VICTIMS DYING DAILY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23287, 24 August 1945, Page 5

VICTIMS DYING DAILY

Uncanny Effects Of Atomic Bomb (7.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 22. 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 daily from burns. Some 60.000 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 frequently died. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima affected an area of 30 kilometres in diameter, in which practically all houses were either blown up, knocked down or burned down, hence it fs difficult to count all the bodies, many of which were buried under the collapsed buildings. The sight of wounded women and children defies description. A Japanese defence headquarters technician, Sutezo Torii, reporting on the Hiroshima bomb, said it was 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 from some form of liquid, rained down five to 10 minutes after the explosion, staining clothes. The Japanese reported to have died mysteriously a tew days after the itlomic hliu.l.s most likely siilTered from the effects ol neutron steam, says the science editor ol tin* Associated Press. Such rays have been produced in the University ol California and applied to animals, which died in a few days because the rays destroyed a lot of white blood corpuscles. Neutron rays from the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were mostly in the air. It is also likely that neutrons streamin.- from the bomb Hash struck particles ol earth, causing them to emit their own streams of neutrons and hceoine temporarily injurious. 'Che oiilslamliiii’, tael about all these rays, however, Is the case with which the air ami earth disperse them to the pond <>t harmlessness.