The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum (Nagasaki Genbaku Shiryōkan) is in the
city of Nagasaki, Japan. The museum is a remembrance to the atomic bombing of
Nagasaki by the United States of America 9 August 1945 at 11:02:35 am.
The Nagasaki museum was completed in April 1996, replacing the deteriorating
International Culture Hall. The museum covers the history of the event as a
story, focusing on the attack and the history leading up to it. It also covers
the history of nuclear weapons development. The museum displays photographs,
relics, and documents related to the bombing.
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Origami cranes.
Japanese children all over the country create these little cranes in
memory of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako and the cranes became a symbol for world
peace in Japan after her death in 1955.
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9 August 1945 at 11:02:35 am.
The museum is a remembrance to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the
United States of America 9 August 1945 at 11:02:35 am.
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At 11:02 A.M. local time on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb, nicknamed
Fat Man as its code name by Robert Serber in the United States (after
Sydney Greenstreet's character in The Maltese Falcon) was dropped on
Nagasaki, forever changing the city's landscape.
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A clock which stopped at 11:02, the precise time the bomb hit the
city, is on display to demonstrate how so many people were killed in
an instant.
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Break in the clouds over Nagasaki.
At 11:01 Japanese Time, a last-minute break in the clouds over Nagasaki
allowed Bockscar's bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan, to visually sight
the target as ordered. The Fat Man weapon, containing a core of about 5
kg (11 lb) of plutonium, was dropped over the city's industrial valley.
It exploded 47 seconds later at 11:02 Japanese Time at 503 ± 10 m (1,650
± 33 ft), above a tennis court, halfway between the Mitsubishi Steel and
Arms Works in the south and the Nagasaki Arsenal in the north.
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Replica of a sidewall of the Urakami Cathedral.
The hypocenter of the explosion was the Urakami district, which was a
traditionally rustic and isolated suburb. However, the population soared
after the 1920s when the district was chosen as the site for munitions
factories. An industrial zone was quickly created. Additionally, the
Urakami district was home to the Nagasaki Medical College.
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When the bomb was dropped at 11:02 A.M. on August 9, 1945, the 20
neighborhoods within a one-kilometer radius of the hypocenter were
completely destroyed by the heat flash and blast winds generated by
the explosion.
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Nagasaki geography.
Although an important industrial city, Nagasaki had been spared from
firebombing because its geography made it difficult to locate at night
with AN/APQ-13 radar.
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Fat Man.
Two types of bombs were developed, both named by Robert Serber.
Little Boy was a gun-type fission weapon that used uranium-235, a
rare isotope of uranium separated at the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak
Ridge, Tennessee. The other, known as a Fat Man device, was a
more powerful and efficient, but more complicated, implosion-type
nuclear weapon that used plutonium created in nuclear reactors at
Hanford, Washington.
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The Fat Man weapon, containing a core of about 5 kg (11 lb) of
plutonium, was dropped over the city's industrial valley.
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It exploded 47 seconds later at 11:02 Japanese Time at 503 ± 10 m
(1,650 ± 33 ft), above a tennis court, halfway between the Mitsubishi
Steel and Arms Works in the south and the Nagasaki Arsenal in the
north.
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This was nearly 3 km (1.9 mi) northwest of the planned hypocenter; the
blast was confined to the Urakami Valley and a major portion of the
city was protected by the intervening hills.
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Modern nuclear weapons.
After viewing the city scene, museum visitors are invited to think about
issues related to war and nuclear non-proliferation. This section of the
museum contains the political sections entitled "The Road to the Atomic
Bombing" and "The War between China and Japan and the Pacific War". It
is there that the experience of militarism in Japan and the demands of
war are juxtaposed with arguments for the end of nuclear weapons.
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Visitors are presented with facts on modern nuclear weapons alongside
facts related to victims of the atomic bombing.
- It is a call for peace and an end of the nuclear age.
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See also
Source
Location
