The atomic bomb,
according to the Jap premier,
threatened the extinction of the Japanese people
A few days after the surrender, Americans could at last learn close up the effects of their atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the course of the war. Japan’s premier,
Prince Higashi-Kuni, in his message to the diet on Sept. 5 paid despairing tribute to the atomic bomb: “This terrific weapon was likely to result in the obliteration of the Japanese people…” The atomic bomb, he indicated, was the immediate inducement to surrender.
One of the first American photographers into Hiroshima was LIFE Photographer Bernard Hoffman, on Sept. 3. His pictures are shown on the following pages. The close-up air view opposite was taken by LIFE Photographer George Silk a few days before.
It looks from the east across the river-divided delta of Hiroshima
(which means Hiro Island).
In the whole city, only about 50 concrete buildings still have walls. As far as a man can walk for an hour in any direction there is only a flat, silent plain, a still-stinking junk pile. The trees, killed by the blast, stand like skeletons. Americans visiting the city have to keep reminding themselves that this enormous destruction was caused by one bomb.
The bomb exploded about 150 feet directly above Military Park, at top of the picture on the opposite page. Japanese doctors said that those who had been killed by the blast itself died instantly. But presently, according to these doctors, those who had suffered only small burns found their appetite failing, their hair falling out, their gums bleeding. They developed temperatures of 104*, vomited blood, and died. It was discovered that they had lost 86% of their white blood corpuscles. Last week the Japanese announced that the count of Hiroshima’s dead had risen to 125,000.