Effects of the Atom Bomb.
before (top) and after (bottom)
The bomb was a devastation to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the bomb struck the buildings were gone, only few structures stood, and even they were crumbling. The people that survived didn't know what happened. They were hot, devastated and above all else: thirsty. The population in Hiroshima was over 350,000 people. But after the bomb exploded only 280,000 people remained, and another 70,000 died in less than 5 years due to radiation sickness. One survivor told people "The appearance of people was . . . well, they all had skin blackened by burns. . . . They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldn't tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back. . . . They held their arms bent [forward] like this . . . and their skin - not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too - hung down. . . . If there had been only one or two such people . . . perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. . . . Many of them died along the road - I can still picture them in my mind -- like walking ghosts." Then the black rain began to fall onto Hiroshima. The people thirsting reluctantly drank the inky downpour. Unknowingly they drank radioactive chemicals too. The rain was black for the radioactive dust and debris rose into the air condensed and came back down as a black chalky, inky rain. The day after the bomb went off soldiers marched in to bring out survivors. The people begged for water but the soldiers gave none for they had been told that if hey gave them any water they're limbs would fall off killing them in a more gruesome way then they would if they didn't give them water. A citizen far enough away to feel the shock wave of the bomb but not get hurt noticed a creature hobbling towards him. The man first thought it was a man but it was wearing black robes, but it was summer so it should be wearing white. The 'creature' fell and died. The soldiers back in Hiroshima marched back with the survivors. But when they got there 2/3 of the survivors were quarantined for they're skin was falling off in bloody sheets. Plus whenever the nurses and doctors would prick them with a needle the bleeding would never stop however the pressure. Even Now 60+ years later, the survivors still remember the catastrophic events that happened in the morning of August 6th, 1945.
"I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb... It is an awful responsibility which has come to us... We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes." —President Harry S Truman, August 9, 1945