SEVENTYFIVE YEARS AFTER HIROSHIMA

摘要

It was on August 6, 1945, 08:15 Hrs (Japanese time), that the US military aircraft, Enola Gay, dropped an enriched uranium gun-assembly atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy", over the city of Hiroshima. An explosive nuclear fission chain reaction was initiated in 64 kg of uranium by a relatively small quantity of conventional chemical explosive. Of that 64 kg, only 0.7 kg of uranium underwent fission, and of that only 600 milligrams of matter were converted into energy. The resulting explosive energy of 63 Terra Joules, equivalent to 15 kilotons of TNT, killed 70,000 people instantly, seared everything within a few kilometres, flattened the city with a massive shockwave, triggered a devastating firestorm and drenched every living thing under a deadly nuclear radiation. An equally large number of people died from their injuries, radiation sickness and cancer in the months and years that followed, bringing the toll closer to 200,000.