Monday 9 August 2010

Sixty-five years ago: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima leveled by A-bomb
Photo credit © United Press International, Inc

Sixty-five years ago today, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.  80,000 people died that day and 140,000 were killed three days earlier when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  You can read about the specific details and the human suffering in this post from last year: This Day in History: 6 – 9 August 1945.


Photo essay: Hiroshima, the pictures they didn't want us to see

This is an incredibly shocking photo essay on the victims and devastation of the atomic explosions in Japan.  The photos are quite graphic and may be disturbing to some people.

hiroshima-damage

“Beneath the center of the explosion, temperatures were hot enough to melt concrete and steel. Within seconds, 75,000 people had been killed or fatally injured with 65% of the casualties nine years of age and younger.”

“Hibakusha is the term widely used in Japan referring to victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese word translates literally to "explosion-affected people".

bomb2

They and their children were (and still are) victims of severe discrimination due to lack of knowledge about the consequences of radiation sickness, which people believed to be hereditary or even contagious.”


This is why the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is so important.  No country can ever have the power to exact this kind of devastation on the civilians of another country, no matter what their grievance with the government or policies of that country. 

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3 comments

Ryan said...

As long as I live, I will never understand or be able to comprehend how one group of human beings could do this unthinkable deed to another.
I am not easily offended and can watch most things but I sat down and watched a documentary about Hiroshima a couple of years ago but after seeing an image of a child with her skin hanging off her burnt body, I was in tears and had to turn it off.

Tina said...

oh my goodness those pics are so sad but i cant help but find them really interesting. its shocking what things lie in the past isnt it.

Mandy said...

@ Ryan: I know what you mean. I don't think the world had any idea how bad it could be though and those that did know just didn't count the Japanese as human beings.


@ Tina: Definitely. I have to wonder what lies in our future though and whether we are going to make the same mistakes again?

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