HIROSHIMA FORLORN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 237, 5 September 1945, Page 5

HIROSHIMA FORLORN

DEVASTATION OF CITY. CONTRAST TO BERLIN". CN.Z. Press Association. —Copyright.) (12.10 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 4. . For its size, no city in the world is so completely wiped out as Hiroshima, says an Associated Press correspondent who has just visited the first atomic bomb target. Less than a dozen buildings stand forlornly in the midst of the ruin of what was once supposed to be Japan's most modern city.

By contrast, Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin seem untouched. Block after block in Hiroshima contains only a thin covering of rusting tin, a few stones, some broken bricks, and twisted frames. The only air-raid shelter to escape the- bombing was the army headquarters, under 18ft of earth and concrete. . A Japanese reporter wlio visited Hiroshima shortly after the bombing said "The people of Hiroshima hate you and think you are the most fiendish and most cruel people on earth." The Japanese said no attempt would be made to rebuild the city and the entire area would be uvacuated until scientists declared it safe. DELAYED EFFECTS. "Secondary radiation" turned a green hill behind Hiroshima brown several days after the atomic bomb attack, according to Japanese newspapermen. Green ricefiekis five miles away were also completely browned. Many wounded victims taken to hospital became insane. Physicians said they could find no remedy for the bomb's effects. Persons 10 miles away were paralysed in the spine by the bomb. - • Residents of Hiroshima calmly stood and watched the atomic bomb, suspended from two parachutes, slowly fall. It exploded at 1000 feet. An official source at Yokohama said the bombing of Hiroshima wiped out the headquarters of the Japanese Second Army and killed some Generals. An official count of the casualties a fortnight after the bombing showed 33,000 dead, 30,000 missing, 13,950 seriously wounded and 43,500 wounded but not seriously. By September 1, the death toll had reached 53,000 because many originally listed as slightly injured died from no apparent cause.

Two American scientists, Drs H. Winne and G. Sints, said the most probable peacetime application of atomic energy will be in the form of heat. However, this was not likely in the near future. Both men, who participated in the atomic bomb development, consider technically possible the use of nuclear energy as a 'source of power, but they believe it is too early to predict whether this is economically practical.