A-bomb attacks
80 years ago this week the United States ended the war with Japan with two atomic fission bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The majority of victims were civilians, as was the norm in bombing cities at the time, as destroying morale and the civilian will to fight was considered a key battle in war then. The popular phrase was that by killing those Japanese, we saved the lives of potentially millions who would have been killed had we been forced to invade Japan. The 509th Composite Group, flying B-29s, carried the load.
First flight – on August 6th the Enola Gay, named after pilot Paul Tibbett’s mother, dropped the ~15 kiloton Little Boy bomb on Hiroshima, killing somewhere between 90-166,000 casualties.
Little Boy used a charge of cordite to fire a hollow cylinder (the “bullet”) of highly enriched uranium through an artillery gun barrel into a solid cylinder (the “target”) of the same material. The design was highly inefficient: the weapon used on Hiroshima contained 64 kilograms (141 lb) of uranium, but less than a kilogram underwent nuclear fission.
Less than a kilo… and we have all seen the footage of what it looked like, and the damage that it did.
Second bomb – August 9th, Major Charles Sweeney flew Bock’s Car to drop a plutonium implosion bomb on Nagasaki. This bomb only had 11 kg of plutonium which was compressed by precise shaped charges until it imploded. It’s estimated 60-80,000 were killed by this one.
Three days later, a Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. Over the next two to four months, the effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000 to 166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000 to 80,000 people in Nagasaki; roughly half the deaths occurred on the first day. For months afterward, many people continued to die from the effects of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition. Wiki “Little Boy”
Couple of quick items I did not know – the Enola Gay flew as the weather plane on the Nagasaki flight. The Great Artiste, the only other plane to participate in both raids, was flown by Captain Richard Bock, for whom Bock’s Car was named. And due to bad fuel pump, Bock’s Car had two of its four engine starve out due to lack of fuel during the landing. Amazing…
Additional material from Wiki Atomic Bombings
Category: We Remember, WWII
Found this referenced article extremely interesting:
https://youtu.be/6fbDgAQA22s
That was really interesting. I tried giving a thumbs up vote, but that just took away the down vote that someone clicked on. Definitely worth the time to watch.
Thank you for taking the time to view the interview.
A few years old at this point it still hits home.
My dad, a B-17 Bombardier brought me up with quite a bit
history and knowledge about how lucky we were to end it.
It’s been 80 years. Couple or two generations and already
forgotten.
Thank you, President Truman!
My father’s war began in Oran, Algeria and progressed through North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. On VE day, he was in Livorno, Italy and soon found out that he would eventually be heading to Japan for the final push. If he didn’t cry tears of relief and joy when the Japanese surrendered, I’m sure he breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
Just like we need to be reminded of the horrors of the Holocaust, we also need to be reminded of the very logical reasons why we dropped these weapons of mass destruction. There are too many out there ready to obfuscate the record and ignore the facts. This video helps stop that.
I often wonder how many of the liberals that decry the atomic bombings of Japan WOULD NOT be alive today if their grand or great grandfathers would have had to participate in the attack on mainland Japan.
Shortsightedness seems to be a requirement of the modern American liberal.
I have seen the leaflet thing before. The Japanese simply didn’t believe it was possible because the war machine propaganda was so effective. Not saying they shouldn’t have dropped the bomb jor even given more warning, ust saying it didn’t work, probably was never going to work.
Any one of the major Japanese atrocities (Rape of Nanjing, Manila Massacre, etc) killed far more civilians than both bombs together. Not that it makes it a good thing, just that they did have it coming.
Propaganda is also more effective when you believe your emperor is a god.
Unit 731 probably would have made Dr Mengele puke. Along with things you mentioned, Japanese treatment of Allied POWs should have been enough to bomb them.
Japan cast the first stone at Pearl Harbor. They made their own bed.
Much of the revision history experts will tell you the Imperial Japan was already going to surrender, and we just dropped the bombs on them because we’re racist…
My Grandfather spent 18 months in the South Pacific in a Navy VP squadron being a mechanic & waist gunner flying the PB4Y-1 (USAA Liberator B-24). His squadron was in Oklahoma completing training of the new PB4Y-2 Privateer (single tail instead of twin boom) dedicated Navy version. According to the paperwork I got from the Records Bureau, he finished training 10 Aug 45> I recall he said he was heading home on leave after training when he heard the war was over. He always said it was only the commie pinko f*ggots that never fought in the war that cried about the bomb 25 years afterwards. He got out of the Navy in November ’45.
Much gnashing of teeth and wailing is done about those 2 bombs. The pragmatists understand that each one was an example of the technology that could be used again should the Japanese not surrender. The fire bombings done previously had killed far more than the 2 atomic bombs did but lacked the emotional impact on the Japanese to convince them to end the war.
