Experiencing History - Essay Example

First 20 November 2009 Experiencing History The early hours of 6th August 1945 turned out to be one of the most frightful for the people of Hiroshima. Enola Gay, the B-29 American bomber took off from the Island of Tinian and headed towards the city of Hiroshima in Japan. The United States of America had planned to drop of the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Hiroshima was one of the most important military centers of Japan containing almost 43,000 soldiers and about 300,000 civilians. At around 8:15 Hiroshima time, the B-29 released its weapon of mass destruction the ‘Little Boy’ on the city of Hiroshima. Little Boy was a 9700 pound uranium bomb which was set to destroy Hiroshima completely. A little more than half a minute after its release, Little Boy exploded 1900 feet above the city. Though the Enola Gay was eleven and a half miles away it was shaken by the blast. Earlier that morning an air raid was called off, and everything was calm. A few hours into the morning, half the city was active and many dead. People who were nearest to the explosion died on the spot and their bodies had turned to black char. Even bird in the sir had blast into flames. Explosive materials like paper caught fire even as far as 6400 feet above the ground. People who survived the blast describe it as a blinding light followed by a wave of heat. The blast wave threw people outdoors off their feet. People who were indoors were safe from the flash burns but the flying glass from windows injured people indoors. Almost all structures except for a few very strong ones collapsed. In just a few minutes, nine out of ten people close to the detonation point were dead. People who were a little away from the detonation point first experienced the flash and heat, and a few seconds later a loud noise was accompanied by a blast wave. Almost all buildings within a mile of the blast had collapsed, and almost all structures within a three mile range were damaged. Buildings that survived without any damage accounted to less than 10 percent of the total building in the city. “Out of 76,327 buildings, over 50,000 are destroyed” (Yep 22). The blast was so powerful that the wave had glass shattered even twelve miles away from the point of explosion. Even people miles away from ground zero instantly reacted in a way that they had been hit by a bomb. Small rescue teams soon began to operate, however half of Hiroshima’s population was either dead or injured. In areas which were worst hit almost everyone suffered serious injuries. Soon a large fire storm erupted which was caused due to the merging of several other small fires around the city. This firestorm ultimately covered about four and a half square miles of the city, killing almost everyone who was injured and could not escape the first few minutes of the blast. “Injuries from the blast, and from splintered glass and falling debris, occurred throughout the city and beyond” (Lifton 20). Relief and rescue teams from outside came in very slowly as the Government of Japan did not even know what had happened for sure even hours after the attack. All telegraph and radio communication from Hiroshima had suddenly come to a halt from 8:16 am, which was immediately after the explosion. The government received only some vague reports of a bomb blast; however they were sure that no large scale air raid took place over Hiroshima. Finally, a staff officer was sent by plane to survey the city. While he was still almost hundred miles away from the city he began sending in report of a large cloud of smoke that was hanging over Hiroshima. The Japanese government received its first confirmation of the bombing only sixteen hours after the blast, when the United States had announced it. Eventually, relief workers were sent into the city and the situation was brought into control to some extent. On 7th August electricity was re-established in undamaged areas of the city, limited rail services were also resumed the next day. A number of days after the blast doctors and physicians began to see the actual effects of radiation among the survivors of the blast. The death toll soon began to rise as survivors who were glad that they were improving in their medical condition began suffering from a bizarre new illness. This strange illness was caused due to the radiation of the blast. Deaths from radiation did not hit their peak until three to four weeks after the blast. The death toll did not decrease for another four to five weeks. Victims also suffered long term health risks linked to the radiation exposure, some of which include the increased risk of lung cancer. The psychological effects of the attack have lingered with survivors for the rest of their lives. It is still unknown and no one will ever be able to tell how many people died because of the attack on Hiroshima. The initial blast, heat, and effects of radiation killed about 70,000 people. This figure included only twenty American airmen that were held as prisoners in Hiroshima. By the end of the year in 1945, the radioactive effect and other outcomes of the blast caused the death toll in Hiroshima to rise to almost more than 100,000. As time passed and long term effects and cancer took hold, the five year death toll is estimated to have exceeded about 200,000. Dr. Jouichirou Kikuchi who is my one of my