Sunday, June 19, 2005
Eyewitness Account of Nagasaki A-bomb Results
I followed an inconspicuous line item at cnn.com to this four-part eyewitness account of the nuclear devastation of Nagasaki, written in 1945 by George Weller, who snuck into Nagasaki by rowboat just weeks after the A-Bomb exploded. Weller's story, suppressed by U.S. military censors until just now, is currently serialized in the Mainichi Daily.
Uncannily, the author compares Nagasaki to the site of a more recent but less devastating attack:
Uncannily, the author compares Nagasaki to the site of a more recent but less devastating attack:
Nagasaki is an island roughly resembling Manhattan in size and shape, running in north and south direction with ocean inlets on both sides, what would be the New Jersey and Manhattan sides of the Hudson river are lined with huge-war plants owned by the Mitsubishi and Kawanami families . . . Proceeding up the Nagasaki harbor, which is lined with docks on both sides like the Hudson, one perceives the shores narrowing toward a bottleneck.The bomb, orders of magnitude smaller than "modern" nuclear weapons, left a two mile radius of destruction.
. . . what the riven atom can do against human flesh and bone lies hidden in two hospitals of downtown Nagasaki . . .Several children, some burned and others unburned but with patches of hair falling out, are sitting with their mothers. Yesterday Japanese photographers took many pictures with them. About one in five is heavily bandaged, but none of showing signs of pain . . . Some adults are in pain as they lie on mats. They moan softly. One woman caring for her husband, shows eyes dim with tears. It is a piteous scene and your official guide studies your face covertly to see if you are moved.The rest of the story here.
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