First Into Nagasaki - was REALLY Heavy Metal Work

A few years back I read a book titled "First Into Nagasaki". It was written by the son of an American reporter who managed to get into Nagasaki before the US army did. The reporter's columns were suppressed by MacArthur, but the reporter had saved carbon copies. After his death, the son published the columns as the book, along with a description of the Japanese death ships that took the survivers of the Bataan Death March back to Japan. The reporter's assessment was that Nagasaki was mostly destroyed by fires rather than the blast from the bomb. He recounted how there were American POW's working at the Mitsubishi factory. At the air raid alarm they went to slit trenches outside the plant. Those who kept their heads down in the trenches lived despite being nearly under the blast. My recollection of the story was that the bomb was dropped about noon, when Japanese women were cooking lunch on charcoal hibachis. The blast knocked over the hibachis, setting fire to most of the homes. Because of obstructions in the streets due to downed power lines etc. from the blast, the fire trucks couldn't make it to where they needed to go, and the whole city burned. I forget what he said about the radiation sickness, but I recall he described it. The gist of the articles was that it was a very powerful bomb, but more survivable than the military made it out to be. I'm not a student of the nuclear bombing's so take it for what it's worth. What we thought we all knew from "common knowledge" sounds a little different from what this reporter described. It was an interesting description by an eye witness. The descriptions of the death ships was very dull by comparison.

RWL

Reply to
GeoLane at PTD dot NET
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This is an eyewitness account by a German missionary in Hiroshima.

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Compare it to Kurt Vonnegut's account of the bombing of Dresden in "Slaughterhouse 5", whose empty underground meat storage locker was his deep, cold and safe air raid shelter. Vonnegut was actually one of the captured Infantry scouts he mentions in the story.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

This gives the location of the Jesuit missionaries who survived as 8 blocks from the blast center. It doesn't mention Gropper's strong construction.

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jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

"Jim Wilkins" wrote

Photos of the ruins. Notice the absence of blast damage, trees and chimneys are still standing. Fire destroyed the mostly wood and paper city.

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jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Most of my brain cells don't work any more, or work sluggishly at best.

But I remember reading a story about an alternative history about that event.

Oh yeah! The Jesus Factor! That was it.

The premise was that A-Bombs don't work well if moving very fast. They would fizzle nicely, but not explode.

The Japan bombs (at "Old Iron Pants" Lemay's orders) were a combination of a lot of firebombs and a large ring of magnesium (for the mushroom) and uranium dust sprayed over the cities.

The Soviets had a few fizzles before they figured it out and planted a stationary bomb at ground zero of their first successful test.

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Wiki mentions an earthquake, but I think that brain cell died early and left a good looking corpse.

(OH would that it were really true) But it was an interesting book...

Reply to
Richard

If you read it carefully it illuminates the deceptions of the "Better red than dead" anti-nuke propaganda campaign the FSU ran to undermine our deterrence policies by appealing to primitive fear and ignorance.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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