http://slyoyster.com

The Big Picture presents another excellent series of photographs to remember the first atomic bomb used during warfare. Many of the photos highlight the mass destruction of life and property that took place on August 6, 1945.

The U.S. B-29 Superfortress bomber “Enola Gay” took off from Tinian Island very early on the morning of August 6th, carrying a single 4,000 kg (8,900 lb) uranium bomb codenamed “Little Boy”. At 8:15 am, Little Boy was dropped from 9,400 m (31,000 ft) above the city, freefalling for 57 seconds while a complicated series of fuse triggers looked for a target height of 600 m (2,000 ft) above the ground. At the moment of detonation, a small explosive initiated a super-critical mass in 64 kg (141 lbs) of uranium. Of that 64 kg, only .7 kg (1.5 lbs) underwent fission, and of that mass, only 600 milligrams was converted into energy – an explosive energy that seared everything within a few miles, flattened the city below with a massive shockwave, set off a raging firestorm and bathed every living thing in deadly radiation. Nearly 70,000 people are believed to have been killed immediately, with possibly another 70,000 survivors dying of injuries and radiation exposure by 1950.

Despite that, a second bomb was detonated in Nagasaki two days later.  Why the US Military didn’t detonate it in a remote section of Japan first to display the nuclear bomb’s destructive power, I’ll never understand.

Think you’ve had a tough life?  Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945 when the US dropped the first atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns and stayed overnight before going home to, yup, Nagasaki – where the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Aug. 8, 1945.

Now 93 years old, Yamaguchi has been certified as the only person to survive both atomic bombs.

“As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. “It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him.”

Certification qualifies survivors for government compensation — including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs — but Mr. Yamaguchi’s compensation will not increase, Mr. Miyamoto said.

[via Metafilter]