Hiroshima is 80 years old. Remains are still sought

“The war is not over yet” for many Japanese. Hiroshima, 80 years after being hit by the atomic bomb.

When the first atomic bomb exploded 80 years ago, on the day August 6Thousands of dead and dying were taken to the small rural island of Ninoshima, south of Hiroshima, by military boats.

Due to the lack of medicines and care, only a few hundred were alive when the campaign hospital closed on August 25, according to historical records. Those who died were buried in various places in chaotic and hurried operations.

Eight decades later, people in the region continue to look for the remains of the missing, moved by the desire to be accountable and honor the victims, according to the US News Agency (AP). It is also intended to alleviate survivors who are still tormenting to the memories of missing family members.

“Until that happens, The war has not yet ended for these people”Said Rebun Kayo, a University of Hiroshima researcher who regularly visits Ninoshima since 2018 to look for remains.

Buried, alone

So far, Kayo has found about 100 bone fragments, including pieces of skulls and the jaw of a child with small grabbed teeth.

He found the bones in an area suggested by a resident of Ninoshima, whose father had witnessed soldiers to bury bodies that were taken to the island 80 years ago.

“The child buried here has been alone for all these years,” Kayo said about the bones he believes belong to a child. “It’s simply intolerable,” he added.

The atomic attack of the United States to Hiroshima instantly destroyed the city and killed tens of thousands of people near the impact zone, about 10 kilometers north of Ninoshima.

The number of dead By the end of this year it was 140.000.

The “hell”

At the age of 3, Tamiko Sora was with her parents and two sisters at home, just 1.4 kilometers from the hypocenter. The explosion destroyed Sora’s house and the face was burned, but most of the family survived. While heading for a family member, they found a 5 -year -old girl who identified themselves as Hiroko and a woman with serious burns who desperately asked to save the baby she carried.

Sora still thinks of them often and regrets that the family could not help, despite having sought the child in orphanages. The survivor now thinks that the people she knew that day, as well as the missing uncles, may have gone to Ninoshima, who lived three weeks of chaos, deaths and hurry.

Two hours after the explosion, the victims began to arrive by boat from Hiroshima to Quarantine Center No. 2 of the island. The buildings were filled with people with serious injuries, but many died on their way to the island.

According to documents from the city of Hiroshima, the imperial army military worked 24 hours a day in cremation and burials on the island.

Eiko Gishi, at the time of 18, supervised the transport of the sick from the quarantine area to receive first aid.

In memories published years later, Gishi wrote that, At first, soldiers carefully treated the bodies one by one, but quickly felt overwhelmed by the huge number of decaying bodies and used an incinerator originally intended for military horses.

Even so, it was not enough and rapidly run out of space, eventually putting the bodies in anti -bomb shelters and tombs.

“I was speechless due to the shock when I saw the first group of patients who landed on the island,” a former army doctor, Yoshitaka Kohara wrote.

“I was used to seeing many seriously injured soldiers on battlefields, but I had never seen anyone in such a cruel and tragic state,” he said.

“It was a hell”he added.

As happened

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States detonated atomic bombs on the two small Japanese cities.

These attacks, To date the only time that nuclear weapons were used against civil populations, changed the face of the war and marked the Beginning of the “nuclear era”.

In the summer of 1945, he recalls Live Science, World War II had devastated several continents for six years – following the invasion of Poland by Hitler’s Germany in 1939.

For a world tired of death and destruction, the Capitulation of GermanyOn May 8, 1945, it was received with joy and enthusiasm.

Japan, however, remained firm in the intention of take the war to the end. Its determination was evident in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa – which in both cases resulted in numerous casualties to the US.

In June 1945, the Americans had Lost more than 12 thousand soldiers. The Japanese recorded more than 90,000 Military Basies – and the loss of about 100,000 civilians.

In this context, the allied military leaders – among others, USA, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China – designed plans for Operation Downfall, a large -scale invasion of Japan to end the war.

However, in view of the estimated number of one million deaths among allies – And more 10 million casualties among the Japaneseincluding civilians – the military of the allied forces sought another way to end the conflict.

They found it in the infamous Manhattan project-which since 1942 was investigating the potential of uranium, in particular the Uranio-235 isotope to build a powerful nuclear bomb.

In a few months, a vast team of scientists Americans, British and Europeans, Many of which Germany exilesItaly and other countries of the fascist axis, to work on the project – before the Germans got it first.

Albert Einsteinat the time considered “a risk of safety”, was curiously away from the project.

After several years of research developed in the greatest secretism, the Manhattan project had created two bombs with different isotopes: uranium-235 and plutonium-239.

