00:00Japan marks 80 years since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
00:16in World War II. The first on 6th of August 1945 killed around 1,40,000 people in Hiroshima
00:24and three days later another 75,000 perished in Nagasaki. Here are some facts about the devastating
00:31attacks. The first atomic bomb was dropped on the western city of Hiroshima by the US bomber
00:39Enola Gay, nicknamed Little Boy. It detonated about 600 meters from the ground with a force
00:46equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. Tens of thousands died instantly, while others succumbed to injuries
00:55and illness in the weeks, months, and years that followed. Three days later, the US dropped
01:01a second bomb, dubbed Fat Man, on the southern city of Nagasaki. The attacks remain the only
01:07time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.
01:10In Hiroshima, the first thing people noticed was an intense ball of fire, according to
01:18the International Committee of the Red Cross. Temperatures near the blast reached an estimated
01:237,000 degrees Celsius, which incinerated everything within a radius of about 3 kilometers.
01:31Koichi Wada, a witness who was 18 at the time of the Nagasaki attack, said,
01:35I remember the charred bodies of little children lying around the hypocenter area like black
01:41rocks.
01:43ICRC experts say that there were cases of temporary or permanent blindness due to the intense flash
01:50of light and subsequent related damages such as cataracts. A whirlwind of heat generated also
01:56ignited thousands of fires that ravaged large parts of the mostly wooden city. A firestorm that
02:03consumed all available oxygen caused more deaths by suffocation.
02:09It has been estimated that burn and fire related casualties accounted for more than half of the
02:14immediate deaths in Hiroshima. The explosion generated an enormous shockwave that blew people
02:19through the air. Others were crushed to death inside collapsed buildings or injured or killed
02:25by flying debris. Radiation sickness was reported in the aftermath by many who survived the initial
02:33blasts and firestorms. Acute symptoms included vomiting, headaches, nausea, diarrhea and hair loss with
02:40radiation sickness fatal for many within a few weeks or months. Survivors known as Hibakusha also
02:47experienced longer-term effects including elevated risks of thyroid cancer and leukemia and both Hiroshima
02:55and Nagasaki have seen elevated cancer rates. Of 50,000 radiation victims from both cities studied by the
03:03Japanese U.S. Radiation Effects Research Foundation, about 100 died of leukemia and 850 suffered from
03:11radiation-induced cancers. The group found no evidence, however, of a significant increase in serious
03:18birth defects among survivors' children. The twin bombings dealt the final blow to Imperial Japan,
03:25which surrendered on 15 August 1945, bringing an end to World War II. Historians have debated whether the
03:33bombings ultimately saved lives by bringing an end to the conflict and averting a ground invasion.
03:39But those calculations meant little to survivors, many of whom battled decades of physical and psychological
03:46trauma as well as the stigma that sometimes came with being a Hibakusha.
03:52Despite their suffering, many survivors were shunned, in particular for marriage,
03:58because of prejudice over radiation exposure. Survivors and their supporters have become some
04:03of the loudest and most powerful voices opposing nuclear weapons, including meeting world leaders to
04:09press their case. Last year, the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyu, a grassroots movement of
04:16Hibakusha, won the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2019, Pope Francis met several Hibakusha in Hiroshima and
04:23Nagasaki, decrying the unspeakable horror in calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
04:29In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to visit Hiroshima. He offered no apology
04:36for the attack, but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Russia is one of
04:42around 100 countries expected to attend this year's memorial in Nagasaki, the first time Moscow has
04:49been invited to commemorations in the city since the start of the war with Ukraine.
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