Hiroshima, Four Years After - A victim of the bombing is measured in a study of the effects of nuclear contamination

Hiroshima, Four Years After - A victim of the bombing is measured in a study of the effects of nuclear contamination

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Description
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 plane, the Enola Gay, dropped a uranium atomic bomb, code named "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. In minutes, half of the city vanished. According to U.S. estimates, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed or missing; 140,000 were injured; and many more were made homeless as a result of the bomb. In the blast, thousands died instantly. Nagasaki faced the same fate three days later.
Surveys disclosed that severe radiation injury occurred to all those exposed within a radius of one kilometer. Serious to moderate radiation injury occurred between one and two kilometers. Individuals within two to four kilometers suffered slight radiation effects. The scars on this boy's body could have been the result of flash burns during the heat waves or a residential fire caused by the blast. He is being measured as part of a continuous testing process in an attempt to understand the after-effects of radiation exposure. Mydans was the TIME-LIFE bureau chief in Tokyo at the time the picture was taken.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
photograph
Date made
1949
photographer
Mydans, Carl
place made
Japan: Hiroshima, Hiroshima
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 14 in x 11 in; 35.56 cm x 27.94 cm
ID Number
2005.0228.129
accession number
2005.0228
catalog number
2005.0228.129
See more items in
Work and Industry: Photographic History
Photography
Carl Mydans
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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