The Daily Newsroom: The "Little Boy" Was Dropped

August 6th, 1945, exactly 2 months and one year after D-Day, the United States released an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later on August 9th, the US dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. These nuclear attacks were at the order of President Harry S. Truman against the Empire of Japan.
It had been six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, when the "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima and the "Fat Man" dropped on Nagasaki. To this day, they are the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.
The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945. Roughly as many as half of those numbers died on August 6th and 9th. Since then thousands more have died from injuries or illness attributed to the exposure of the radiation that was released by the bombs. In both cities, the overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians.
August 15th marks the day that Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2nd. The Pacific War was officially ended and therefore so was World War II. Germany had already signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 7th, ending the war in Europe.
The atomic bombings led, in part, to post war Japan adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding that nation from nuclear armament.

The Manhattan Project and the Potsdam Ultimatum
The creation of these bombs was known as The Manhattan Project. The United States with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada, designed and built the first atomic bombs.
The "Little Boy" was a gun-type device made with uranium-235, which is a rare isotope of uranium. This bomb was first tested at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16th, 1945.
The "Fat Man was a implosion-type device made primarily of plutonium-239, which is a synthetic element.

May 10th-11th, 1945 The Target Committee at Los Alamos, recommended Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and the arsenal at Kokura as targets to drop these bombs on.
The criteria for these subjects were:

1.) they were larger than three miles in diameter and are important targets in a large urban area,
2.) the blast would create effective damage, and
3.) they are unlikely to be attacked by August 1945.

While the other cities were taken off the list, Hiroshima was left on and was described as an "important army depot and port of embarkation in the middle of an urban industrial are. It is a good radar target and it is such a size that a large of the city could be extensively damaged. There are adjacent hills which are likely to produce a focusing effect which would considerably increase the blast damage. Due to rivers it is not a good incendiary target."
The goal of the bombs was to convince Japan to surrender unconditionally in accordance with the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. The Potsdam Declaration was the outlining terms of surrender for Japan. It was presented as an ultimatum and started that without a surrender, the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland" but the atomic bomb was not mentioned.
Two days later, the Japanese newspapers reported that the declaration had been rejected by the Japanese government. Earlier in July, Truman re-examined the decision to use the atomic bomb, but in the end decided to drop the bomb. His intention for the bombings was to make a quick resolve of the war by inflicting destruction and instilling the fear of further destruction, that was sufficient to cause Japan to surrender.

The City of Hiroshima
Hiroshima was a city of industry and military significance. A number of military camps were located there, including the headquarters of the Fifth Division and Field Marshal Shunroku Hata's 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all The city emblem-->
Although Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese, it was also a communications center, storage point, and an assembly area for troops. It was deliberately untouched by American bombing, allowing a pristine environment to measure the damage caused by the atomic bomb.
The center of the city contained several reinforced concrete buildings and lighter structures. Outside the center, the area was congested by a dense collection of small wooden workshops set among the Japanese houses. The houses were of wooded construction with tile roofs and many of the other buildings were of wood frame. A few industrial plants lay near the outskirts. The whole city was highly susceptible to fire damage.
While the population of Hiroshima had reached a peak of over 381,000 earlier in the war, prior to the atomic bombing, the population was approximately 255,000.

The Drop
Hiroshima was the Allies primary target with Nagasaki and Kokura being alternatives. August 6th was chosen because there was a cloud covering the target.
The 393rd Bombardment Squadron B-29 Enola Gay, piloted and commanded by 509th Composite Group commander Paul Tibbets, was launched from the North Field airbase on Tinian in the West Pacific, which is 6hours from Japan. The Enola Gay was accompanied by two other B29s, The Great Artiste and the Necessary Evil.
When they left Tinian, the aircrafts made their way separately to Iwo Jima where they rendezvoused, then set course for Japan. The bomb had been ready and armed when they reached the target in clear visibility.
The release was uneventful and the "Little Boy" took 57 seconds to fall from the aircraft to the detonation point. Although due to crosswind, it missed the aiming point (the Aioi Bridge) by almost 800ft and detonated directly over the Shima Surgical Clinic.
The "Little Boy" created a blast equivalent to 13kilotons of TNT. The total radius of destruction was about 1 with resulting fires across 4.4 miles. Infrastructure damage was estimated at 90% of Hiroshima's buildings were completely destroyed!

The Japan Realize What Happened
Back in Tokyo, the control operator of Japanese Broadcasting Corporation noticed that Hiroshima had lost its communication. He tried to establish a connection, but could not. Twenty minutes later, Tokyo noticed that the telegraph line had stopped working north of Hiroshima. From small railway stops within 10mi of Hiroshima, there came reports that Hiroshima had been hit with a terrible explosion. All the reports were sent to the Japanese General Staff. The military bases repeatedly tried to get a hold of the Army Control Station in Hiroshima with no success. The complete silence puzzled the men at headquarters. A young officer was instructed to fly over Hiroshima. The officer flew for three hours, and all he saw was the great cloud of smoke from the bomb. The plane reached the city and they were in disbelief. The land was still burning and a heavy smoke was all there was. They landed south, reported and then began organizing relief measures.
Tokyo's first knowledge of the atomic bomb came from the White House public announcement in D.C., sixteen hours after the attack.

Post-Atomic Bomb Effects
Most estimates say the immediate effect of the blast killed about 70,000 people. Estimates of total deaths by the end of 1945 from burns, radiation, and related disease ranged from 90,000 to 140,000. Some estimates state up to 200,000 had died to 1950, due to cancer and other long term effects. From 1950 to 1990, roughly 9% of the cancer and leukemia deaths among bomb survivors was due to radiation from the bombs.
The energy release from the bomb was powerful enough to burn through clothing. The dark portions of garments were emblazoned on to the flesh as scars, while skin underneath the lighter parts was not damaged as badly.

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The bombing of Hiroshima was sad. It is just a little reminder of how we regard human life. Let us remember that human life is created of God and we need to always keep in the front of our minds because that it is precious!
Keeping the memories of those killed alive!