＠27 days until Hiroshima Summit: Atomic Bombing
Apr. 22, 2023
by Fumiyasu Miyano, Staff Writer
At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a U.S. military B29 bomber, dropped an atomic bomb, aiming at the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the central area of Hiroshima. 43 seconds later, the bomb exploded about 600 meters above the ground of Shima Hospital (now Shima Internist Hospital in the city’s Naka Ward). A watch stopped at 8:15 has kept a record of “that time.”
The U.S. military didn’t drop the atomic bomb just above the Shima hospital. The laws of inertia made the dropped bomb follow the sideways flight path of the aircraft. Yozo Kudo, 73, a former professor at the National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College, estimated the actual bomb release point from the aircraft at about 100 meters south-southwest of the JR Yaga station in Higashi Ward, by calculating backwards from the B29’s flying speed and flight direction. Mr. Kudo said, “Air resistance should be considered as well, but that won’t cause a big discrepancy.”
(Originally published on April 22, 2023)
At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a U.S. military B29 bomber, dropped an atomic bomb, aiming at the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the central area of Hiroshima. 43 seconds later, the bomb exploded about 600 meters above the ground of Shima Hospital (now Shima Internist Hospital in the city’s Naka Ward). A watch stopped at 8:15 has kept a record of “that time.”
The U.S. military didn’t drop the atomic bomb just above the Shima hospital. The laws of inertia made the dropped bomb follow the sideways flight path of the aircraft. Yozo Kudo, 73, a former professor at the National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College, estimated the actual bomb release point from the aircraft at about 100 meters south-southwest of the JR Yaga station in Higashi Ward, by calculating backwards from the B29’s flying speed and flight direction. Mr. Kudo said, “Air resistance should be considered as well, but that won’t cause a big discrepancy.”
(Originally published on April 22, 2023)
