50 test a-bombs dropped

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Peter H
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50 test a-bombs dropped

#1

Post by Peter H » 12 Jan 2011, 10:44

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 93/1/.html
US ran tests before WWII bombings: researchers
By Michiyo Ishida | Posted: 29 December 2010 1349 hrs

OSAKA: Atomic bombs played a key role in ending the World War II but they also left two Japanese cities -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- in ruin.

It's been recently unveiled that the Americans had conducted tests prior to the attacks.

On Aug 6, 1945, a uranium type bomb destroyed the city of Hiroshima and killed 140,000 people.

Three days later, a plutonium type called "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, taking the lives of 74,000

What came to light decades later was that the US had conducted tests prior to the actual bombings.

A group of civil researchers discovered at the National Diet Library in 1991, documents which stipulated the US dropped 50 test a-bombs throughout Japan.

Later, a Kansai University professor confirmed one of them was dropped in Tanabe in Osaka. And the bomb used was exactly like the one dropped in Nagasaki, except it was a conventional bomb.

Test a-bomb witness Kyoko Uda claims to have seen the bomb being dropped on the morning of July 26, 1945.

"Our neighbours, with the air raid siren going off, started to come out. I came out with my mother. Then I heard someone saying, it's only one aircraft, so it should be okay," she said.

"But then... I saw a 10 centimetre light falling. Then everyone said, it's dropped a bomb. My mother pushed me down."

Ms Uda was five years old at the time.

She recalls part of her home being reduced to rubble.

She and other local residents thought it was a one-ton bomb that the American had dropped.

But when they found out it was in fact a five-ton bomb, they decided to take action.

Tanabe Test Nuclear Bomb Memorial Committee head Naoki Yoshimura said: "The tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is related to us.

"So we thought we should (let) the people in this area should know. That's why we decided to act and promote it".

Ms Uda's school, which stands in tact today, was wrecked from the bombing.

Casualties were limited to seven while 73 were injured and 1,645 people lost their homes.

Today, there're hardly any signs of the bombing left, except a temple.

"There's some distance to the site of the blast. But due to the explosion, it's slanted. And if you go inside the main temple, you'd find the floors slightly warped," Mr Yoshimura said.

A monument has been erected in March 2001 in the temple, just across from the centre of the blast, in the hope of promoting a world without war.

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phylo_roadking
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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#2

Post by phylo_roadking » 12 Jan 2011, 12:42

These were the so-called PUMPKINS, Fat Man-shaped and sized conventional ordnance dropped by the 509th when replicating the mission profile in training for the eventual live dropping of the Atomic Bombs, they were also dropped on a number of japanese-held island targets.

As well as these, the 509th dropped four complete Fat Man casings before August 9th, and at least five assembled but empty Little Boy casings. The live Hiroshima Bomb was casing L-11 selected from the total number sent; the first empty Little Boy casing dropped, on the 23rd of July, was L-1.
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Carl Schwamberger
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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#3

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 12 Jan 2011, 15:17

* wrote:....What came to light decades later was that the US had conducted tests prior to the actual bombings.

A group of civil researchers discovered at the National Diet Library in 1991, documents which stipulated the US dropped 50 test a-bombs throughout Japan.
......
Another 'discovery' of something that was long in the history books. I remember remarks from radio interviews with Tibbets & others back in the 1970s about the practice drops. Its not even clear from the artical posted the Japanese researcher was unaware of this, but the journalist who wrote the artical seems to be ignorant of it.

HFK
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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#4

Post by HFK » 21 Jan 2011, 10:54

Carl, pray tell, what is an artical ? Harry

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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#5

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 22 Jan 2011, 04:15

A misspelling

Edward L. Hsiao
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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#6

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 25 Jun 2019, 10:55

This is all new to me!

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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#7

Post by OpanaPointer » 25 Jun 2019, 13:49

The "Test A-bombs" were probably the "pumpkins" (orange conventional bombs used to test the timing of the drop, etc.) We did not have 50 extra atomic bombs. If we had dropped 50 more atomic bombs someone would have noticed at the time.
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Re: 50 test a-bombs dropped

#8

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 01 Apr 2020, 17:48

'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' by Rhodes is a useful, detailed, and easy to read primer on the US atomic bomb, from a review of atomic physics to 1939, European developments 1939-1945, all the way to Soviet spys & post war politics surrounding the US nuclear power programs. Recommend reading it for a grounding in the basics.

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