#Atomic bomb mushroom cloud free

Levy shot several images of the explosion at different stages, but the most powerful image captures the terrifying spectacle as the mushroom cloud climbed into the stratosphere, its billowing white top highlighted against the dark background. It still retained that shape when we last gazed at it from a distance of about 200 miles.’ Laurence continued: ‘As the first mushroom floated off into the blue, it changed its shape into a flower-like form, its giant petal curving downward, creamy white outside, rose-coloured inside. This pillar developed a mushroom-shaped head, ‘seething and boiling in a white fury of creamy foam’ until the head floated upwards to 60,000 feet and another mushroom cloud took its place. He described ‘a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth’ and then ‘a giant pillar of purple fire, 10,000-feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed’. William L Laurence also gave a vivid description of the explosion. It looked alive… we were all plenty scared.’ It was purple, red, white, all colours – something like boiling coffee. We saw this big plume climbing up, up into the sky. Then the flash came – sharp and brighter than double daylight itself inside our plane – and we ripped the goggles off again. Even though it was broad daylight, the flash could hurt your eyes. ‘We all grabbed our black welder goggles and slipped them on.

#Atomic bomb mushroom cloud free

In a 1945 interview with the Free Lance-Star newspaper, Levy recalled the moment it exploded. Shortly after 11am, the ‘Fat Man’ bomb was dropped over the city. When the plane flew over Kokura, the city was obscured by heavy cloud, so a decision was made to head for Nagasaki. This was the position from which Levy shot his photographs. ‘From that vantage point in space, 17,000 feet above the Pacific, one gets a view of hundreds of miles on all sides, horizontally and vertically,’ he wrote.

Image: The aftermath of the atomic explosion in Nagasaki, August 1945 © Underwood & Underwood/CorbisĪlso on board was William L Laurence, a science journalist on The New York Times, who later described being invited by Levy to take his front-row seat in the transparent nose of the ship. Among those on board The Great Artiste was 26-year-old Lieutenant Charles Levy, from Philadelphia, who was using a 5x4in camera to record the blast. The Bockscar was accompanied by two other B-29s (named The Great Artiste and Big Stink), which were to observe and record the mission. The plane was carrying a bomb nicknamed ‘Fat Man’, which contained 6.4kg of plutonium. Nagasaki, an important port in southern Japan, was its secondary target. Still there was no surrender, and on 9 August another B-29 aircraft, Bockscar, took off from Tinian with the city of Kokura as its main target.

In a statement several hours later, President Truman announced that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan and warned that if the Japanese did not surrender, ‘they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth’. The resulting blast and firestorm killed around 70,000 people and injured a similar number, while also destroying 69% of Hiroshima’s buildings. It was carrying a bomb – nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ – packed with 64kg of uranium, which exploded over the centre of the city. On 6 August, the B-29 Superfortress bomber, Enola Gay, took off from the airbase on Tinian, an island in the Pacific Ocean. The first city chosen for bombing was the industrial city of Hiroshima, which supplied armaments to the Japanese military and which was also the location of several military camps. Instead, the US and Britain agreed to the use of atomic weapons, which had been developed by the joint government-funded programme known as the Manhattan Project.

Plans had been made for an invasion of Japan, codenamed Operation Downfall, for October 1945, but official estimates indicated that the US military was likely to suffer heavy casualties in the process. It ended with a chilling warning: ‘The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.’ Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki did not accede to the call for surrender, although doubts subsequently arose as to whether his refusal to comment was misinterpreted as disdainfully ignoring the demand. On 26 July, the combined governments of the USA, Britain and China set down the terms of Japan’s unconditional surrender in the Potsdam Declaration. Image: The atomic bomb’s mushroom cloud soars above Nagasaki.