By William Marien
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on August 9, 1945
CITY PILE OF ASHES AND RUBBLE
From Our War Correspondent, William Marien
GUAM, Aug. 8.—Photographs reveal Hiroshima as a pile of ashes and rubble, with here and there sunlight showing through a reinforced wall left sadly standing.
Sixty per cent of the city, which is bigger than Brisbane, was completely destroyed.
"Sixty per cent of the city, which is bigger than Brisbane, was completely destroyed." The former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall after the explosion of August 6, 1945.Credit: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Outside the completely gutted area nearly seven square miles were damaged. Five major industrial targets within the razed areas were destroyed.
Experts who have examined the photographs are completely satisfied that the effect of the bomb was up to expectations.
Although Hiroshima was protected from fire by four man-made fire breaks—long strips of housing areas bulldozed to the ground—and by at least seven wide rivers and streams running into the docks, the flames swept through unimpeded.
Outside the completely-razed sections heavy damage shows up over a wide radius.
Photographs taken immediately after the explosion show smoke formations absolutely new to experienced photo-observers.Credit: REUTERS/U.S. Army/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Handout via Reuters TPX
Photographs taken immediately after the explosion show smoke formations absolutely new to experienced photo-observers. From the base of black smoke, like a rugged mountain, a graceful mushroom column of white smoke soars upward to 20,000 feet. At the top of the column, before it billows out into a mushroom effect, air currents have seemingly decapitated it and left a smokeless space of nearly 1,000 feet.
Yesterday, General Spaatz, Commander of the Strategic Air Forces, explained to correspondents that, if it had been desired to drop the equivalent of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 4 — before the new bomb was ready — it would have been necessary to send 2,000 Super-Fortresses over the city at a precise moment.
This, because of the area covered by 2,000 Super-Fortresses in formation, would have been impossible. The planes would have had to come over in waves, and it would probably have taken at least two hours for them to drop enough bombs to secure the explosive effect which the atomic bomb releases in a split second.
If it was desired or was possible to send 1,000 Super-Fortresses over Japan with an atomic bomb each it would mean that Japan would rock to a blast of death and destruction possible, only a short week ago, by the explosion of 20,000,000 tons of T.N.T. — probably more than the world's combined supply.
Even the men who worked for years on the perfection of the bomb and the crew of "Enola Gay," which dropped it, have no conception of the weapon they are using. They do not think of death caused by the bomb, but prefer to take comfort from the fact that Japan brought this destruction upon herself, uninvited and with her eyes open.
The ground crew of the Enola Gay B29 bomber which bombed Hiroshima stands with pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets, center, in the Marianas Islands.Credit: US Army Air Force
Airmen’s Story
Only three of the 11 men in the Super-Fortress which dropped the bomb had any idea what they were carrying. They were Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, jun., the commander and officer in charge of the special atomic bomb section, Captain W. Stirling Parsons, naval weapon expert, charged with the safety of the crew, and the bombardier, Major Thomas W. Ferbee.
Beyond the issue of dark glasses to the crew, which was specially selected, they had no inkling of the historic and terrifying import of their mission. The dark glasses were to protect their eyes from the stupendous brightness of the initial explosive flash, which attains stellar temperature.
Colonel Tibbets, describing the attack, said: "The trip into the target was uneventful, and was not opposed by fighters or flak. On the bomb run Hiroshima lay below us, outlined in dazzling sunshine.
"The bomb was away at exactly 9.15 a.m. (Marianas time). What we saw then was hard to believe. A minute after the bomb exploded the city was obscured by black cloud, which eventually reached 40,000 feet.
"Around the perimeter of the smoke fires were burning, but the smoke was too thick to see what went on inside. At the base of the smoke were enormous clouds of billowing boiling dust.
"A little after the bomb hit — and we were speeding from the target area as fast as we could — the plane rocked twice. I said: 'Anti-aircraft,' but I then realised that the concussion had reached us.
"Everyone else in the crew was astounded and could only breathe, 'My God.'
"When the flash came it gave us a visual shock, though competing with the brilliant sunlight."
Photographs taken four hours after the bomb exploded, Major-General Lemay, Chief of Staff to General Spaatz, told us, showed that the smoke was still far too thick and intense to permit any indication of the extent of the destruction.
Instead of being called "The Mighty Atom," the aircraft was named after Colonel Tibbet's mother, Enola Gay.
Those with Colonel Tibbets were Captain W. Stirling Parsons, Major Thomas W. Ferbee, Captain Robert A Lelis, Captain Theodore J. van Kurk (navigator), Staff-Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury (flight engineer), P.F.C. Richard H. Nelson (radio operator), Staff-Sergeant George R. Caron (gunner), Sergeant Hoe Stiborik (radio operator), and Sergeant Robert Schumard (gunner).
Right On Schedule
More than 12 months ago the date of August 6 was set for the first atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan. Two hundred thousand people, working on the highest Presidential priority, were responsible for meeting this amazing punctual schedule, although fewer than 50 had any overall idea of what was going on.
General Spaatz said to-day that if the bomb had been available in February, D-Day in Europe would have been unnecessary.
General Lemay revealed that during the closing stages of the German war the Allies were vitally concerned with German progress in the atomic explosive fields. For that reason a heavy raid had been directed last March against the German experimental centre at Oranienburg, a suburb of Berlin.
It was only when Berlin was taken that the Allies learnt the Germans were years behind.