Yoshiko Niiyama entered Hiroshima two days after the atomic bombing, witnessing devastation, smoke, and countless bodies. She and her sister searched for their father, who worked near the hypocentre. The atomic bomb, Little Boy, was dropped on August 6, 1945, killing between 60,000 and 80,000 instantly, with total deaths rising to 140,000 by year-end. Niiyama lost her father in the bombing, with hope of finding him fading as she came to terms with the catastrophic loss and destruction around her.
I remember that the air was filled with smoke and there were bodies everywhere and it was so hot, Niiyama says in an interview at her home in the Hiroshima suburbs.
At 8:15am on 6 August, the Enola Gay, a US B-29 bomber, dropped a nuclear bomb on the city. Little Boy detonated about 600 metres from the ground, with a force equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT.
Between 60,000 and 80,000 people were killed instantly, with the death toll rising to 140,000 by the end of the year as victims succumbed to burns and illnesses caused by acute exposure to radiation.
My father was tall, so for a long time whenever I would hear someone shout his name, I would turn around, thinking it was him.
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