The HIV Here & Now Project
Atomic Numbers (Some Viruses Are Manmade): Found Poem
Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.
350,000: Population of Hiroshima before the bombing,
of which 40,000 were military personnel.
140,000: Estimated death toll, including those who died
from radiation-related injuries and illness through Dec. 31, 1945.
300,000: Total death toll to date, including those who have died
from radiation-related cancers.
1.2 million: Population of Hiroshima today.
31,500: Height in feet (9,600 meters) from which the B-29
Enola Gay dropped the “Little Boy” bomb.
2,000: Height in feet (600 meters) at which the bomb
exploded 43 seconds after it was dropped.
3,000-4,000: The estimated temperature in Celsius (5,400-7,200 Fahrenheit)
at ground zero seconds after the detonation.
8,900: Approximate weight of the “Little Boy” bomb
in pounds (about 4 metric tons).
1,600: Radius in feet (500 meters) from ground zero
in which the entire population died that day.
90: Percent of Hiroshima that was destroyed.
45: Minutes after the 8:15 a.m. blast that a “black rain”
of highly radioactive particles started falling.
3-6: Weeks after the bombing during which most of the victims
with severe radiation symptoms died.
10 million: Folded paper (“origami”) cranes
that decorate the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima each year.
This poem appears as an article by the Associated Press in The New York Times today.
Sources: Hiroshima city government; Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; Japan Foreign Ministry.