Heavy fire damage was sustained in a circular area in Hiroshima with a mean radius of about 6, feet and a maximum radius of about 11, feet; similar heavy damage occured in Nagasaki south of X up to 10, feet, where it was stopped on a river course. This destruction was limited by the layout of the city.
The following is a summary of the damage to buildings in Nagasaki as determined from a ground survey made by the Japanese:. In Hiroshima, all utilities and transportation services were disrupted for varying lengths of time. In general however services were restored about as rapidly as they could be used by the depleted population. Through railroad service was in order in Hiroshima on 8 August, and electric power was available in most of the surviving parts on 7 August, the day after the bombing.
The reservoir of the city was not damaged, being nearly 2 miles from X. However, 70, breaks in water pipes in buildings and dwellings were caused by the blast and fire effects.
Rolling transportation suffered extensive damage. The damage to railroad tracks, and roads was comparatively small, however. The electric power transmission and distribution systems were badly wrecked. Despite the customary Japanese lack of attention to sanitation measures, no major epidemic broke out in the bombed cities. Although the conditions following the bombings makes this fact seem surprising, the experience of other bombed cities in both Germany and Japan show Hiroshima and Nagasaki not to be isolated cases.
The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an over-all area of approximately The area most severely damaged had an average radius of about 1 mile, and covered about 2. In Nagasaki, buildings with structural steel frames, principally the Mitsubishi Plant as far as 6, feet from X were severely damaged; these buildings were typical of wartime mill construction in America and Great Britain, except that some of the frames were somewhat less substantial.
Damage to buildings with structural steel frames was more severe where the buildings received the effect of the blast on their sides than where the blast hit the ends of buildings, because the buildings had more stiffness resistance to negative moment at the top of columns in a longitudinal direction. Many of the lightly constructed steel frame buildings collapsed completely while some of the heavily constructed to carry the weight of heavy cranes and loads were stripped of roof and siding, but the frames were only partially injured.
The next most seriously damaged area in Nagasaki lies outside the 2. The damage from blast and fire was moderate here, but in some sections portions of main business districts many secondary fires started and spread rapidly, resulting in about as much over-all destruction as in areas much closer to X. An area of partial damage by blast and fire lies just outside the one just described and comprises approximately The extent of damage varied from serious severe damage to roofs and windows in the main business section of Nagasaki, 2.
As intended, the bomb was exploded at an almost ideal location over Nagasaki to do the maximum damage to industry, including the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works Torpedo Works , and numerous factories, factory training schools, and other industrial establishments, with a minimum destruction of dwellings and consequently, a minimum amount of casualties.
Had the bomb been dropped farther south, the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works would not have been so severely damaged, but the main business and residential districts of Nagasaki would have sustained much greater damage casualties.
Calculations show that the structural steel and reinforced concrete frames which survived the blast fairly close to X could not have withstood the estimated peak pressures developed against the total areas presented by the sides and roof of the buildings.
The survival of these frames is explained by the fact that they were not actually required to withstand the peak pressure because the windows were quickly knocked out and roof and siding stripped off thereby reducing total area and relieving the pressure. While this saved the building frame, it permitted severe damage to building interior and contents, and injuries to the building occupants.
Buildings without large panel openings through which the pressure could dissipate were completely crushed, even when their frames were as strong as those which survived. The damage sustained by reinforced concrete buildings depended both on the proximity to X and the type and strength of the reinforced concrete construction. Some of the buildings with reinforced concrete frames also had reinforced concrete walls, ceilings, and partitions, while others had brick or concrete tile walls covered either with plaster or ornamental stone, with partitions of metal, glass, and plaster.
With the exception of the Nagasaki Medical School and Hospital group, which was designed to withstand earthquakes and was therefore of heavier construction than most American structures, most of the reinforced concrete structures could be classified only as fair, with concrete of low strength and density, with many of the columns, beams, and slabs underdesigned and improperly reinforced.
These facts account for some of the structural failures which occured. In general, the atomic bomb explosion damaged all windows and ripped out, bent, or twisted most of the steel window or door sashes, ripped doors from hinges, damaged all suspended wood, metal, and plaster ceilings. The blast concussion also caused great damage to equipment by tumbling and battering.
Fires generally of secondary origin consumed practically all combustible material, caused plaster to crack off, burned all wooden trim, stair covering, wooden frames of wooden suspended ceilings, beds, mattresses, and mats, and fused glass, ruined all equipment not already destroyed by the blast, ruined all electrical wiring, plumbing, and caused spalling of concrete columns and beams in many of the rooms. Almost without exception masonry buildings of either brick or stone within the effective limits of the blast were severely damaged so that most of them were flattened or reduced to rubble.
The wreckage of a church, approximately 1, feet east of X in Nagasaki, was one of the few masonry buildings still recognizable and only portions of the walls of this structure were left standing. These walls were extremely thick about 2 feet. The two domes of the church had reinforced concrete frames and although they were toppled, they held together as units. Practically every wooden building or building with timber frame within 2.
Nearly all such buildings collapsed and a very large number were consumed by fire. Those outdoors were burned to death, while those indoors were killed by the indescribable pressure and heat.
Japan's detailed horror broadcasts of the atom bombing are regarded by authoritative quarters here as an attempt to cause world-wide revulsion against such "inhuman" assaults and not as a move to peace overtures. Japan is seen clutching the same straw as Germany futilely attempted to grasp in the hope that world opinion would become so aroused that the United States would be forced to discontinue atomic and other types of bombing against "innocent peoples.
Destruction at Hiroshima. Topics Japan. Reuse this content. Over and over the Japanese fought desperate battles not to win the war, but to win a seat at the negotiating table. Regardless of its purpose, this demand did not give the Allies any flexibility to negotiate with the Japanese. Despite utter devastation, the effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima were not as severe as one might think.
Unlike in the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima , the city was never evacuated, though that was largely due to a lack of information and the logistical near impossibility of doing so. The Americans detonated the Hiroshima bomb nearly 2, feet above the city, which somewhat limited the damaged caused by radiation. In fact, in his memo predicting the effects of the bomb, Manhattan Project lead scientist Robert Oppenheimer argued that the radioactive byproducts would go into the upper atmosphere and be dispersed throughout the world.
This process did occur, but the detonation caused a rainstorm that brought many radioactive byproducts back to earth. The black rain would have been hard for Oppenheimer and others who developed the atomic bomb to predict, however, because the only test detonation was done in the Nevada desert where there was not enough moisture for rain.
Hiroshima is indelibly linked with its destruction, but the city and its people are also intimately connected with the peace movement. During their Occupation , the Americans wrote a new constitution for the Japanese, which included the famous Article 9, a provision that all but makes war illegal. Hiroshima emerged as the spiritual center of both the Japanese antinuclear and peace movements. In the aftermath of the war, it constructed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that has been dedicated to commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and to eliminating nuclear weapons.
The museum is housed in the Peace Memorial Park, which includes an eternal flame that will burn until all nuclear weapons are eliminated.
The Park serves as a gathering ground for tens of thousands to commemorate the bombing and demonstrate for peace. Today, the Hiroshima's level of radioactivity has reverted to the world background level. The residents of Denver, Colorado experience a higher level of radioactivity than those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The residents of Hiroshima report elevated levels of some cancers, with the highest rate of liver cancer in the world, but other forms of cancer occur at average or even low rates comparably.
Hiroshima is an exquisite, complicated city known for its food, the stunning natural beauty of its bay, and an incident decades ago that will forever connect it with nuclear weapons and peace.
Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Stanton Foundation. Skip to main content. The Ohio State University. Department of History.
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