HIROSHIMA August 6, 1945
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September 25, 2021HIROSHIMA August 6, 1945
On Monday, August 6, 1945 at 8:15 A.M., the plane, ENOLA GAY, dropped its atomic bomb, called “LITTLE BOY”, over HIROSHIMA, JAPAN.
There was a blinding flash, creating a giant fireball, which vaporized almost everything and everyone within a radius of about a mile of the point of impact.
It is estimated that up to 80,000 people were directly killed by the blast, and many, many more by the end of the year. Two-thirds of the buildings in the city were completely destroyed.
Eight blocks from ground zero was the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. A community of 8 Jesuit priests lived in the rectory beside the Church. All the priests escaped almost completely unharmed from the effects of the blast. The rectory remained standing, while the buildings all around, as far as the eye could see, were flattened.
The priests were tested by about 200 experts to see if the they suffered any ill-effects from radiation damage or the bomb. All were perfectly healthy.
How did this happen that they were not affected?
One of the priests gave the answer,
“We lived and prayed the Rosary every day in that house.”
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, the Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption.
A view of Hiroshima after the bombing. National Archives photo
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/atomic-bomb-hiroshima
