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Old March 22nd 04, 04:33 PM
Keith Willshaw
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"hiroshima facts" wrote in message
om...
"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message

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I dont think all the population of Tokyo were in the area
affected by its bombing either


Correct. Only about 1 million people.



Cite please, a million people were left homeless but the
main damage mechanism in Tokyo as at Dresden,
Hamburg and Hiroshima was the firestorm that
developed. There was no firestorm in the case
of Nagasaki.



but the target at Hiroshima was the military HQ and there
were at least 30,000 soldiers in the area.


43,000 Japanese soldiers (20,000 of which were killed by the bomb).

I never saw figures for injuries, but I imagine a lot of the rest had
some serious injuries.




Actually the arms plant was the target.


It was the target the pilot was aiming for because it was all he could
see. But the target he was supposed to be hitting at Nagasaki was the
Mitsubishi Shipyards.


Not according to the crew who dropped it

Quote
We started an approach [to Nagasaki]," Olivi said, "but Beahan couldn't see
the target area [in the city east of the harbor]. Van Pelt, the navigator,
was checking by radar to make sure we had the right city, and it looked like
we would be dropping the bomb automatically by radar. At the last few
seconds of the bomb run, Beahan yelled into his mike, 'I've got a hole! I
can see it! I can see the target!' Apparently, he had spotted an opening in
the clouds only 20 seconds before releasing the bomb."
In his debriefing later, Beahan told Tibbets, "I saw my aiming point; there
was no problem about it. I got the cross hairs on it; I'd killed my rate;
I'd killed my drift. The bomb had to go."

/Quote



In neither case were half the population killed as you asserted


Not half population of the cities. But half the population in the
areas affected by the bombs.


Incorrect, 67% of the buildings in Hiroshima were destroyed
or severely damaged. This means at least 2/3rds of the city
was affected by the bomb

In the case of Nagasaki 40% of the cities buildings were
either totally or partly destroyed.

source

The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by The Manhattan Engineer District, June 29, 1946

Keith