“71 years ago, death fell from the sky and the world was changed,” : 71th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing
Japan, Aug 6 2016: Japan on Saturday marked 71th Hiroshima bombing anniversary. Since 71 years the city of Hiroshima was destroyed by a US atomic bomb, as its mayor urged the world to unite in abolishing nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945 American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload, dubbed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima at 8.15 am local on August 6, 1945.
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The bombings killed 129,000 people. American President Harry S Truman called for japan’s surrender 16 hours later, warning them to “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” Three days lates on August 9, the US dropped a plutonium implosion type bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Within the first two to four months of the bombings the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000 to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 to 80,000 in Nagasaki, half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.
During the following months large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness and other injuries compounded by illness and malnutrision.
In both cities most of the dead were civilians , although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison.
On August 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the soviet Union’s declaration of war, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies.
On 2nd September it signed the instrument of surrender effectively ending World War II.
Obama in May embraced survivors as he made his visit to the city and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
“71 years ago, death fell from the sky and the world was changed,” he said of the bomb, adding it “demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.”
Obama offered no apology for the bombings having insisted he would not revisit decisions made by former president Harry Truman.
