Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Lesser-known facts about the 1945 catastrophe

In 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, and Nagasaki was bombed three days later, on August 9. 

The atomic bombings were widely discussed with the recent release of a Hollywood biopic "Oppenheimer", which revolves around the creation of the atomic bomb and the creator Robert Oppenheimer. The film hasn't been released in Japan yet, whihc shows that the wounds in Japan are slow to heal even after 78 years. 

The bombs wiped out around 90 per cent of the cities and killed around 129,000 and 226,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. The toll included those who died as a result of radiation exposure. Japan surrendered a few days after the second attack, thereby ending World War II. 

Here are some of the lesser-known facts about the 1945 catastrophe: 

Yes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the only cities in Japan that were picked. The United States authorities selected Kokura, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Niigata and Kyoto.  

There is an interesting story associated with it as it is said that Kyoto was removed from the list because US Secretary of War Henry Stimson was fond of the ancient Japanese capital. It is also mentioned in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" in which the official said that he spent his honeymoon there decades earlier and his wife was apparently fond of the city. Then, Nagasaki took its place instead. 

The first two atomic bomb designs were named by Physicist Robert Serber. The names were on the basis of their shapes: Thin Man and Fat Man. 

The "Thin Man" was a long and thin device, its name was taken from the Dashiell Hammett detective novel and series of movies about The Thin Man. 

On the other hand, the "Fat Man" was round and fat so it was named after Kasper Gutman, who was a rotund character in Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, played by Sydney Greenstreet in the 1941 film version. 

Others working on a project reportedly named "Little Boy" based on the design. Some reports claim that Little Boy was derived from the epithet that Humphrey Bogart's character, Spade, uses for another character called Wilmer. But it has been denied too. 

People believe that the nuclear bombings on the cities, of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were the most destructive. But it was not the most destructive... Operation Meetinghouse, whihc was the US firebombing of Tokyo on March 9 in 1945 is said to be the deadliest bombing raid in history. 

Estimates suggest that the attack caused by incendiary bombs killed at least 80,000 people, and likely more than 100,000, in a single night. Reports mentioned that some one million people were left homeless. The precise death toll is unknown. 

The American pilots dropped pamphlets before dropping the atomic bombs on both cities.

The US dropped those pamphlets as a warning, they contained messages like "EVACUATE YOUR CITIES" and "ATTENTION JAPANESE PEOPLE". 

The shadows of people and objects were permanently etched into the ground after the bomb blast in Hiroshima because it was so intense. These are known as "Hiroshima shadows". These shadows still haunt the world. 

Some reports have mentioned that the oleander is the official flower of the city of Hiroshima because it was the first plant to blossom again after the blast. 

The flame has burned continuously since it was lit on August 1, 1964. It symbolises the anti-nuclear resolve to burn the flame "until the day when all such weapons shall have disappeared from the Earth."