalls that menaced the flight all the way to Japan.  (A journalist, William L. Laurence of the New York Times, on an escorting aircraft saw some “St. Elmo’s fire” glowing on the edges of the aircraft and worried that the static electricity might detonate the bomb.)  Sweeney then discovered that due to a minor malfunction he would not be able to access his reserve fuel.  The aircraft next had to orbit over Yaku-shima off the south coast of Japan for almost an hour in order to rendezvous with its two escort B-29s, one of which never did arrive.  The weather had been reported satisfactory earlier in the day over Kokura Arsenal, but by the time the B-29 finally arrived there, the target was obscured by smoke and haze.  Two more passes over the target still produced no sightings of the aiming point.  As an aircraft crewman, Jacob Beser, later recalled, Japanese fighters and bursts of antiaircraft fire were by this time starting to make things “a little hairy.”  Kokura no longer appeared to be an option, and there was only enough fuel on board to return to the secondary airfield on Okinawa, making one hurried pass as they went over their secondary target, the city of Nagasaki.  As Beser later put it, “there was no sense dragging the bomb home or dropping it in the ocean.”
As it turned out, cloud cover obscured Nagasaki as well.  Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach on the target.  At the last moment the bombardier, Captain Kermit K. Beahan, caught a brief glimpse of the city’s stadium through the clouds and dropped the bomb.  At 11:02 a.m., at an altitude of 1,650 feet, Fat Man (right) exploded over Nagasaki.  The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 21 kilotons, 40 percent greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb. Destroying even more life in the processes.
THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THE HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BOMBINGS
The devastating effect of atomic weapons was made apparent to all after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The uranium bomb that detonated over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 had an explosive yield equal to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. It razed and burnt around 70 per cent of all buildings and caused an estimated 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945, along with increased rates of cancer and chronic disease among the survivors. The slightly larger plutonium bomb that exploded over Nagasaki three days later levelled 6.7 sq km.  of the city and killed 74,000 people by the end of 1945. Ground temperatures reached 4,000°C and radioactive rain poured down.
Furthermore, the extent of the damage in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 made it nearly impossible to provide aid. In Hiroshima 90 per cent of physicians and nurses were killed or injured; 42 of 45 hospitals were rendered non-functional; and 70 percent of victims had combined injuries including, in most cases, severe burns. All the dedicated burn beds around the world would be insufficient to care for the survivors of a single nuclear bomb on any city. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most victims died without any care to ease their suffering. Some of those who entered the cities after the bombings to provide assistance also died from the radiation! The destructive capacity of these weapons puts into question the morality of their existence to begin with! And when we consider that it was leaders of nations who supported the construction of these weapons, like in Germany and the US, we are ever reminded of the urgency of praying for leaders, lest they are susceptible to wicked and unreasonable influence. But here’s more of the ramifications of these bombings.
The Manhattan Project and the subsequent bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent a concerning past. One that exposes the implausibility in the destruction and loss of life – because what everyone does agree with is that the scale of destruction and harm that was suffered by those who endured the atomic bombings reveals an evil that ought never be replicated. Which is why it remains ever important to pray for leaders and nations, that we may continue to live peaceably in all godliness and honesty – as we are admonished in 1 Timothy 2:1-4.
Written By Lindokihle Mabaso