Fact Sheet: The Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On 6th August 1945 a United States B29 bomber plane,
the Enola Gay, flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

At 8:15 a.m. an atomic bomb was dropped.

It exploded with the power of 20,000 tonnes of TNT. It
produced a giant mushroom shaped cloud over the city.

Anyone within a kilometre of the explosion became a
bundle of smoking black charcoal in seconds.

Within minutes about 70,000 people were dead,
those who were still alive were in agony from their
burns.

Estimates of the casualties vary:
 The USA gave a figure of 79,400.
But,
 The Japanese estimated that 240,000 people
were killed during the explosion or died
shortly afterwards from the effects of
radiation.

On 9th August 1945 a second bomb was dropped on the
port of Nagasaki.

According to the USA it killed 20,000 people. The
Japanese said that 50,000 people were killed.

The two bombs that were dropped were called Fat
Man and Little Boy.

Afterwards, the Americans denied that radiation
sickness existed and they banned journalists from
Hiroshima.
A picture of the Enola Gay with one of its
crewmembers.
The Explosion of an Atom Bomb
Eye Witness Accounts:
a) The skin was burned off some of them and was
hanging from their hands and from their chins.
Hiroshima, after the Atomic Bomb was dropped.
b) In Hiroshima, 30 days later, people who were not
injured in the bombing are still dying mysteriously
and horribly from an unknown something which I
can only describe as the atomic plague
c) Survivors began to notice in themselves a strange
form of illness. It consisted of vomiting, loss of
appetite, diarrhoea with large amounts of blood,
purple spots on the skin, bleeding from the mouth,
loss of hair and usually death.
A picture of Fat man (left) and Little
Boy (right).