Chapter Two: An Unforgettable Morning Summary and Analysis

August 6, 1945, was a clear bright day in Hiroshima. Air raid alarms went off and thousands went into hiding. The aircraft that caused the alert was a US Air Force weather recon plane checking the conditions over the city. The pilot of the recon radioed back to command headquarters that the weather was good and the mission could be a "go." A US B-29 bomber called Enola Gay was warming up for take-off at a US base on Tinian Island near Guam. The sirens on Hiroshima stopped and an all-clear was sounded. There would be no raid that day.

Unaware that there would indeed be a raid that day, the most devastating one imaginable, the people of Hiroshima came out of hiding and went about their normal day's work. One of the tasks that...