The US B-29 Enola Gay bomber detonated a 550-meter-high atomic bomb in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The energy released was equivalent to 12.500 tons of TNT. In just a few seconds, the city, with its 300.000 inhabitants, was transformed into a vast cemetery.
The first nuclear attack in human history was now a fact.
The crew of the B-29 itself did not believe what they saw: "A blinding light filled the aircraft. We turned and looked at Hiroshima. The city was covered with a terrible cloud, rising like a mushroom. Nobody was talking. Suddenly, everyone started to
they shout. "Look, look, look!" Said Governor Paul Tibets, while Enola Gay Lewis's co-governor wrote in his diary: "My God! What have we done;".
On August 9, a bomb of the same size struck Nagasaki (a city of 87.000 people, within a three-kilometer radius of its center and surrounded by hills).
The heat in both cities developed in just a few seconds. It was so high that within a radius of 500 meters from the epicenter, all the ceramic surfaces of the houses melted, while within a radius of 1.500 meters all its wooden parts burned. More than 70.000 people died instantly in Hiroshima and 40.000 in Nagasaki.
The United States has chosen to drop nuclear bombs, committing one of the biggest war crimes in human history.
In addition to the immediate victims, many suffered physical, genetic and psychological trauma, the consequences of which continued for years. Leukemia and cancer increased dramatically in 1948 and peaked in 1950-1952. "Nuclear radiation has killed another 100.000-200.000 people since that day and for decades to come," various newspapers recently reported.
The English playwright Christopher Marlowe once said, "Cursed be he who first discovered war."