ATOMIC BOMB MYSTERY
SHADOWS OF BLASTED OBJECTS
REPORTER’S OBSERVATIONS ■ ” IN HIROSHIMA
Shadows of objects which existed before the atomic bomb burst over the city are to be seen in Hiroshima. The report of the shadows, published in “News of the World” by Mr A. Noyes Thomas, a foreign correspondent, has been questioned as fantastic. “I have seen them myself,” is Mr Thomas’s simple answer.
“If you think about it carefully, the existence of the shadows is understandable in just the way that anything about the atomic bomb can be understandable to the ordinary person — : it is decidedly unearthly,” said Mr Thomas, who is visiting Christchurch, in an interview with “The Press” last evening.
While in Kure on a British warship, the headquarters for the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, Mr Thomas heard the men talking about the shadows. He went to the railway area and spent the whole day looking for the shadows, and questioning inhabitants, through an interpreter. “At certain places in Hiroshima, marks are on the ground which are shadows of things that existed at that particular spot at the moment of the atomic bomb explosion, but which no. longer exist. One is of a man leading’ a bullock and waggon; and it is so clear that the divided toe of the man’s footwear is seen on the road. I have seen that myseSlf. What is the cause? Nobody can agree. If it happened in one place, why did it not happen in all places? The only logical reason I have heard scientifically is that the object sheltered the ground from the direct blast of the more direct and powerful rays released by the bomb.” Brewery Left Standing Hiroshima was annihilated by the blast. It was gone, except, funnily enough, for a brewery which was now supplying beer in large quantities to the occupation forces, said Mr Thomas. No great heaps of rubble were to be seen. The city was completely flattened, except for the brewery, some factory- stacks, rising eerily from the remains, and two or three ' buildings which appeared sound from a distance, but which were charred and powdered.
’ The bomb dropped on Nagasaki had a different effect, he said. Nagasaki was in a valley which turned at a right angle. Apparently the bomb exploded over one end of the city and the rays—or “whatever they are”—did not get round the corner very effectively. It showed that one could be within a few hundred yards of an atomic bomb blast and still escape—if one was lucky. The reaction of the Japanese to the atomic bomb was difficult to assess, because the people in the bombed areas .were still completely “punchdrunk.” Survivors—men, women, and children—were going bald; and their teeth ./ere dropping out. A reporter for the Domei News Agency who had seen the bomb over Hiroshima had given up newspaper work and entered a monastery.
Already Devastated Japan was devastated before the atomic bombs were dropped, said Mr Thomas. From Tokyo down to the British occupation area, a vast industrial area was blown to pieces from the air.
“The Japanese are being very Obedient to their own Government, and keeping very -quiet,” he said. “The policy of their Government, in the view of most observers I met, is to keep as quiet as possible, in the hope that the occupation will fade out. They are still regimented by their own Government to. the extent that they obey implicitly anything from the Emperor; and anything from the Government comes, theoretically, from the Emperor.” An offer of £1 for every United Kingdom, Australian, or New Zealand soldier he saw fraternising with Japanese women was made to Mr Thomas by another observer. He did not collect one £1 note. “It is amazing; they have pride,” was his tribute to the conduct of the British troops. Conditions were chaotic at Kure when the mixed advance party arrived; but once the troops were in the area in considerable numbers, they settled down to the job. Surveying the Far Eastern scene, Mr Thomas said Hong Kong was the bright spot of the Far East, and even American firms were planning to move, iif large numbers, down the coast. Hong Kong had a stabilised currency ana the port had excellent facilities. *
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19460618.2.45
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24904, 18 June 1946, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
707ATOMIC BOMB MYSTERY Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24904, 18 June 1946, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
Ngā mihi
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.