MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS ON HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

6th August last, Hiroshima held its 66th anniversary of its devastation by the atomic bomb. The US first attended the ceremony only after 60 years.



In the eastern (WWII) theatre the Allies were winning. To force surrender and end war and human sufferage the mother of all bombs now ready by the Manhattan Project were put to destructive use.


The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hisroshima on 6th August 1945. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.







By all accounts the only remaining structures left aroung the epicentre of the blast were steel structures all others flattened.












Far from the epicentre those who survived the blast and radiation built temporary ramshackled huts.

The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 weighed about 10,000lbs and contained 15 lbs of Plutonium-239. The energy released was equivalent to 20,000 tons (20KT), of TNT, which corresponds to 1.3KT/lb of Pu-239. It wiped out 40% of the city and killed about 35,000 people.


The destructive effects of such bomb size at Nagasaki include:

1. Ground burst crater - diameter 600ft, depth 40ft

2. Blast destruction of buildings, radius (in miles) - brick-ground burst 0.9 miles, brick-air burst 1.2 miles, wood-ground burst 1.5 miles, wood-air burst 2.0miles

3. Fire, radius (miles)- destroys everything combustible 0.7miles, people received 2nd degree burns 2.1miles,

4. Initial gamma radiation of 500R, radius (miles) 0.8



Devastated by the atomic bombs Japan was forced to surrender and Emperor Hirohito signed the agreement.