A couple of weeks ago, Dave told me he was reading a book about significant events in history. One of the significant events was the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan. The date was August 6, 1945. It occurred to Dave that my birthday is August 6. I guess he had never made that connection before.
Interestingly, his question was, “how long did it take for you to hear about it?” I guess his perception was that in the “olden” days of 1945, most news traveled by pony express. (Actually, that’s not that far from the truth, but we did have something called a radio back then.) I couldn’t really answer Dave’s question with any certainty — I had just turned seven years old that day. I told him that I thought the news spread pretty quickly – not measured in days.
Of course, this got me to thinking and my extensive research mode kicked in.
President Truman issued a statement at 10:45 in the morning announcing that a single atomic bomb had been dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. That was sixteen hours after the device had been detonated.
So by todays standards, in sixteen hours, it’s already “old news.” But in 1945 that was pretty current. It’s worth noting that the announcement made no assessment of the damage the bomb may have caused. The War Department said it was unable to make an accurate report because an “impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke” masked the target area from reconnaissance planes.
So that’s a more complete answer to Dave’s question…. August 6 is significant in history not only because it’s my birthday, but it ushered in the “age of atomic energy” — which can be a tremendous force for the advancement of civilization — or for its destruction. Hopefully Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump know a little bit about history…..
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