The first of these bombs, “Little Boy“It used about 64kg of Uranium-235. The bomb was anything but small: weighed 4.4 tons.

The second bomb, “Fat Man“It was even greater: with about 4.7 tons, it used a Pulpon-239 core to create a nuclear reaction capable of releasing the energy of 21,000 tons of TNT.

The plutonium pump was tested on July 16, 1945in Alamogordo, New Mexico – the date the world first saw the detonation of a nuclear bomb, and that marks the beginning of the atomic era.

In 1945, the small town of Hiroshima, with 255,000 inhabitants, remained virtually untouched by war. It was an important center for the production of war material and its military base had 40,000 parked Japanese soldiers.

The coastal city was chosen as the first target of a nuclear attack by the allies.

In the early morning of August 6, 1945, the Inola gaya B-29 bomber from the US Air Force, departed from the island of Tinian, about six hours away from Hiroshima. He took the “Little Boy” on board.

At 8.15 hours, Enola Gay launched her uranium bomb over Hiroshima.

“Little Boy” exploded about 580 meters altitude About the city still half asleep, oblivious to the catastrophe that was about to happen.

The huge explosion instantly destroyed most of the city and took their lives to about 140,000 people. Within 2 km, all the inhabitants died, and all buildings were destroyed.

The devastation caused by a single pump and the number of lives lost in a few seconds in Hiroshima should have put an end to what was left of World War II. But to the very surprise of the allied military commanders, the emperor Hirotito refused to surrender.

The allies then decided to launch a second nuclear bomb over Japan. Kokura was at the top of the list of remaining potential targets of allied forces.

Shortly after 4 am on August 9, three days after the detonation in Hiroshima, a second bomber B-29, called Bockstarraised flight from Tinian. On board, it followed “Fat Man”.

But atmospheric conditions and weak visibility spared kokura to destruction. Unable to drop its plutonium bomb over the city, the crew has advanced to the Next name on the list: Nagasaki.

With a large port of sea, the city hosted shipowners who fed the Japanese Navy and industrial companies important for the war effort Japanese – among which Mitsubishi’s steel and weaponry factory.

Although Nagasaki is also covered by the clouds, the B-2 crew found an open-and shortly after 11 am, the second and last nuclear bomb ever detonated against civilian populations exploded over the coastal city.

The powerful explosion immediately destroyed most of the city. At least 40,000 people lost their lives Instantly, another 40,000 in the next six months.

The mountainous terrain and the fact that the bomb was dropped almost 3.2 km from the expected target spared the city to even greater devastation.

On August 15, 1945, six days after Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender – thus effectively ending World War II.

All over the planet, Millions of people rejoiced and celebrated The end of the war. But in Japan, there was little to celebrate.

The exact number of deaths caused by the detonation of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains undetermined to this day.

But among the deaths caused directly by the explosion of the pumps and those resulting from the effects of nuclear radiation that then covered the two cities, it is estimated that Up to 246 thousand people have lost their lives.

When the initial enthusiasm for the end of the war calmed down, most of the scientists involved in the Manhattan project expressed their dismay for the devastating effect of their creature.

“I became death, the destroyer of worlds,” he said J. Robert Oppenheimerteam leader and considered the “father of the atomic bomb” in a celebrated speech.

Alarmed by the catastrophic effects of the use of nuclear weapons, some of the scientists involved in the project founded the Federation of Atomic Scientists, a non -governmental organization that to this day fights nuclear proliferation.

But the day 78 years after the detonation of “Little Boy” in Hiroshima, There is an estimated number of 12,700 nuclear bombs all over the world.

These pumps are in the hands From nine countries: United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Iran is one step to the list.

Nearly 90% of these pumps are American or Russian. And a nuclear war between these two countries would not be limited to destroying some cities.

According to independent research teams, a nuclear war between the United States and Russia would result in more than 90 million dead and injuredonly in the early hours of the conflict – and would plunge the world in a nuclear winter for at least ten years.

According to military matters experts, the risk of a nuclear war It’s low, but it’s not zero – And the uncertainty caused recently either by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and by increasing tension between China and the US Around Taiwan threatens to create the largest nuclear crisis since the Cold War.

As the United Nations Secretary-General warned two years ago António GuterresAt the Memorial Peace ceremony in Hiroshima, the world is only of the nuclear holocaust. “Humanity is Play with a loaded weapon“Guterres stressed.

After the detonation of the Hiroshima pump, scientists estimated that for 75 years no life could sprout in the nuclear radiation zone. But a few years later, an aloendro flourished in the city reconstruct.

Aloendro, as beautiful as toxic, became the Official Flower of Hiroshimaa symbol of the strength and hope of its inhabitants.