SURPRISE!
THIS IS TOKYO, NOT HIROSHIMA
… AND THIS IS A PICTURE OF THE CITY OF SHIZUOKA, NOT HIROSHIMA
THIS IS HIROSHIMA
"Ok, so these pictures are of different cities in Japan which were bombed conventionally and horrifyingly totally flattened, and they look
every bit as bad as the famous photos of Hiroshima following a nuclear detonation - so what?"
These awful flat landscape seen in these pictures reveal a very great deal. The pictures are very similar indeed, are they not? It is hard to tell which city has been nuked and which city has been firebombed.
They reveal …..that the "total destruction" seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the result of a firestorm (or other similarly massive fire) subsequent to the detonations, and NOT the result of the atomic blastwave directly.
They reveal …..that the "total destruction" seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the result of a firestorm (or other similarly massive fire) subsequent to the detonations, and NOT the result of the atomic blastwave directly.
FIREBOMBING JAPAN WITH THE B-29 SUPERFORTRESS
If photos on the ground were available of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 5 minutes after the nuclear detonations, they would look very different - they would show heaps and mounds of broken wood, tiles, and other combustible materials, where there used to be homes. They would also show half-collapsed wooden houses, roofs torn off, undamaged houses, broken telegraph poles, vehicles turned on their sides, injured people, etc. But instead, the photographs available to us were taken in the days and weeks after the events, and they just show desolate flattened wasteland - because all the buildings and debris were burnt up over the first 6 hours after detonation.
OK , so the overwhelming level of destruction seen in the Hiroshima photo above is due to the ensuing fires, not directly to the atomic explosion itself. SO WHAT?!
Modern western city centres are not constructed of wood, bamboo cane and paper screens. They are constructed of reinforced concrete, brick and plaster. No firestorm can occur in this environment. This has very significant implications for survivability. Study the picture of Hiroshima again. You will notice the various concrete structures have survived, whilst the surrounding wooden buildings have gone. Many Japanese people in those concrete buildings survived the atomic attack. There was even one Japanese man who was in a different solid concrete building (not shown) situated very close indeed to ground zero, who astonishingly survived. Japanese people situated close-in and inside wooden buildings or who were close-in and exposed out in the open, generally died. Think about a modern city - where are most of the people to be found? Inside concrete buildings! Many of these buildings will not collapse when a nuclear detonation occurs (only those in the immediate vicinity of the detonation will be completely demolished).
But every city is completely different!
Yes, some present day cities are built with wood - such as Delhi (India), Bourges, Berne and a number of other medieval European city centres. These cities would presumably have firestorms (or other similarly massive fires) if nuked. But these are exceptions to the rule - the overwhelming majority of modern city centres are built with modern materials which are NOT capable of creating firestorm conditions.
Nuclear warheads are more powerful these days. The yields in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were just a fraction of modern nuclear warheads.
But people do not realize that megaton warheads, once common in the sixties, have since been replaced by warheads in the kiloton range. Only China persists in their deployment of huge city-busting warheads. Will terrorists use a huge megaton bomb or a much smaller nuke? My guess is the latter. Will the modern target of nuclear warfare be a small city like Hiroshima in 1945, or a vast capital city of huge importance? Again, …most probably the latter. This all has major consequences for survivability. This means that after a large modern city has been nuked, a VERY SIGNIFICANT percentage of the population will be alive. No doubt there will be many, many casualties with serious but potentially survivable injuries. This is why it is so crucial to make civil defense preparations. Failure to do so will predictably double, or treble, the final body count.
FACT SUMMARY:
- Modern city center buildings are constructed of stone, reinforced concrete or brick. Reinforced concrete in particular is very highly resistant to blast damage.
- Modern city centers will not support a firestorm because a) more buildings will survive the blast wave intact and b) the materials of collapsed modern buildings are not capable of supporting a firestorm.
- Following a nuclear attack there will predictably be vast numbers of casualties, many of whom can be saved - if appropriate preparations are made.