The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (広島平和記念碑 Hiroshima Heiwa Kinenhi), commonly called the Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome (原爆ドーム Genbaku Dōmu) is part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The ruin serves as a memorial to the people who were killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Over 70,000 people were killed instantly, and another 70,000 suffered fatal injuries from the radiation.
At 8:15 a.m. on 6 August 1945, Little Boy — the first atomic bomb to be used in war — was dropped by the United States Army Air Forces from the Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber. The force of the atomic bomb effectively obliterated the city of Hiroshima, Japan.
On 25 July 1945, General Carl Spaatz, commander of the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, received orders to deliver a "special bomb" attack on selected cities in Japan. The first target city chosen was Hiroshima, which had an important port on southern Honshu and was headquarters of the Japanese Second General Army with 40,000 military personnel in the city. The bomb was assembled in secret and loaded on the Enola Gay. It consisted of a uranium isotope 235 core shielded by hundreds of kilograms of lead. Little Boy possessed a force equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. The plane dropped the bomb over the city at 8:15:17 a.m. local time on 6 August 1945. Within 43 seconds of being dropped, the Little Boy detonated over the city, missing its target by 240 m (790 ft). Intended for the Aioi Bridge, the bomb instead exploded directly over the Shima Hospital, which was very near to the Genbaku Dome. Because the explosion was almost directly overhead, the building was able to retain its shape. The building's vertical columns were able to resist the nearly vertical downward force of the blast, and parts of the concrete and brick outer walls remained intact. The center of the blast occurred 150 m (490 ft) horizontally and 600 m (2,000 ft) vertically from the Dome. Everyone inside the building was killed instantly.
Date of Inscription on the List of UNESCO WHS: 1996
Thank you, Yoko !
Sent on: August 5, 2017
Received on: August 23, 2017
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