The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

by The Manhattan Engineer District

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, War, Japan, World War II, Technology

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1945

Reviews

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo rapporto, redatto e pubblicato meno di un anno dopo l'agosto del 1945, è di profondo interesse soprattutto se uno riesce a immaginarsi, anche tramite foto e filmati dell'epoca, la situazione di Hiroshima e Nagasaki. Altrimenti è per lo più un susseguirsi di tabelle e di aridi dati sui raggi d'azione delle diiverse tipologie di devastazione dell'arma atomica.
La parte finale riporta la testimonianza diretta di padre John Siemes, il quale insieme ai suoi confratelli, quel 6 agosto mattino alle 8.15 era nel suo ufficio al noviziato cattolico di Nagatsuka. Tutta la parte del suo essere sbalzato via dal vento dopo aver visto il lampo bianco, ritrovarsi ricoperto di scheggie di vetro delle finestre, l'esperienza di soccorso che i sacerdoti tedeschi (per lo più) fecero verso i cittadini in fuga dall'esplosione nonché la loro ricerca dei confratelli che eranno in città è decisamente emozionante. Allo stesso modo lo è il loro confrontarsi coi militari ostili che sospettavano fossero americani paracadutatisi dopo il bombardamento, e la supposizione dei più che gli americani avessero usato una bomba atomica.
Qui mi sono reso conto di una cosa che gli storici sanno da sempre ma della quale a scuola in genere non si parla: tutto il mondo (almeno per le persone istruite) sapeva che una bomba atomica la stavano sviluppando sia gli americani sia i tedeschi. Un giapponese (credo un confratello loro) affermò davanti a padre Siemes che i giapponesi avevano scoperto il segreto per primi ma mancavano di alcune delle risorse per costruire la bomba, e probabilmente gli americani avevano rubato quel segreto.
Segno che i complottardi c'erano anche allora, e come oggi, le loro "certezze" sono utili solo se stampate su carta igienica.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a dichotomy to me.

The first three-quarters of the book is a report published by the Manhattan Engineer District (the Manhattan Project) on June 29, 1946. It is a very scientific, "just the facts" article on the destruction caused by the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everything in the article is detailed in feet, starting at the center of the explosion which they label as X, and extending out 40,000 feet or more. I had to stop and figure out how far this was, but figuring that a mile is 5,280 feet, this report details destruction that occurred up to 7 1/2 miles out from the center of the blast.

Some details about structural damage that we learn include:

In Hiroshima almost everything up to about one mile from X was completely destroyed, except for a small number (about 50) of heavily reinforced concrete buildings, most of which were specially designed to withstand earthquake shock, which were not collapsed by the blast; most of these buildings had their interiors completely gutted, and all windows, doors, sashes, and frames ripped out.

In Nagasaki, 3,500 feet from X, church buildings with 18" brick walls were completely destroyed. 12" brick walls were severely cracked as far as 5,000 feet.

The actual collapse of buildings was observed at the extreme range of 23,000 feet from X in Nagasaki.

Then on the subject of human casualties, we learn:

It seems almost certain from the various reports that the greatest total number of deaths were those occurring immediately after the bombing. The causes of many of the deaths can only be surmised, and of course many persons near the center of explosion suffered fatal injuries from more than one of the bomb effects. The proper order of importance for possible causes of death is: burns, mechanical injury, and gamma radiation.

Multiple tables are included giving estimated population counts for these two cities, and relation of total casualties from distance X, as well as per-cent mortality at different distances. Very horrifying, yet presented in a very scientific, non-emotional manner.

The only thing that was slightly emotional in this report was the ending, which states:
Aside from physical injury and damage, the most significant effect of the atomic bombs was the sheer terror which it struck into the peoples of the bombed cities. This terror, resulting in immediate hysterical activity and flight from the cities, had one especially pronounced effect: persons who had become accustomed to mass air raids had grown to pay little heed to single planes or small groups of planes, but after the atomic bombings the appearance of a single plane caused more terror and disruption of normal life than the appearance of many hundreds of planes had ever been able to cause before. The effect of this terrible fear of the potential danger from even a single enemy plane on the lives of the peoples of the world in the event of any future war can easily be conjectured.

