Little Boy and Fat Man

Sixty two years ago on this day, the United States has dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It is amazing what kind of atrocities we (the people, en masse) are capable of committing with greater good in mind. When it comes to causing destruction with the logic "end would justify the means", there is no difference between a suicide bomber in Iraq and the President of a country causing a "rain of ruin". The result is the same - destruction.

Little Boy was the codename of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945 by the 12-man crew of the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb ever used as a weapon and was dropped three days before the "Fat Man" bomb was used against Nagasaki.

The weapon was developed during the Manhattan Project during World War II. It derived its explosive power from the nuclear fissioning of enriched uranium. The Hiroshima bombing was the second man-made nuclear explosion in history (the first was the "Trinity" test), and it was the first uranium-based detonation ever. Approximately 600 milligrams of mass were converted into energy. It exploded with a destructive power equivalent to between 13 and 16 kilotons of TNT (estimates vary) and killed approximately 140,000 people including associated effects.

It is fascinating how small things that we hardly notice alter our fates dramatically (reminds me of Five people You Meet in Heaven). The primary target for Fat Man was Kokura. But cloudy skies (pilots couldn't see the target) coupled with low fuel (due to equipment failure) in Bockscar prevented pilots from bombing Kokura. So, if not for clouds in Kokura, thousands in Nagasaki would have been alive now (of course, thousands in Kokura would have been toasted).