Hiroshima World's Most Wrecked City

Northern Advocate, 5 September 1945, Page 5

Hiroshima World's Most Wrecked City

(11 a.m.) NEW YORK,'Sept, 4. Fcr its size no city in.the world is so completely wiped out as Hiroshima, says an Associated Fress correspondent, who has just visited the first atomic tomb target. Less than a dozen buildings stand, forlornly in the midst of the ruin of what was once supposefi 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 and some broken bricks and twisted frames. The only air-raid shelter to escape the bombing avas army headquarters under 18 feet of earth and concrete. A Japanese reporter who visited Hiroshima shortly after the bombing said: “The people of Hiroshima hate you and think you are the most fiendish, most cruel people on earth.” The Japanese said no attempt would be made to rebuild the city and the entire area would be evacuated until scientists declared it safe. GREEN HILLS TURN BROWN “Second Radiation” turned green hills behind Hiroshima brown several days after the atomic bomb attack, according to Japanese newspapermen. Green ricefields five miles distant were also completely browned. Many wounded victims sent to hospital became insane. Physicians said they could find no remedy for the bomb’s effects. Persons ten miles away were paralysed in the spine. Residents at Hiroshima calmly stood and watched the atomic bomb, anchored by two parachutes, slowly fall. It exploded at 1000 feet.