Monday, August 06, 2007

Hiroshima

A B-29 called the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb called "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on this day in 1945. This is the first use of an atomic bomb in war. A second is dropped on Nagasaki three days later. These are the only two uses of an atomic weapon in war to date. They cause comparatively few casualties. (Many more peole died in the fire bombing of cities such as Dresden and Tokyo) In modern terms they are very small bombs, but they manage to convince the Japanese to surrender and end World War II.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just a note about Dresden. Tina had an uncle who was a side gunner for a B-17 and when he was telling stories about the war when he got to Dresden his tone change and he stopped talking all together about the war. I think that if you talk to most vets. It's the fire bombings that bother them not the A-Bomb attacks.

The irony is that the A-Bomb attacks saved so many lives on both sides it's scary. An invasion of the mainland would have been ugly.