Bombings

Aug. 5 (UPI) — Remembrances in Japan, the United States and elsewhere mark the 80th anniversaries of the only instances of atomic weapons being used in military conflict and against civilian populations.

The nature of global conflict changed permanently when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on different Japanese cities three days apart in August 1945, with combined casualty figures estimated at more than 200,000 by the end of that year.

Kunihiko Iida, 83, is among the remaining survivors and a volunteer guide at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, according to Korean JoongAng Daily.

He leads tours of the memorial’s exhibits and shares his own experience regarding the horrors wrought by one of the world’s two most powerful weapons that ever have been used in military conflict.

Survivors tell their stories

Iida was 3 years old and inside his family’s home that was located about a half mile from the bomb blast’s hypocenter when it detonated.

He says the blast felt as though he were thrown from a building and covered him in debris and pieces of broken glass.

Iida tried to scream, “Mommy, help!” but the words would not come out of his mouth.

Instead, his grandfather found him, and his 25-year-old mother and 4-year-old sister died within a month after each developed skin conditions, bleeding noses and exhaustion.

Iida said he developed similar symptoms, but he slowly regained his health over several years.

Iida first visited Hiroshima’s peace park when he was 60 after his aging aunt asked him to go there with her.

The park is located within the atomic bomb’s hypocenter, and Iida became a park volunteer a few years later.

“The only path to peace is nuclear weapons’ abolishment,” Iida told the Korean JoongAng Daily. “There is no other way.”

Another survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, Fumiko Doi, 86, was a 6-year-old passenger on a train that was stopped about 3 miles from the Hiroshima bomb’s hypocenter.

She saw the bomb’s bright flash and ducked as broken glass rained down upon passengers, some of whom protected her with their bodies.

Those on the street had burned hair, charcoal-black faces and tattered clothing, she said.

None of her family members died during the initial blast, but her mother and three brothers died from cancer, and her two sisters had long-term health problems.

Doi’s father was a local official and helped collect bodies from the blast, which led to him developing radiation symptoms.

Doi now lives in Fukuoka and travels to anti-war rallies to speak against nuclear weapons.

“Some people have forgotten about the atomic bombings. That’s sad,” she told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“If one hits Japan, we will be destroyed,” she continued. “If more are used around the world, that’s the end of the Earth.”

She said the potential for a global calamity is why she continues to speak out against the development and use of nuclear weapons.

Memorial services for atomic bombing victims

Many Koreans who were in Hiroshima also were killed or became ill due to the atomic bombing.

A memorial ceremony held on Saturday at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park commemorated the Koreans who survived the bombing.

About 110 people, including many survivors and the families of bombing victims, attended to offer flowers and silent prayers, according to Nippon.com.

The Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims also enables visitors to attend memorial services and view exhibits that depict the atomic bombing and its aftermath.

Visitors also can register the names of victims from the bombing, which numbered 198,748 names as of Aug. 9, 2024.

Nagasaki is located about 750 miles and Hiroshima is about 500 miles from Tokyo in southwestern Japan.

Remembrance events also are scheduled for the two atomic bombings in locations across the United States.

Two days that changed the world

A B-29 Superfortress bomber named “Enola Gay” by its crew unleashed the “Little Boy” atomic bomb that was made from enriched uranium-235 on Aug. 6, 1945, and indiscriminately killed an estimated 140,000 of the city’s 350,000 residents.

The Little Boy bomb killed about half of all who were located within three-quarters of a mile of the blast’s hypocenter and between 80% and 100% of those located within its hypocenter, according to the city of Hiroshima.

When the Japanese emperor did not surrender unconditionally following the Hiroshima bombing, the B-29 Superfortress named “Bockscar” dropped an enriched plutonium-239 bomb called “Fat Man” on Nagasaki and its population of 200,000 on Aug. 9.

That bomb killed an estimated 40,000 and injured another 60,000 Japanese and others upon detonation, but the number of those killed rose to about 70,000 by the year’s end, according to The Manhattan Project.

An estimated 100,000 Japanese survived the attacks, which ended World War II and spared Japan and the United States from an otherwise inevitable invasion of Japan’s home islands.

About a third of Americans surveyed said the atomic bombings were justified, while about an equal amount said they were not, according to the Pew Research Center.

Another third of those surveyed said they are unsure.