Atomic bomb on Hiroshima: When the sun fell from the sky

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August 6, 1945 was a sunny Monday morning in the port city of Hiroshima, with its approximately 350,000 inhabitants. Everyone was busy. At home, at school, at work or on the way there. Everyday life in war, but apparently quiet. Hiroshima had so far been spared from bombing.

Saturo Arai, atomic bomb victim:
"Suddenly, I heard the sound of an airplane. A B-29 was approaching. Then I looked up at the sky and saw the plane."

The then ten-year-old Saturo saw the Enola Gay, an American B-29 bomber whose crew was approaching Hiroshima. On board the Enola Gay, a single bomb: the atomic bomb with the cynical nickname "Little Boy". 3.05 meters long, 71 centimeters in diameter, weighing 4.4 tons, including 60 kilograms of uranium, with an explosive power of 15 kilotons of TNT.

In the case of the top-secret project of the US Army, almost everything went according to plan. At an altitude of 9450 meters, the bomb was released. The destination was the Aioi Bridge in the city center. The atomic bomb exploded after 43 seconds at an altitude of about 580 meters above the city.

Saturo Arai, atomic bomb victim: "And suddenly the lightning,
this huge lightning. Then I just covered my eyes and ears. After that, I turned around because I was scared. Something happened. Then I heard a loud noise behind me. And I lost consciousness. I was unconscious - I don't know, two minutes or so. When I woke up, it was pitch dark and there was a lot of dust in the air. The first thing I remember was the red sun when we looked up at the sky."

Little Boy explodes at 8:16 a.m. A mushroom-shaped cloud rises rapidly over Hiroshima. The explosion creates a fireball with a core temperature of 3900 degrees Celsius, which is significantly more than half the temperature at the surface of the sun - the blast wave of the atomic bomb sweeps over the city. More than 70,000 people died instantly.

The then eleven-year-old Emiko was 1400 meters from the point below the explosion, the hypocenter.

Emiko Yamanaka, atomic bomb victim:
"All of a sudden there was this flash of light. It was such a light that you thought the sun had fallen on your head or a fireball had fallen down. I couldn't see anything anymore. The next moment came a blast of air of incredible power. That was the explosion. The blast of air came with incredible force and I couldn't exhale. I couldn't breathe. Then I lost consciousness. It all happened in just one moment."

The moment when Hiroshima experienced the apocalypse. The blast wave and the subsequent firestorm razed 80 percent of the city center to the ground. There was no protection against the unimaginable power of destruction. A man-made inferno. Christoph Reiners is a nuclear medicine specialist. Together with his colleagues from Nagasaki, he has been researching the consequences of radiation for the human body for many years.

Christoph Reiners, nuclear medicine specialist, University Hospital Würzburg:
"Above all, because of the effect of ionizing radiation, especially gamma radiation, which was released to a large extent. The fact is that within a radius of 500 meters without any protection from a house, a building, a tree, people have practically died 100 percent. But if there was such protection, then 50 percent could about 1000 meters, it was still 90 percent who died, without protection in 1500 meters 50% and then at a distance of two kilometers it was actually less than ten percent, who have now died in this case of massive radiation."

Of some victims, only a shadow remained. The bodies burned up completely. Thus, it is believed that a person was sitting on this staircase to the entrance of a bank branch. The blazing flash of light and the unbelievable heat of the atomic bomb explosion had burned the outline into the stone.

And the mass extinction continued. In addition to the estimated 70,000 inhabitants who died instantly, another 1945,70 were added by the end of 000, and five years later this figure was to rise to 200,000. The radiation also killed with a time delay. And no one knew the terrible consequences of an atomic bomb. People did not know what was happening to them. Mutilated, burned, close to death, they tried to escape somehow. Keiko, who was eight years old at the time, was 2400 meters from the hypocenter.

Keiko Ogura, atomic bomb victim:
"I encountered quite long queues of people fleeing the city. At first, I heard a smell of burnt hair. A bad smell. What is that? That's what I thought at first. And then I figured it out. The silent marching. They stretched out their arms. At first I thought they were wearing long sleeves on their clothes. But these weren't clothes. It was her skin that was hanging down."

The first photo, taken a few hours after the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima, shows desperate seriously injured and dying people at the Miyuki-bashi Bridge. The photographer of a local newspaper only managed to press the shutter button after 20 minutes. The situation was too shocking.

