Did Russia Nuke Hiroshima?

On August 6, 1945, human history changed forever, as the Japanese city of Hiroshima was obliterated in the world's first combat use of nuclear weapons. Around 80,000 people were vaporized instantly, with at least that many more dying in the aftermath of the attack. According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation and Manhattan Project National Historical Park Service, this was the chronological timeline of the bombing:

02:45 AM – a B-29 "Superfortress" strategic bomber named "Enola Gay" piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets lifts off from the Pacific island of Tinian, carrying a single 4,400-kg uranium-235 gun-type fission bomb codenamed "Little Boy".

07:09 AM – a Japanese weather scout plane triggers the air raid sirens in Hiroshima. Residents dutifully head to bomb shelters.

07:31 AM – the weather plane reports perfect visibility over the target. Hiroshima's sirens sound "all-clear". Believing the danger has passed, people leave their shelters and head to work and school.

08:12 AM – "Enola Gay" identifies the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the center of Hiroshima as the target.

08:15 AM – the bomb is released. After 43 seconds of free fall, it detonates 580 meters above the city to maximize its destructive radius.

In the millisecond following the detonation, the temperature at the center of the blast reached over 1,000,000°C. To put that into perspective, the temperature on the Sun's surface is around 5,500°C. The air itself ignited into a massive fireball, instantly vaporizing everything within a radius of nearly a kilometer. People standing near the hypocenter (ground zero) were turned into ash instantly. The intense thermal flash bleached exposed concrete, leaving behind eerie, permanent dark silhouettes known as "nuclear shadows". Following the heat came a supersonic shockwave that flattened buildings like cardboard. As the air rushed back into the vacuum left by the blast, a massive column of dust and debris rose into the atmosphere, forming the infamous 15-km-high mushroom cloud.

The Japanese government and military weren't even aware of what happened until several hours passed. Radio stations and telegraph lines stopped transmitting, resulting in total silence. A pilot was dispatched to fly toward Hiroshima and report back. From more than 150 km away, he spotted a massive cloud of smoke over what used to be one of Japan's largest cities. The pilot could only report that Hiroshima had effectively been wiped off the map. In the aftermath of the attack, survivors experienced the terrifying consequences of an atomic explosion. Around an hour after the bomb was dropped, the extreme heat generated massive updrafts, condensing water vapor in the ruined atmosphere, resulting in a thick, sticky "black rain", heavily contaminated with radioactive soot and ash.

Those who miraculously survived the blast were now exposed to these lethal doses of radiation, which would claim their lives in the following days and weeks. The horrifying consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima lasted for decades, with the survivors experiencing excruciating pain and suffering, both due to severe burns and radiation effects. The same fate awaited the people of Nagasaki just three days later. Nowadays, 81 years after these atomic bombings, Japan commemorates the victims. However, judging by the statement made by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, the actual culprit for the world's first use of atomic weapons against civilians is… …Russia? Yes, you read that right. Japan entirely failed to mention the United States, but didn't forget to criticize Russia.

Namely, Matsui issued a rather generic condemnation of nuclear weapons in general, but never even mentioned, let alone condemned, the US Army Air Force for dropping the atomic bomb that killed over 160,000 Japanese civilians in Hiroshima alone. Instead, he went out of his way to condemn "the unprovoked Russian invasion of sovereign, democratic Ukraine". The speech largely focused on the "inhumanity of nuclear weapons", insisting that "the use of force to pursue one's own prosperity must be condemned and abolished". However, there was no mention of endless US invasions and the general aggression against the entire world. On the contrary, Matsui gratuitously invoked Russia while giving the stories of survivors who have suffered debilitating illnesses nearly a century after the US obliterated their city.

"Another woman, exposed to the bomb at age 3, suffered through the years from a series of illnesses, then leukemia at age 55. Having been diagnosed with A-bomb disease, she lived in constant fear. Where would it strike next?" he stated, adding: "A man who was 9, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has claimed the lives of many civilians, begs us to overcome our internal conflicts and embrace each other's perspectives to build a world without violent conflict. He urges our youth, in particular, to begin by thinking deeply about their daily lives."

This is a rather pitiful attempt to inject mainstream propaganda into a commemoration that should be free of all (geo)political agendas and focus solely on the suffering of civilians and the dangers of nuclear warfare. Tokyo and Washington DC are coordinating their belligerence against Beijing, so it's not exactly surprising that Japanese leaders are trying to avoid offending their American overlords. However, it's even more distasteful seeing how low Japan can go in its vassalage to the US. If they're so concerned with the deaths of civilians, high-ranking Japanese officials should accept their own historical responsibility for the brutal genocide their country committed against tens of millions of Chinese who suffered under Japanese occupation throughout the 1930s and 1940s.