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Earlier tonight, people streamed to the Kotobuki Theatre to see one of the season’s hit movies, Four Weddings. 6 hours, 26 minutesĭespite the blackout, Hiroshima is still relatively comfortable in this fifth year of the war.
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The lives of thousands of now-sleeping people depends on what the weather will be like tomorrow morning. But nobody yet knows on which of the three cities the bomb will drop. All three aircraft disappear to the north, for the start of their 1,500-mile flight to Japan. A minute later, two other B-29s follow, one packed with cameras, the other with observers. Just before it runs into the sea, Tibbets hauls the wheels off the ground. As he opens the throttles, Tibbets notices his hands are sweating. If Enola Gay also crashes, it could set off a nuclear accident, wiping out the entire island. In the past 24 hours, four B-29s carrying conventional bombs have crashed on take-off. With its big bomb, Enola Gay is dangerously overloaded. It is also the name of his mother, immortalised in ways neither of them could possibly imagine. Beneath him is the name of his plane, Enola Gay. The B-29 dazzles under floodlights like some Hollywood premiere. By tomorrow the news will be splashed across the world. 6 hours, 49 minutesīefore departure, the air crews are subjected to a battery of photographers. To the president, the one solution to the even greater carnage of an invasion of the Japanese home islands is now hanging inside a B-29 bomb bay on the other side of the world. At least 12,000 Americans and 107,000 Japanese soldiers were killed. Still fresh is the memory of Okinawa, the island south of Japan, captured in June after three months of brutal fighting. Estimates of casualties vary, but one thing is certain: the Japanese will fight to the bitter end. The first, Operation Olympic, is scheduled for 1 November the second for March 1946. Just a few weeks previously, his joint chiefs of staff had presented their timetable for the projected invasion of Japan. His decision to use the bomb is not made without misgivings, but President Truman sees no real alternative. Yesterday, he received word that the atomic mission was set to depart at 02:45 Tinian time. Meanwhile, 9,000 miles away, on board the USS Augusta in the mid-Atlantic, US President Truman emerges from Sunday service.