An Anti-nuclear Journey Geoff Gregory November 2018
[email protected] Hiroshima in November 1945. The US bomber had detonated the ‘atomic bomb’ about 600 metres above ground at 8.15 am on 6 August 1945. Hiroshima 1956, when I visited. In the millionth part of a second, a new sun flamed in the sky, a glaring white light, A hundred times brighter than the heavenly sun. And this ball of fire radiated several degrees of heat on the city of Hiroshima. At that moment, 86,100 people were burned to death. At that moment, 72,000 people were severely injured. At that moment, 6,820 houses were blown to pieces, and the vacuum thus created sucked them several miles into the air as particles of dust. At that moment, 3,750 buildings collapsed, and the ruins began to burn. At that one moment, deadly neutrons and gamma-rays bombarded the site of the explosion over an area of three-quarters of a mile. Karl Bruckner. The Day of the Bomb. A ‘Hiroshima Shadow’ – the remains of a person fused into the concrete. I visited Hiroshima in May 1956. It was the start of my anti- nuclear journey. It was just over ten years after the US Air Force had bombed the city – the first time a nuclear bomb had been used in war. At first, Hiroshima seemed a normal bustling city. However, the skyline was dominated by the ruins of the Industrial Exhibition Centre. This had been directly below the explosion centre, and the ruins had been left, and still remain, as a peace memorial.