friend’s grandfather’s colleague was 28 years old and an army doctor stationed in Ujina, in Hiroshima when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6th of August 1945, which killed about 150,000 people. According to him he was in his office and as he wished his colleagues good morning he saw that the sky had turned red and he says he felt some kind of heat on his cheeks. He realized that he was the senior most in that room and was responsible for the safety of his co-workers and as he cried to his colleagues to evacuate the building, he fell unconscious for about a minute, as he came to senses he realized that him, his coworkers and the furniture were lying in a corner of the room and there was no glass on the windows, in fact the window frames were blown out too, the window glass had broken into sharp peaces and scattered everywhere. He was about 4 kilometers away from the hypocenter, as he was lucky enough to be far from the hypocenter he was not injured. He ran towards the window to see what had happened he saw a mushroom like smoke cloud over the central gas station and thought that the central gas station had been bombed. He was not injured but his shirt was red and he saw that one of the girls who was lying beside him was seriously injured with wood and glass splinters stuck on her body, she was quite seriously injured and that it was her blood that had splashed on him, she needed medical attention immediately, he could not find anything as everything in the room was scattered and misplaced, he realized that except for him and three more injured people every one else was unconscious, he somehow managed to find his first aid box intact and helped the young lady and the others. Just then he was asked to report to the head quarters immediately. The head quarters were crowded with patients that made him realize that there had been a bombing; however he did know the scale of the bombing. Soon, the people in the hospital heard a similar to that of mosquitoes, on going outside they realized that all the people of the town who were injured were heading towards the hospital, this made them realize that there was something very big happening, and that the scale of bombing was very large. Dr.Kikuchi and others wondered why all the people were coming to just this hospital as they were aware of the presence of red cross and other government medical centers in the central city, on enquiring they found that the whole central area was so badly damaged that there were no other hospitals left. There was no proper medical assistance present with them to treat so many people; all that they could do was provide first aid. They were so shot of medication that they made some sort of a medicine by mixing edible peanut oil and some other medicine to treat the wounds and burns. There was lack of manpower, equipment, space and medication. They were not prepared for such a huge disaster and trauma. Dr. Kikuchi never imagined that he would ever come across something like this in his life time or career. He recalls that day as the day that never ended. He left the room when he could entrust his work to another staff member and went out to see what was going on. He saw that most of the people who were injured had suffered severe burns. The hospital smelled of burnt human flesh which according to him was similar to the smell of dried grilled squid, this was a very weird and upsetting feeling as dried grilled squid was one of his favorite dishes, he has never had it after this incident. One particular incident that he recalled was of a pregnant woman who was severely injured, she said she knew she was going to die, but she could still feel her baby moving. He knew he couldn’t help her as there was no obstetrician and equipment available. His complete attention was on that woman and her baby, he felt very helpless that he cannot fulfill her last wish. He had to walk away saying he will get help. As he walked out of there helpless he had to start attending to the casualties however he could not forget the woman whom he had promised to return, he says “it was getting late I had to fight against time and I could not stop thinking of the woman, as it got late in the afternoon towards the evening, I went back to the place where I had found that pregnant lady, she was still there but she was quite, so I tapped her but she was no more.” He still cannot forget her. When my friend asked him how many patients he had treated that single day, he said on August 6th he might have treated more than three thousand patients, he said it was the longest day of his life a day that started sunny and bright but however ended up as the worst nightmare that the residents of Japan might have thought, there were so many casualties that there was no place to move in the headquarters. He said there was a lot that the medical professionals learnt on that day , things like managing huge crowed, how to handle an emergency situation, working under heavy pressure, working without proper manpower, medication and equipment and most importantly that the weapons of mass destruction shall never be used that every thought of doing so shall be erased completely form the human mind. Reference List Lifton, Robert Jay. Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima. USA: Random House Inc. 1968 Yep, Laurence, Hiroshima. New York: Scholastic Inc. 1995. Read More