ATOMIC BOMB HORROR

Evening Star, Issue 25569, 23 August 1945, Page 5

ATOMIC BOMB HORROR

280,000 Casualties from Two Attacks 60,000 Killed in Hiroshima (Kec: 11 a.m.) NEW YOEK, August 22. The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed or injured 280,000 people and rendered 200,000 homeless, according to Tokio radio. Many more,victims of the attack are dying daily from burns. Sixty thousand were killed at Hiroshima, where the bomb hit the central part of the city during working hours. n The number of the dead is mounting. Many who were burned cannot survive, because of the uncanny effects which the bomb produces on the human body. Even those slightly burned, who appear quite healthy at first, have weakened after . a few days for some unknown reason, and have frequently died. , The atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima affected an area of 30 kilometres in diameter, in which practically all the houses were either blown up, knocked down, or burned down; hence it is difficult to count all the bodies, many of which were buried under the collapsed buildings. The- sight of the wounded women and children defies description. A Japanese defence headquarters technician, Sutezo Torii, reporting on the Hiroshima bomb, said it is unlike an ordinary bomb. It apparently continues to build up increased pressure after the first impact. People who witnessed the monstrous spectacle said they saw ripples circulate from the explosion and a black shower, apparently some form of liquid, rained down from five to 10 minutes after ■ the explosion, staining clothes.

Neutrpri Rays Explain Mystery

(Rec. 1.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 22. The Japanese reported to have died mysteriously a few. days after the atomic blasts most likely suffered from the effects of the neutron stream of concentrated neutrons, says the Associated Press science editor.' Such rays have been produced in the University of California and applied to animals, which died in a few days hecause the rays destroyed a lot of the

white blood corpuscles. The neutron rays from the atomic bombs .used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were mostly in the air. It is also likely that the neutrons streaming from the bomb flash struck particles of the earth, causing them to emit their own streams of neutrons, these becoming temporarily injurious. The outstanding fact about all these ravs, however, is. the "ease with which 'air and earth disperse them to the point of harmlessness.