Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)-Nagasaki (August 9, 1945)-In memoriam
Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, on August 9, 1945 at 22 o'clock in Washington, announces by Radio to the Nation: "The world knows that the first atomic bomb was released on Hiroshima, a military base. This is because we wanted in the first attack, as far as possible, avoid the killing of civilians "(1). It is estimated that the day of the bombing died between 70 and 80000 people, mainly women and children because most of the men were under arms. 15,000 victims were aged between 13 and 14 years of age. The objective was chosen at random, without any military evaluation, between three possible cities: because that day, in Hiroshima, the sky was serene.
First foreign correspondent to enter Hiroshima on September 2, 1945, the Australian journalist Wilfred G. Burchett (2) (Peter the signature in the article, editor) published on September 5 on the Daily Express a dramatic reportage: "Those escaped the explosion They are beginning to die, victims of the atomic plague. " Immediately he snapped the American censorship. Photographs and footage of the effects of radiation were secreted. General MacArthur imposed military secrecy. The official version for long years will be the one published by W. H. Lawrence, on September 12, in the New York Times: "No radioactivity in the ruins of Hiroshima". For this article-Truth Laurence won the Pulitzer prize!
At the beginning of 1946 General Douglas MacArthur, head of the American occupation troops of Japan, sent a team of military cameramen, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel McGovern, to document the effects of radiation on civilians in Nagasaki and Hiroshima (in this order). The film, in color, remained secret until 1982. And still today all the material filmed has never been fully transmitted to the public (3).
On November 12, 1945, General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan project, with whom the atomic bomb was made, in a US Senate hearing (4), responded to a question: "The victims of radioactivity can be of different categories. One can receive so much to be killed instantly. He may receive a smaller quantity, which will make him die rather early and, from what I know from the doctors, without undue suffering. In fact, they say it's a very nice way to die. Then, we descend below that level and the person who is hurt slightly may take some time to heal, but heals. " Today we know that at the end of 1945, due to the radioactive fall-out, the number of victims exceeded the 100,000 units. After five years will be over 200,000, for exposure to radiation and the development of neoplasms. The sufferings of the sick were atroci, so much so that the Japanese Nobel Prize of Literature, Kenzaburo Oe, defined them thus: "Those who did not commit suicide, even though they had every reason to do so; Who have saved human dignity in the midst of the most horrendous conditions ever suffered by mankind. "
An article by Sean L. Malloy, published on April 24, 2012 (5), examines an issue that has received surprisingly little attention from scholars: what scientists and policymakers knew about the effects of radiation before the use of Bomb? Did they know that the atomic bombs used against cities and Japanese civilians would have permanent and deadly effects, in some way similar to chemical or biological weapons, prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925? According to Malloy, that the bomb would produce persistent and lethal effects was speculated since 1940. Later, extensive research conducted by scientists and doctors in the Manhattan project, including experiments on humans and animals, had allowed a very broad understanding of the biological effects of ionizing radiation. Further confirmation is found in the report (6) drafted by the Manhattan project scientists sent on a mission to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, immediately after the end of the conflict, to study the effects of the atomic explosion. In the text, the researchers compare the effects recorded on injured people in Japan and the results of experiments previously conducted on animal guinea pigs exposed to radiation during the development of the Manhattan project.
President Truman insisted that his decision has shortened the war and prevented huge losses. But if the intent was to push Japan to surrender, why release the second bomb on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima, without giving time to the Japanese government to decide the capitulation? Only after Truman's radio announcement, in fact, some Japanese atomic physicists, including Yoshio Nishina (who died of cancer in 1951), were sent to Hiroshima, where they found that the city had actually been destroyed by nuclear bombardment. But just 48 hours later Nagasaki was also hit. The two bombs launched in Japan a few days apart from each other were actually very different. The Hiroshima bomb was based on 235 enriched uranium, while Nagasaki was made up of plutonium 239, perfected through a more complex process. The United States could thus test on the field which was more destructive.
Notes
(1) "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of Chad ". Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, Containing the public Messages, Speeches and Statements of the President, from April 12 to December 31, 1945 (Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1961) pag. 212. The text was also published in the New York Times on August 10, 1945, p. 12. Original Audio: Www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHjUdKQgiIU, from 38 "
(2) Author of Shadows of Hiroshima, towards Books 1987.
(3) 27,000 meters of #342 USAF film, stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md.
(4) November 12, 1945, Hearings before the Special Committee on Atomic Energy-United States Senate-Seventy-Ninth Congress: "The radioactive casualty can be of several classes. He can have enough so that he will be killed instantly. He can have a smaller amount which will cause him to die rather soon, and as I understand it from the doctors, without tride suffering. In fact, they say it is a very pleasant way to die. Then, we get down below that to the man who is injured slightly, and he may take some time to be healed, but he can be healed. "
(5) "a very pleasant way to die": The effects of radiation and the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan by Sean L. Malloy. First published: 24 April 2012. The article was born from the research presented at the June 2008 Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) in Columbus, OH, and at the Symposium on Nuclear Histories in Japan and Korea, March 2009, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
(6) Manhattan project: Official History and Documents-declassification and Distribution of Project Information at National Archives and University Publications of America. Chapter 6-Investigation of the After Effects of the Bombing in Japan, Par. 8. Pag. 21: "Medical Findings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki".
