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Monday, August 06, 2012

This Day In History

On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a "conventional" bombing of Japan was underway, "Little Boy," (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets' plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, "Little Boy" was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of theIndianapolis" (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the day I celebrate the memory of Pearl Harbor.

Anonymous said...

A liberal NBC affiliate just reported it as the "TRAGEDY" in Hiroshima.
Am I the only one that has a problem with that?

Anonymous said...

A pack of lies! The Japanese tried to surrender for months, but the Zionists had to show off their new murder weapon.

Our history is replete with lies and half-truths.

Anonymous said...

We saved millions of lives...thank you Truman!

Anonymous said...

7:11

I am a study of many sources and perspectives in WWII history.
Your statement is completely and utterly false. It's premise debunked by the Japanese themselves.
They were never going to surrender.

It was certainly not a tragedy.

Anonymous said...

7:11-you're an idiot.

12:44 thanks, it ended the war.