ATOMIC BOMB TERROR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 226, 23 August 1945, Page 5

ATOMIC BOMB TERROR

QUEER DELAYED EFFECTS.

NAGASAKI DEVASTATION. (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Rec. 11 a.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 22. The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed or injured 280,000 people and rendered 200,000 homeless, according to the Tokio radio Many more victims of the attacks are dying every day from burns. Sixty thousand were killed in Hiroshima, where the bomb hit the central part of the city during working hours. The number of 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 appeared quite healthy at first, but weakened after a few days for some unknown reason and died.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima affected an area JO kilometres in diameter in which practically all the houses were blown up, knocked down or burned down. Hence it is difficult to count all liie bodies, many of which are buried under the collapsed buildings. The sight of wounded women and children defies description.

A Japanese Defence Headquarters technician, reporting on the Hiroshima bomb, said : “Unlike the ordinary bomb it apparently continues to build up increased pressure after the first impact. People who witnessed the monstrous spectacle said they sa\v ripples circulate from the explosion. A black shower, apparently some form of liquid, rained dov’n for five to 10 minutes after the explosion, staining clothes.”

The newspaper Mai Nichi featured on the front page three pictures of the atomic bomb destruction at Nagasaki. One showed the centre of the oncethriving city converted into vast devastation with nothing except rubble as far as the eye could see. Another photograph show'ed a scene ten miles away from the centre of the attack where farmhouses were either crushed down or roofs were rent asunder. A photographer said that Nagasaki was now a dead city.