Witnesses recount Hiroshima horror
A day before the United States dropped the world's first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima, Akie Yoshikawa remembered the sky was full of American B-29 bombers and they were flying like "swallows." But she was not particularly concerned. There was a war going on and she was more concerned that her brother-in-law was about to go on a suicidal kamikaze mission.
On the fateful morning of August 6, 1945, Yoshikawa, then 21, was walking along with her mother just four km from the centre of the blast.
"It was a very hot day. Just when I was about to open my parasol, I saw a huge flash," Yoshikawa said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. At 8:15 am, the nuclear bomb exploded 580 meters (1,900 feet) above Hiroshima, killing more than 140,000 people. The surface temperature near the hypocentre reached as high as 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 degrees Fahrenheit).
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