This was the first three-quarters of this book.

Then the final one-quarter is an Eyewitness Account of the blast, written by Father John A. Siemes, a German priest who was living at the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Nagatsuke, approximately 2 kilometers from Hiroshima. He observed the blast from his window, which was then blown out, showering him with glass. He and his fellow priests then spent several days going on rescue missions to try to help the survivors, and some of his descriptions of this event are as follows:

The bright day now reveals the frightful picture which last night's darkness had partly concealed. Where the city stood everything, as far as the eye could reach, is a waste of ashes and ruin. Only several skeletons of buildings completely burned out in the interior remain. The banks of the river are covered with dead and wounded, and the rising waters have here and there covered some of the corpses. On the broad street in the Hakushima district, naked burned cadavers are particularly numerous. Among them are the wounded who are still alive. A few have crawled under the burnt-out autos and trams. Frightfully injured forms beckon to us and then collapse.

We place them on our cart and wheel them to the hospital at whose entrance a dressing station has been set up. Here the wounded lie on the hard floor, row on row. Only the largest wounds are dressed. We convey another soldier and an old woman to the place but we cannot move everybody who lies exposed in the sun. It would be endless and it is questionable whether those whom we can drag to the dressing station can come out alive, because even here nothing really effective can be done. Later, we ascertain that the wounded lay for days in the burnt-out hallways of the hospital and there they died.

Father Luhmer and Father Laures found a dead man in a nearby house who had already become bloated and who emitted a frightful odor. They brought him to this valley and incinerated him themselves. Even late at night, the little valley was lit up by the funeral pyres.

None of us in those days heard a single outburst against the Americans on the part of the Japanese, nor was there any evidence of a vengeful spirit. The Japanese suffered this terrible blow as part of the fortunes of war ... something to be borne without complaint.

Father Siemes gives a stark, bleak, human face to the destruction that the Manhattan District presented in such a scientific format. There is the dichotomy for me. Maybe that is why the book includes both.

In closing, Father Siemes leaves us with these thoughts:

We have discussed among ourselves the ethics of the use of the bomb. Some consider it in the same category as poison gas and were against its use on a civil population. Others were of the view that in total war, as carried on in Japan, there was no difference between civilians and soldiers, and that the bomb itself was an effective force tending to end the bloodshed, warning Japan to surrender and thus to avoid total destruction. It seems logical to me that he who supports total war in principle cannot complain of war against civilians. The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good that might result? When will our moralists give us a clear answer to this question?

Interesting question, even today, and especially today with the proliferation of nuclear weapons and well as the recent use of poison gas on civilians in Syria.

[Shhhhivawn]

"In the bright afternoon, the remains of Hiroshima were burning. Their plane soon reached the city, around which they circled in disbelief. A great scar on the land, still burning, and covered by a heavy cloud of smoke, was all that was left of a great city."

"It seems logical to me that he who supports total war in principle cannot complain of war against civilians. The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good that might result? When will our moralists give us a clear answer to this question?"

Just a few quotations that stuck with me. The first just for the beautiful prose, the second as a lead in to Just and Unjust Wars, which I took out from the library on a whim because the title intrigued me and I'm looking forward to reading. Maybe if I finish this long book in decent time...

Statistical but of course it is, they didn't write this for me. The eyewitness account, though... I highly recommend reading that. Though actually what really got me was before that, when we hear about how the bombings have affected the surviving population. The terror.

Why spend four hours listening to bad news on your phone when you could spend it listening to bad news from 80 years ago on your phone?

Might listen to more of what Dennis Sayers has read because I really liked his reading of this.

*Listened to an audiobook read by Dennis Sayers on LibriVox*

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mainly a mostly amoral telling of damage done to property and people of the atomic bombings--what color of shirt fabric was most apt to be burned away, how many feet away from detonation point damage to concrete was observed, etc. The last quarter is an eyewitness account from a Jesuit posted in Japan which is quite moving.

[Noora Alhosani · Rating 4 out of 5]

a report about The Manhattan Engineer District Project:
Full of detailed facts, numbers of causalities, dates and time.

