after the war.Like other survivors they were called Hibakusha-person affected by a bomb’ or ‘person affected by the exposition to a bomb.īefore the atomic attacks, the US Air Force dropped pamphlets in Japan. However about 3,000 of them are known to have survived and returned to the U.S.

It is estimated that up to 11,000 Japanese-Americans died that day. It was a common practice before the war for American Issei, or first-generation immigrants, to send their children on extended trips to Japan to study or visit relatives.There was, therefore, a sizable population of American-born Japanese living in their parents’ hometowns of Hiroshima. He was the only crew member to be on both missions. Tibbets Jr had flown the lead bomber ‘Butcher Shop'(aka Big Tin Bird) for the first American daylight heavy bomber mission on 17 August 1942, a shallow penetration raid against a marshaling yard in Rouen in Occupied France.įirst Lieutenant Jacob Beser was the radar specialist aboard the Enola Gay, 3 days later, he was a crew member aboard Bockscar when the Fat Man bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Prior to the war in the Pacifc and taking command of the Enola Gay, Colonel Paul W. The crew of the Enola Gay consisted of 12 men. So much has already been documented about this, so therefore I will focusing more on the lesser known facts about that fateful day and the aftermath Today marks the 74th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.