Eighty Years Ago Today Hundreds of Thousands Disappear in a Light Second
Eighty years ago the Enola Gay dropped a single bomb over the city of Hiroshima unleashing a force never before seen, chabged the world forever.
We speak about the nuclear bomb, but somehow lose sight of the fact that it was used to allegedly end a war. Now we have multiple wars at once, and there is fear of the use of a "tactical" weapon. We need to find a way to stop himans from kiling each other!
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
The results of the two used on Japan may well have stopped warring governments going that far.
Perhaps too the results of the many tests by NATO and the Soviet Union in the 1950s-60s.
One American hydrogen-fusion test in the Pacific in the 1950s poisoned the crew of a Japanese fishing-boat a hundred miles away, when the fall-out drifted downwind over them. All six suffered from radiation-sickness by the time they reached port. One later died from liver cancer, another later fathered a child born deformed; both cases probably attributable to the radioactivity.
There are also unknown numbers of Servicemen of various nations, who have suffered from their deliberate (by order not choice) exposure to nuclear weapons tests. They were not so close as to be injured by the heat or shock-wave but were still in the heavy ionising radiation, and showered by debris.
One British soldier among a troop sent to the Pacific island with " you are going to build an airfield" in their ears, has recounted that despite dark goggles, facing away from the explosion and covering his face with his hands he thought he could see the bones of his fingers through the tissue, so intense was the glare. An American soldier has also reported something similar.