"The difference between the explosion of an atomic bomb and that of an ordinary T.N.T. bomb is in magnitude; as it was announced after the Hiroshima attack, the explosive energy of each of the atomic bombs was equivalent to about 20,000 tons of T.N.T.

And the greatest difference between the atomic bomb and the T.N.T. explosion is the fact that the atomic bomb gives off greater amounts of radiation. Most of this radiation is "light" of some wave-length That travels at the speed of light, which is is 186,000 miles per second.

The radiation are intense enough to kill people within an appreciable distance from the explosion, and are in fact the major cause of deaths and injuries apart from mechanical injuries ( collapse of buildings, flying debris). According to Japanese observations, the (early) symptoms reported in patients suffering from radiation were loss of hair, bleeding into the skin, and inflammation of the mouth and throat, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. "

I believe, US took advantage of World War III events to test & experiment atomic bombs on Japan. They were treated like laboratory mice to collect data and information about atomic bomb research and it's bombing effects on surroundings.

They selected several targets to bomb as a plan B just in case if they couldn't bomb Hiroshima or Nagaśaki.
At the end of the report there is an eyewitness account.

[Cee Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valuable information

This is filled with stats, dates, times, details and everything the inquiring mind would want to know about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was published results from an investigation done by the manhatten project so the writing is very concise, clear and clinical. It is up to the reader to feel empathy and emotion at the description of wounds and burns due to the bomb but the text doesn't encourage anything emotional.

The cities are described in great technical detail and the damage done to buildings and structures. Distance, heat, and things like that are meticulously spelled out .

The final chapter is interesting , a first person account told by a catholic priest living in Japan.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The firsthand account of the Catholic priest in the final section is shocking and deeply moving. I'm glad that on-the-ground account was included, not only because it humanizes the suffering of the victims, but also because the harsh and immediate condemnation of the bombings by a moral authority, specifically one from the Western tradition, demonstrates just how extensively American public opinion has been shaped by postwar propaganda. If it had not been so, then no reasonable person would accept the premise that targeting civilians is justifiable, especially with such devastating weapons.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vivid descriptions of the terrible effects of the bombs on people and structures. The detached report easily brings hatred towards this evil technology and cold-blooded decision of using it in such way because the US could have warned the civilians of the two cities to evacuate several hours before the bombing and still be able to demonstrate the tremendous destructive power of such weapon and sufficiently threaten Japan into surrender.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bare bones report of the military commission sent to Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombings in August 1945. Includes statistics for casualties, destruction circles, and other raw data collected on-site. Since the US military and government refused to acknowledge that there was any residual radiation in the areas and that it affected people years later, no human effects were included.

[Margo C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rozumiem fakt, iż jest to raport - suchy, konkretny i zwięzły. Z tym nie mam problemu. Mam jednak małe wąty do tego, że na koniec nie dodano krótkiego wpisu / rozdziału z informacjami jak te zdarzenia wpłynęły czy to na historię rozumiana ogólnie czy np na życie mieszkańców tych miast / Japończyków.
Tym sposobem ta pozycja zyskałaby ogromnie.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting primary source document, the U.S. government report on the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan to end World War II. Short and concise, but detailed, it would make a good complement to John Hersey's Hiroshima.

[Julie Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Factual

Sad and scary to think that man has created such a demon. The personal account written near the end of the report is the most heart wrenching account I have ever read about this event.

[Asgrimur Hartmannsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the greatest things I've read.
The oddly poetic descriptions.
The dry accounts of some extremely creepy happenings on one hand and witness accounts on the other.
The how and the why.
Compelling stuff.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very impressed with this book at all.

[Audiobook Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, I listened to the free audiobook version on YouTube. I will leave the link below so that everyone can enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTeJp...

[Phil Whittall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly devastating report

[Robert Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy read, and a very sobering one, given its historical context and that fact that it is describing a horrific, real-life event, but one which is nevertheless illuminating. To the extent that one can say that I enjoyed reading it, I did; not for pleasure but for the eye-opening information which it contains. If you are a bit squeamish, approach this text with caution. Once read, I don't think it will ever leave you.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Manhattan Engineer District along with input from the Army Corps of Engineers really handled this subject well in this book. A tragedy, a technical marvel, and a scientific achievement all explained in clear, neutral language.

