About 10,000 missing people were never found, 37,000 were injured and an untold number later developed disease from exposure to the deadly radiation.īut Nelson had no regrets and made no apologies for his role in dropping one of the two bombs that ended the war and which, military experts said, saved the lives of millions of Americans and Japanese who would have died in an Allied invasion. The bomb from the Enola Gay destroyed about five square miles of Hiroshima and instantly killed about 68,000 people. Tibbets Jr., took off from the small Pacific island of Tinian at 2:45 a.m.Īt 8:15 a.m., in clear skies high above Hiroshima, the Enola Gay’s bombardier released “Little Boy”: a 9,700-pound uranium bomb that had the destructive force of 20,000 pounds of TNT. The Enola Gay, the propeller-driven four-engine bomber named after the mother of its pilot, Col. 6, 1945, helped bring an early end to the war with Japan but ushered in a new, far more horrific type of warfare.
The bomb had the destructive force of 20,000 tons of TNT.Īt 20, Nelson was the youngest of the 12 men aboard the Enola Gay, whose historic mission on Aug. Hiroshima bomb - The obituary of Richard Nelson, radio operator aboard the Enola Gay, in the California section Thursday incorrectly said the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had the destructive force of 20,000 pounds of TNT.
Los Angeles Times Friday FebruHome Edition Main News Part A National Desk 10 inches 365 words Type of Material: Correction