Lest We Forget
John was moved to receive many gifts from his Japanese visitors. Among these
was a beautifully prepared book written by The Director of the Nagasaki Atomic
Bomb Museum. The book, amongst other information, sets out the chronology of
British and American joint military decisions from 11 August 1944 to 09 August
1945. Perhaps few people realise that Nagasaki was a 'reserve target'. The city
was only bombed by The Bockscar because there was too much cloud over the main
target city of Kokura for the primitive targeting system to be accurate. These
pictures show only the Hypocentre of Nagasaki - which area is about the size
of Edinburgh - before and after the
Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped.
An area hundreds of miles wider was devastated by the poison gas clouds.
It is therefore chilling to recall that the nuclear weapons which threaten the world nowadays are each
15 times larger than those used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If launched at say 'a city' these would
indiscriminately evaporate people and devastate their environment across national borders and seas.
Nuclear weapons are of course used daily - to threaten.
Hypocentre 2 days before bombing. Source US forces photo.
Hypocentre 3 days after bombing. Source US forces photo.
Click
here to view both
images enlarged and side by side.