But it wasn't all cold and emotionless.

Punctuating the text are solemn and pensive quotes from people of various disciplines around the world in reaction to the bombs dropping. The most powerful passage in the book comes at the end: an eyewitness account of a German priest living in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. From the morning of all the way through relief and recovery efforts, it puts the reader at ground zero of the pain and suffering the atomic bomb brought.

Not that this is anti-American or anti-war. In fact, it was a study commissioned specifically by the U.S. to assess the damage which required scientists and engineers to be on the ground within days of the bombings. They were not particularly shocked at their findings, which is comforting. Comforting that the minds behind the creation of the atomic bomb and selection of the targets knew intimately what they were doing and made every effort to mitigate civilian casualties while still achieving the end state: unconditional surrender and an immediate end to the Pacific conflict.

I was not previously aware of the lengths the Army went to select primarily military targets, avoid high-density population centers, mitigate the impact on critical civilian infrastructure, and encourage the cities' occupants to evacuate beforehand. That last effort did actually do some good. I was also naive enough to think that the aftermath of an atomic bomb was the same as a nuclear power plant disaster, in that it leaves miles and miles of surrounding territory uninhabitable due to radiation. That is not the case.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still relative little was really well known about the effects, especially in the long term, when The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by The Manhattan Engineer District. This is evident when collateral damage was assessed outside of the kill and damage zones. The first part of the book explains, rater coldly, the damages to structures and the population within the kill zone. Numbers of dead, numbering in the thousands, are frankly and stated without emotion. Structural damages were precisely evaluated and left the reader, even more than sixty years later, with a nightmarish picture of destruction. The last section of the study consists of an eyewitness report by a German priest that was teaching there at a catholic university. His descriptions of the devastation and suffering brought to a personal level. I liked the narrative but hope the action will never be repeated.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A technical report on the use of the Atom Bomb and it's aftereffects, it contains a spectacular description of the destruction caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Despite the fragmented format in which the report is laid out, it is interesting and comprehensible. As nearly 70 years have passed since its publication, it is likely that a lot of the findings herein this report have since changed with later and greater developments in nuclear weaponry. Nevertheless, its observations of damage sustained by these two civilian populations remains relevant, particularly the first hand account of the bombing at Hiroshima as witnessed by a German priest living near the epicenter of the explosion. Filled with detailed scenes of the catastrophe and suffering, the story left an impression in my mind that will not be soon forgotten.

[stormhawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the aftereffects report of the Manhattan Project. It's a technical document, and reads like it, cataloging damages to people and property caused by the atomic bomb. It does include a first-person account of the bombing, written by a German priest, which seems familiar, and might have formed the core of John Hersey's Hiroshima.

[Chelsey Langland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is interesting mostly because of its context. Written by the US government about a year after the bombings, it's an attempt to summarize the damage in a clinical manner. There is much emphasis on the structural damage, less given to physical injury, and a repeated insistence that there were no lingering radiation injuries beyond the initial blast. Given the time frame, there was no way they could have known about the radiation, but the assertions still seem very naive.

[Greg Parrott · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the Manhattan Project collection of articles, excerpts, and articles, I thought it may be interesting to read this report 70+ years after the bomb was delivered to Japan. Even though the statistics, numbers, and analysis from the scientific perspective were all interesting, the most gripping part of the report is the final eyewitness account given. It leaves you scratching your head why we would ever want to go to war as a species.

[Jennifer Vu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was written in a report style. It stated various facts about casualties due to the atomic bomb. The book went in depth about the causes of deaths and injuries as well as the effects of each atom bomb.

[Avis Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Available at Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/685

[Peter J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry, but the firsthand account of the priest who survived the blast was worth the effort.

[Rbmaxima · Rating 3 out of 5]

it has a lot of minute details of the post bombing.

[Luís Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confissões matemáticas de uns terroristas...

(lido em Wenchuan, China)

[Kylie Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting read, but bit to statistical for me

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harrowing. The last section has a personal account from a priest in japan at the time of the bombing... the only correct adverb, is harrowing.