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Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
On August 6th 1945 at exactly 8:15 a.m. bombs were dropped on the people in Hiroshima, Japan. The bombs killed over 100,000 people and the bomb it self was described by the survivours as a nosieless flash. -
The Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto
Mr. Tanimoto is a Methodist pastor living in Hiroshima with his wife and 1 year old son. Mr. Tanimoto has ties to America where he went to school. He was alone because his wife and baby were in another city at a friends house. The previous day when he was moving his stuff a friend had helped and now in return he was helping his friend move his stuff in the early morning. While pulling the a cabinet down the street on a cart he saw the flash and laid between two big rocks on a lawn to hide. -
Mrs. Hatsuyo
Some time after two a.m. Mrs. Hatsuyo is coming back from yet another suspected bomb warning with her three children who were 10, 8 and 3 years old. Her and the three children had just arrived back home from their designated "safe" area when the radio announced that they needed to go back to that safe area. Mrs. Hatsuyo and her kids were tierd and after conferring with her neighbour she decided to stay home and let the kids sleep. -
Dr. Masakazu Fujii
Dr. Fujii was a 50 year old doctor and was up at 6a.m. that morning to take a guest to a train. He came back and at breakfast and sat on his porch in his underwear overlooking the Kyo River to read the paper. He saw the bright light and tried to get to his feet but he was thrown forward and was in the water pinned between two long timbers with luckily his head above water. The hospital was destroyed, his shoulder was injured, he lost his glasses and he was in the water. -
Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge
Father Kleinsorge is a 38 year old German priest living in Japan. The hours before the bombing he was recovering from diarrhea he suffered from 2 days prior. Father Kleinsorge held Mass then later retired to his room to read in only his underwear. Unknowning how it happened he ended up outside still in only his underwear & slightly bleeding. The building that he was once in was left still standing but the buildings around it had fallen down. -
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki
Dr. Sasaki the morning of the bombing woke up an hour earlier than usual after not being able to sleep and caught an earlier train thab he would usually take to the hospital that he works in. He caught a streetcar immediatly and arrived only a few minutes before the bombing happened. After the bombing he found that he was the only unhurt doctor at the hospital and he only had to take care of all the injuries. He later figured out if he had been on the earlier train he would have died. -
Miss Toshiko Saski
The morning of the bombing she had woken up at 3a.m. to make breakfast and prepare 3 meals for her mother who was at the hospital taking care of her brother. After cleaning up it was nearly seven and she left for the tin plant where she worked in charge of the personal records in the company. When the bomb went off the room was filled with a blinding light and the office started collapsing floor by floor then she went unconscious. -
After the bomb
After the bomb most of the main characters in the story went to Asano Park which was deemed the safest place. They lied there with the wounded and dying and watched the city start to burn and their houses catch fire. Only Mr. Tanimoto went on a quest to find his loved ones the rest of them if they weren't injured helped bandage and take care of injured people and helped bring them to safety. -
Bomb Reporting
The survivors of the bombing weren't likely to hear a radio brodcast made about the bomb that was used on Hiroshima but it was reported that the bomb was a new one an atomic bobe that was more powerful than 20,000 tons of TNT and was 2,000 times more powerful than the largest bomb used in war before it. -
After the bombings
After the bomb had been dropped people were everywhere trying to find a safe place and locate their lost family members, stumbling around injured and wounded by the bomb, and dead on the streets or trapped dying in their homes. Many did not make it because of their proximity to the bomb drop site and others because of injury. -
Second Bombing
At two minutes after eleven o'clock on the morning of the 8th a second atomic boblwas dropped on Nagasaki. -
Radiation Sickness
Mrs. Nakamura who was physically unharmed from the bombingon the started to feel nauseated along with her daughter and her hair started falling out and after a little bit she was almost completely bald. Also Mr. Tanimoto fell ill and was only able to lay down. Father Kleinsorge also fell ill and all the wounds on his body had been healing were opened up and were swollen and inflamed. Unknowinly they also suffered from the same disease which would later be called radiation sickness. -
Radiation Disease Theory
Dr, Sasaki and his collegues at the Red Cross Hospital where he worked watched the disease unfold by observing and helping to treat their patients and then they were able to make a theory to how the disease worked based on their knowledge and what happened with their patients -
Miss Sasaki Leg Treatment
