Little Boy

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Recommended: Effects of the atomic bomb on the world

At midnight on August 6, 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay got the orders to get ready for their mission. By 2:45 AM they were all packed, ready to go, and took off for their intended target (Black & Blashfield, 1993, p. 30). They flew through the darkness of the night sky for many hours. Dawn appeared and finally Enola Gay came close to their future objective. Then, around 7:24 AM, the pilot received a transmission from a weather aircraft, which had flown ahead of them, that there was hardly a cloud in the sky and that they should continue to their goal (p. 30). As they grew closer to Hiroshima, about 30 miles away, the captain gave the controls over to Major Ferebee (p. 30). As the minutes and seconds passed by it seemed perpetual. Finally at 8:15:17 Major Ferebee yelled out, “Bombs away!” (p. 30). It took about 50 seconds for the atomic bomb to fall and reach1,900 feet above the city where it exploded (Langford, 2004, p. 57). One of the crew members commented on it:

A column of smoke rising fast. It has a fiery red core. A bubbling mass, purple gray in color, with that red core. It’s all turbulent. Fires are springing up everywhere, like flames shooting out of a huge bed of coals…Here it comes, the mushroom shape…It’s like a mass of bubbling molasses…its nearly level with me and climbing…(pp. 32-34).

Never again will anything be the same.

Creating

In New York City the main ideas about the atomic bomb were developed, it was called the “Manhattan Project”. It was originally General Leslie R. Groves that was put in charge of the development of the atomic bomb. He wasn’t exactly people friendly so he got Dr. Julius Robert Oppenheimer, a civilian, involved as a project director. Communication and working proficient...

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...nt of the buildings were destroyed by the blast or the fires that started because of it (Encyclopedia.com). If the blast didn’t destroy the buildings at first then the heat from the bomb caused fires that slowly destroyed the buildings.

Cleaning Up

A “black rain” fell from the sky, for about an hour after the blast, it had radioactive debris dropping everywhere. There was no actual help from Japan officials, at first. It was just people that were less injured and that could help, would. In the days that followed, mostly collecting and disposing of the bodies. If they were recognizable and were claimed a funeral would be held for them. Collecting and storing contaminated debris was next. Eventually, rebuilding the city began. With rebuilding of the city there was a memorial park built called Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, with donations of monuments.

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