August 6, 1945
Background…
• During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United
States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945
and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the
only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.
• For six months before the atomic bombings, the United States
intensely fire-bombed 67 Japanese cities. Together with the
United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States
called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on
July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored this
ultimatum.
The Effects…
• Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects
killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in
Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first
day.
• The Hiroshima health department estimates that, of the people who died
on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from
falling debris and 10% from other causes.
• During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns,
radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness.
• In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death,
15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and 50–
60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the
dead were civilians.
• Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan
announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of
Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore
World War II.
The Enola Gay
• Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress
bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets,
mother of pilot Paul Tibbets.
• On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of
World War II, it became the first aircraft to
drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war. The
bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted
at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused
extensive destruction.
Paul Tibbets = Pilot
Plane that dropped bomb on
Hiroshima – named after pilot’s mum
In the Enola Gay
five minutes before impact
he whistles a dry tune
Sense of anticipation for
reader
Reflects his unease
Simile –positive image contrasts with
deadly bomb
Contrasting
words –
range of
emotions
Later he will say
that the whole blooming sky
went up like an apricot ice.
Later he will laugh and tremble
at such a surrender, for the eye
of his belly saw Marilyn’s skirts
fly over her head for ever
Personifies
the plane
Metaphor for the mushroom cloud
Onomatopoeia to bring nature to
life
On the river bank,
bees drizzle over
hot white rhododendrons
Contrast between innocence
of nature and heat of
explosion
Could represent all child victims
bloodied
Later she will walk
the dust, a scarlet girl
with her whole stripped skin
at her heel, stuck like an old
shoe sole or mermaid’s tail
Similes to describe her peeling skin
And “dust” in last stanza – words of death
Simile to show
how their burnt
skin sheds
Later she will lie down
in the flecked black ash
where the people are become
as lizards or salamanders
and, blinded, she will complain:
Mother you are late, so late
The flash of the explosion
was blinding
Links to last
verse – he has
a later , she
doesn’t
Later in dreams he will look
down shrieking and see
ladybirds
ladybirds
Metaphor to show the black and red
of burnt bodies
Or linked to children’s rhyme:
Lady bird, ladybird fly away home,
Your house is on fire, your children
are gone
Links to other poems…
Violence / War:
Invasion, Conscientious Objector, the Drum, O
What is that Sound?, Belfast Confetti, Our
Sharpeville, Hitcher, Exposure
Actions against other others:
Hitcher, Parade’s End, O What is that Sound?,
Exam Questions…
Explain how Fell uses imagery, vocabulary and
form to convey the horror of a nuclear attack.
Use examples from the poem to support your
answer.