Surviving the atom bomb

EIGHTY years ago today, VJ Day brought about the end of World War Two. But that victory came at unimaginable human cost. At 8.15am on August 6, 1945, more than 70,000 people died instantly when an atom bomb - nicknamed Little Boy - was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Another 40,000 were killed on August 9 when a second bomb hit Nagasaki. In the months and years that followed, the death toll continued to rise as residents fell victim to injuries, radiation poisoning and cancer. Now MEG JORSH reveals what happened on those two terrible days, as told by the survivors...

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METHODIST reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto got up at 5am on August 6 in Hiroshima to help a friend move some furniture.

An air-raid siren went off briefly as they walked through the suburb of Koi, before an all-clear was sounded.

Then a “tremendous flash of light” cut across the sky. There was no sound - almost no one recalls the bomb making a noise.

At two miles from the centre of the explosion, both men had time to dive for cover.

The then-36-year-old threw himself between two rocks in a nearby garden, pressing his face against the stone. He felt a sudden pressure, then splinters started falling on him.

When he dared to raise his head, he saw the nearest house had collapsed.

A thick, ominous dust cloud then descended.

LIKE many students, 15-year-old Taeko Teramae had been drafted in to fill wartime labour shortages. She was working on the second floor of Hiroshima's telephone bureau when the bomb was dropped.