The simple fact is that quite literally millions or people on both sides are alive today because of those 2 bombs. Had the invasion gone on as planned the US casualties would number in the millions and the Japanese likely in the 10’s of millions. The Japanese “culture” as well as their nation would likely have disappeared.
I have no personal regrets that the bombs were used. In the face of a fanatical enemy, something extremely dramatic has t be used to get their attention in order to not have to really eliminate them.
If one bomb could cause that much death and destruction, the idea of multiple bombs had to scare the be Jesus out of them.
Many in the leadership thought that the US might only have one bomb and that was it. Then the second bomb hit and they knew it was over.
I also believe the bomb staved off war with Russia. After WWII Russia had an immensely large and powerful military and could easily have invaded mainland Europe, seizing most of it. It would have been very ugly. Without the bomb, the West would probably have won, but with the bomb, Stalin really didn’t have much of a chance.
By the time the Russians had the bomb, it was too late as the US has enough nukes to destroy most of the world.
After Pearl Harbor, they had “it” coming.
The bombs accomplished what they were designed to do.
Yep. War is pretty F******* terrible. That’s why you shouldn’t start one.
Looking at you, Hamas…
Dad was very happy he didn’t have to leave the European Theater for the Pacific Theater.
We are facing another fanatical enemy currently. I hope they don’t push someone to another use of the nukes.
“The design was highly inefficient: the weapon used on Hiroshima contained 64 kilograms (141 lb) of uranium, but less than a kilogram underwent nuclear fission.”
Exactly how did the bomb scientists figure that out after the blast? I am curious.
My guess is calculation of the blast radius.
Size of the explosion tells you the kilo/megatonnage of conventional explosives, from there they can calculate equivalent nuclear energy, which tells you how much nuclear/fissile material actually ‘worked’, which compared to the amount used gives you efficiency. At a guess.
I’ll buy that. Nuclear physics was never my strong suit.
I don’t think “exactly” was involved. Just an educated guess, piling estimates on top of estimates and rough calculations.
Big fuckin’ kaboom, any way you calculate it.
Made in America
Verified in Alamagordo
Validated in Japan
No tariff on THAT export!
Let’s not forget this either. While Robert Shaw never served himself, the story is 100% true.
http://youtu.be/4kmMwQ6i6TU
I just checked, there is a sole survivor to the Indianapolis still with us, Harold Bray 98 years young and still kicking.
https://www.ussindianapolis.com/
They are almost all gone now, to the campfires, bivouacs and berths on high. That generation that fought actual Nazis and those that would pretend to be emperor gods, not the fantasies of delusional politicians. May they be warmly received and embrace each other as brothers.
There’s a hand receipt in the Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) in Carlisle PA which tracks accountability of the bomb in movement to the Pacific Theater. The last entry is something like, “bomb consumed in use over Hiroshima, 6 August 1945.” Bean counters till the end.
On a different note, if we could just convince the libs how many people aren’t here now, consuming air, farting, and otherwise laying waste to the environment, as a result of the bombs, they might start recognizing it as a good thing. Hmm. Worth a shot.
“bomb consumed
in use overHiroshima, 6 August 1945.”That’s as good as Buzz Aldrin’s travel voucher for the Apollo 11 trip.
Did he get paid mileage?
Given how well the Imperial Japanese government had its citizens brainwashed to fight to the death of every man, woman and child, the use of the A-Bombs very likely saved at least ten to twenty times more Japanese lives than American.
Well, it did put a stop to all of the Japanese BS!
Last B-29 flight. June 21, 1960. My dad (Capt. D at the time) is in that pic somewhere.
I can’t remember which plane it was, perhaps Bocks Car? One of them landed and experienced an issue where it was said both pilots were literally standing in their seats to apply the brakes. Was that the fuel pump issue? I heard LeMay was livid with the pilots.
I believe “livid” was LeMay’s baseline emotional state.
I did more checking around. It was Bockscar, and the pilot, Sweeney later drew much criticism from Tibbets for some orders he disregarded prior to bombing his target and the way he wrote about the mission experiences later in life. Can’t tell if he was kind of a fuckup or if he just made mistakes any officer could have made under similar circumstances, based on how it’s written.
We all know the deal behind how many Purple Hearts were made in preparation for Operation Downfall.
What a lot of folks don’t know is that the casualty estimates (at least six of which were conducted) all raised their estimates considerably after Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Furthermore, NONE of them 1–went past the first 90 days, 2–considered US Navy casualties.
Wow…..80 years since you first/last went fission