On July 16, 1945 at 05:29:45 ‘The Gadget’ was detonated in New Mexico with a power equivalent of 19,000 tonnes of TNT. It was the crowning achievement of the Manhattan Project, it was the world’s first atomic bomb. For many in the area the sun rose twice that day, and a blind girl saw the flash from 120km.

I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. - J. Robert Oppenheimer, ‘Father of the Bomb’.

Less than a month later, sixty years ago today, ‘Little Boy’ was targeted on the Aioi bridge, Hiroshima. Smaller in yield than The Gadget (13 kilotons), 70,000 people were killed instantly when the bomb exploded at an altitude of 550m. An estimated 130,000 more have died since as a result of the fallout.

My God, what have we done? - Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay.

It is a strange thing to say, but I think this was a good thing. Not only did it cut several years (and countless casualties) from the war, but it demonstrated the terrible power of even a small device. By the mid 50’s Russia was in possession of bombs with a yield of 50 million tons of TNT. Without Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the potential power of those weapons would not have been truly known, and chances of their use would have been far greater. Maybe mankind owes its continued survival those that died in Japan.

It should be noted that in 1954, the NSC considered a preemptive strike against the USSR, feeling then could still win. Fortunately, the rise in arms of both major factions, meant that the nuclear war would result in all sides losing.

The only winning move is not to play - Joshua.

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