At 8:12 AM on August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber called the 'Enola Gay' piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb codenamed 'Little Boy' over the city of Hiroshima, Japan and made a sharp high speed banking turn away from the city. The bomb detonated 1900 feet (545 meters) over the city at 8:15 AM local time killing 140,000 people instantly or died later due to the radiation sickness. Three days later a second bomb codenamed 'Fat Man' was dropped over the city of Nagasaki killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered August 15, ending World War II.
Ever since then, Japan has commemorated the atomic bombings in a ceremony at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. For the first time ever a current UN secretary general and a US ambassador to Japan attended the event which occurred yesterday our time.
Along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Ambassador to Japan John Roos was there to as the State Department noted in a statement 'to express regret for all of the victims of World War II.'Roos' attendance was mildly controversial in some US circles who assert the atomic bombings paradoxically saved lives on both sides because the scheduled November 1945 invasion of Japan never happened.
The US has never formally apologized for it, but at the same time it points out Japan jumped off the Pacific War as they call it with a surprise December 7, 1941 air attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
On this anniversary, let's hope and pray it's the last time nuclear weapons are used in any conflict and that progress is made to eliminate them from the planet.
