The Effects of the Atomic Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Report of the British Mission to Japan
London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1946. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. The format is approximately 6 inches by 9.75 inches. vi, 21, [3] pages, plus covers. Illustrations (unpaginated--12 pages, two images per page). Tabular data. Diagram. Cover is worn and soiled, with some damp staining at page bottoms and the back. In the course of the war the Ministry of Home Security had evolved a scientific method for the measurement of the effect of air attack in the various forms and the Home Office regarded it as desirable to invite the United States Authorities to agree that a British team of experts trained in that method should co-operate with the United States Strategic Bombing Survey to conduct an investigation into the effects of the bombing of the two Japanese cities. The United States authorities provided every possible facility for the investigation, and the detailed arrangements were made by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. In addition to factual examinations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States Authorities placed at the disposal of the British experts the records and observations which their more prolonged and detailed study had produced. In particular the part of this report which deals with the effects of atomic bombs on the human structure is based on material supplied by the Medical Section of the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb. This report by the British experts is now published in this country simultaneously with the publication in America of the corresponding report of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. His Majesty's Government considers that a full understanding of the consequences of the new form of attack may assist the United Nations Organisation in its task of securing the control of atomic energy for the common good and in abolishing the use of weapons of mass destruction. From the Introduction: 1. On August 6th, 1945, shortly after 8 a.m., an American Super-Fortress flying at 30,000 feet dropped a single atomic bomb over the Japanese mercantile city of Hiroshima. The bomb exploded over the city centre. Three days later, on August 9th, just after 11 a.m., a Super-Fortress flying at the same height, which had found its primary target cloud-obscured, dropped a second atomic bomb over the industrial city of Nagasaki. This bomb exploded over the city's factory area. In Hiroshima more than four square miles of city were destroyed and 80,000 people were killed. In the smaller city of Nagasaki about one and a half square miles were destroyed and nearly 40,000 people were killed. The causes of destruction and of death differed in many points from those which had acted in the conventional raids of the past. It was clear that bombing had changed its character and its scale beyond recognition. 2. The British Mission which spent the month of November, 1945, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been concerned in the past with the appreciation of air raid damage in Great Britain, and subsequently on the Continent of Europe. While some of its members had for other reasons made a wartime study of Japanese conditions, it was not as a whole expert in Japanese affairs. Nor was it instructed to obtain a detailed picture of those effects of the bomb which were peculiar to Japan. The report which follows tells what was seen and what could be learnt three months after the bombing in Hiroshima and in Nagasaki. But its intention is, as it was the object of the Mission, to point to general conclusions on the effects to be expected from similar atomic bombs, should they fall outside Japan, and in particular in Great Britain. The reader should picture the destruction here set down as it would strike a city which he knows well, in its people, its houses, its public buildings, its factories and its public services. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Radiation Effects, Bomb Damage, Blast Effects, Heat Effects, Flashburn, Radio-Active Effects, Casualties, Public Services
[Book #85740]
Price: $125.00