Miss Sasaki was still in the hospital with her leg still infected she was getting treated by Dr. Sasaki. On numerous occasions her leg was reopened and it still full of pus. In November she was told that her leg was finally healing when she look at it her injured leg was almost 3 inches shorter than the other and her foot was turned inward. At that moment she realized that she would be crippled for life. -
Hiroshima's Damage
At least 100,000 people had died, 69% of buildings destroyed, 6,000 damaged beyond repair, and only 5 modern buildings could be used again without major repair. Scientists swarmed in to investigat the amount of force that was exerted from the blast that would be able to move marble gravestones, knock over 22 railroad cars, and move concrete on bridges. They also discovered the amount of heat emittedby the bomb at the center had to have been more that 6,000 degrees celcius. -
Toshiko Sasaki's Fiance
Sometime during the month of August her fiance came to visit her and it was clear that he and his family had second thoughts about them getting married. He left her house in a hurry and stopped coming after that. He sent her letters apologizing and about his uncertainty and guilt. -
Toshiko Sasaki Baptized
Sometime during the month of September after befriending Father Kleinsorge and his ongoing convincing she decided that she was going to convert to Christianity and in September she was baptized by Father Cieslik because Father Kleinsorge was in a Tokyo hospital. -
The Orphanage
Sometime during the summer of 1947 while taking her younger and brother and sister whom she cared for to the beach she met a Korean Catholic who was watching over a group of Sunday-school children told her about an orphanage in Hiroshima called the Garden of Light. Miss Sasaki sent both the children to the orphange and she later got a job so she could be with them both. -
Hibakusha
The Japanese people not wanting to be called "survivors" which might offend the dead wanted to be called a more neutral name "hibakusha" which literally means "explosion-affected persons" -
Dr. Fujii Rebuilds His Clinic
Sometime in the year 1948 he rebuilds his clinic in Hiroshima on land that another clinic had been on but had been destroyed by the bomb. It was a modest wood building with 6 rooms for patients. His practiced was built to attract American people who he wanted to make friends with. He lived a very exclusive lifestyle with a dancefloor installed in his house, billards tables, and a darkroom for photography. He also had personal nurses who gave him massages and theraputic enjections. -
Toshiko Sasaki a Nun
Sometime during !954 Miss Sasaki visited Father Takakura and told him that she realised that she was never going to be married and she wanted to be a nun. He suggested that she join the French order of Auxiliatrices du Purgaroire (Helpers of Holy Souls). She found out after she joined that she was going to have to learn Latin and French. In 1957 she took a vows of pverty, chastity and obedience and became Sister Dominique Sasaki. -
World Conference
A World Conference against Atomic & Hydrogen Bombs was held and there was delegates from all over the world present. Japanese poltical parties decided to take action against the bombs. -
Father Kleinsorge Becomes Father Takakura
Sometime in approximately 1955 or 1956 Father Wilhelm Kliensorge applied and became a full Japanese Citizen and renamed himself Father Makoto Takakura -
Law Passed
A law was passed called the A-Nobl Victims Medical Care Law. The law was made so that people that were either in the city limits on the day of the bombing, those who had entered an area within 2 kilometers of the spot the bom hit in the first 14 days after, those who came into physical contact with a bomb victims either in first aid or disposing of bodies, and those who were unborn babies who's mother had been in any of the other catagories could recieve free medical care. -
Dr. Fujii's New House
After visting and staying in New York Dr. Fujii had an American style house built next to his other house which his wife didn't approve of. He had it finished a few days before New Years Eve so that some of his American guests could stay with him. On New Years Eve his son and another couple came over to celebrate before 11pm he went to sleep the next morning they went to check on him and found him unconscious in his room that smelt of gas from a broken gas heater.He after was in a coma. -
Dr. Sasaki's Wife Dies
Dr. Sasaki's wife dies sometime in the year 1972 of breast cancer. They had 4 children together 2 daughters and 2 sons. -
Dr. Fujii Dies
Dr. Fujii had being in a vegatative state for 11 years and had been cared for by his wife. Dr. Fujii's son who was a doctor came by with his son who was a premedical student to see his grandfather. Both his son and grandson checked his heartbeat and blood pressure and determined him to be in stable condition. The next morning Dr. Fujii's wife called her son and said that he looked funny when he arrived his father was dead. -
Father Takakura Dies
Father Takakura after a never ending cycle of being sick and finding no answers lapsed into a coma and took his last breath on November 18, 1977 with a doctor, a priest and Yoshiki-san his cook at his side. -
Sister Dominique Sasaki Honoured
Sister Sasaki was honoured at a dinner on her 25th anniversary of becoming a nun. It was one of the happiest moments of his life. -
Father Tanimoto Retires
Sometime during 1982 he retired from his pulpit. This is after he spoke 3 more times in the US in 1976, 1981 and 1982.
