Finally, the great fires that raged in each city totally consumed many bodies. The number of total casualties has been estimated at various times since the bombings with wide discrepancies. The Manhattan Engineer District's best available figures are:. The relation of total casualties to distance from X, the center of damage and point directly under the air-burst explosion of the bomb, is of great importance in evaluating the casualty-producing effect of the bombs.
This relationship for the total population of Nagasaki is shown in the table below, based on the first-obtained casualty figures of the District:. No figure for total pre-raid population at these different distances were available. Despite utter devastation, the effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima were not as severe as one might think. Unlike in the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima , the city was never evacuated, though that was largely due to a lack of information and the logistical near impossibility of doing so.
The Americans detonated the Hiroshima bomb nearly 2, feet above the city, which somewhat limited the damaged caused by radiation.
In fact, in his memo predicting the effects of the bomb, Manhattan Project lead scientist Robert Oppenheimer argued that the radioactive byproducts would go into the upper atmosphere and be dispersed throughout the world.
This process did occur, but the detonation caused a rainstorm that brought many radioactive byproducts back to earth. The black rain would have been hard for Oppenheimer and others who developed the atomic bomb to predict, however, because the only test detonation was done in the Nevada desert where there was not enough moisture for rain.
Hiroshima is indelibly linked with its destruction, but the city and its people are also intimately connected with the peace movement.
During their Occupation , the Americans wrote a new constitution for the Japanese, which included the famous Article 9, a provision that all but makes war illegal. Hiroshima emerged as the spiritual center of both the Japanese antinuclear and peace movements. In the aftermath of the war, it constructed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that has been dedicated to commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and to eliminating nuclear weapons. The museum is housed in the Peace Memorial Park, which includes an eternal flame that will burn until all nuclear weapons are eliminated.
The Park serves as a gathering ground for tens of thousands to commemorate the bombing and demonstrate for peace. Today, the Hiroshima's level of radioactivity has reverted to the world background level. The residents of Denver, Colorado experience a higher level of radioactivity than those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The residents of Hiroshima report elevated levels of some cancers, with the highest rate of liver cancer in the world, but other forms of cancer occur at average or even low rates comparably. Hiroshima is an exquisite, complicated city known for its food, the stunning natural beauty of its bay, and an incident decades ago that will forever connect it with nuclear weapons and peace. Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Stanton Foundation.
Skip to main content. The Ohio State University. Department of History. Home Topics Africa. Middle East. North America. International Relations Religion Education Sports. Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. Nuclear weapon of the "Fat Man" type, the kind detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. The atomic cloud rising over Nagasaki, Japan. Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. Atomic Bomb Preparations at Tinian Island, Manhattan Project Notebook.
Post-bombing aerial and on-the-ground images of Hiroshima. Empty bottle of Chianti Bertolli wine signed by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.
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