Today we know that the chance of survival depended on where you happened to be. The distance from the hypocenter affected the radiation dose. Also, whether there was any protection from the radiation, in one of the few concrete buildings, behind a wall or in a basement. What clothes you wore. Every piece of skin that wasn't covered burned. Satoru Arai had put on a white shirt that morning, he says it reflected the radiation. At the time of the detonation, he was 1700 meters from the hypocenter and made his way home despite severe burns.

Saturo Arai, atomic bomb victim:
"The first thing I got home was my mother staring at me. She looked at me, scared. What happened? I told her that I didn't feel anything at all right now. Half of my face, arms and calves were burned. These were third-degree burns, which means that the skin had come off. I think it looked terrible."

Initial medical care for the survivors was virtually non-existent. Most of the hospitals were destroyed, and most of the doctors and nurses themselves were killed or seriously injured. It was hell for those who died. But it was also hell for those who survived. In addition to the immediate injuries and burns, there were the first symptoms of radiation sickness.

Keijiro Matsushima, atomic bomb victim:
"The next day I developed a high fever and diarrhea. Presumably, the effects of radiation. Probably because I was exposed to a lot of radioactivity in the area around the hypocenter. But luckily I left the city very soon after and wasn't so badly affected."

16-year-old Keijiro was 2 kilometers from the hypocenter. For most of the survivors who were exposed to the radiation more intensively, the radiation damage meant unimaginable suffering, acute danger to life and often imminent death.

Christoph Reiners, nuclear medicine specialist, University Hospital Würzburg:
"The second, long-term episode of radiation - also known as a late effect - is acute radiation sickness, which occurs after a few days or weeks. This is due to the fact that the radiation in the body disturbs or destroys the tissue. The radiation also kills the white blood cells in the first place as the immune defense that we have in the body, so you become absolutely susceptible to infections of any kind. Above all, however, it also destroys the tissue in the intestine, so that the intestine leaks in this way. Furthermore, the brain is also particularly sensitive to radiation and so the consequences lead to massive diarrhea, susceptibility to infection, possibly severe headaches and vomiting. These consequences then occur within the next few days to weeks after exposure to these high doses of radiation."

Three days after the annihilation of Hiroshima, an American B-29 bomber flies again, this time over Nagasaki in southern Japan. On August 9 at 11.02 a.m., the second atomic bomb falls - a plutonium bomb called "Fat Man". In Nagasaki, too, the effects were catastrophic: devastating destruction, immeasurable suffering, 70,000 deaths by the end of the year. It was not until six days later that Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan. The Second World War was now finally over. But the agony of the atomic bomb victims in Nagasaki and Hiroshima continued.

Keijiro Matsushima, atomic bomb victim:
"People had a very hard time, also because it was very hot. The wounds or burns festered very soon, they were attacked by maggots. People had a very hard time, they died, one after the other, in pain. And even some healthy people, who apparently had no injury, became ill all of a sudden. This is the effect of radiation. Even many years later, people suffered greatly. Leukemia or cancer occurred. Even many years after the bombing, people were still dying, suddenly falling ill with many strange symptoms. That was really a terrible weapon."

And no one took responsibility. The USA, after the capitulation of Japan's occupying power, justified itself with the faster end of the war forced by the atomic bombs. To this day, there is no apology.

Beginning in September 1945, cameramen and scientists from the U.S. Strategic Bombing Surveys filmed to research and document the aftermath of the explosions. Hiroshima as an experimental laboratory.

Original comment:
"This little four-year-old girl was 500 meters from the epicenter. For about a fortnight she was extremely alive. But little by little she lost vitality and developed edema."

And in their native Japan, too, the victims were left alone. Japanese society made their sufferings a taboo. The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called hibakushas, literally translated: "Those affected by the bomb". And the hibakushas have been discriminated against in their own country for decades.

Christoph Reiners, nuclear medicine specialist, University Hospital Würzburg:
"Due to the fact that many of them suffered from really disfiguring scars. Due to the fact that it was believed that the radiation that was released was somehow infectious, the hibakushas were massively marginalized by the population. In addition, it was believed that their offspring were also genetically inferior, so to speak. This, in turn, has led to the fact that the offspring had difficulties in entering into normal marriages, because the willingness to find a partner who wanted to have contact with such a person was low, at least in the first few years after the event."

It was only later that they were respected as victims and received free medical care. Long-term studies have been established. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation is investigating the survivors as part of a lifelong study to this day - co-financed by the USA, after all. The risk of cancer is still very high for Hibakushas. A lifelong suffering.

Katsuhiko Watanabe, atomic bomb victim:
"The atomic bomb affected all my internal organs and my intestines. I still suffer a lot. I even wonder if I shouldn't have died then. Sometimes I really feel that."