GROUND ZERO

 

WE’VE ALL SEEN the paintings and installations by the British street-artist “Banksy”, with his characteristic blend of whimsy and biting social commentary. At first glance, this looks like another of his creations. However, it is not a “Banksy”. It is not a “picture” in the artistic sense. Rather, it is the result of intense light emitted during the first second of the Hiroshima bomb detonation that occurred on August 6, 1945. The light—many times brighter than the sun—etched on the wall the shadow of this young girl as she skipped rope on the sidewalk outside her home. The rays struck her, no doubt causing horrific, if not fatal, burns to her body. She was far enough away from “ground zero” to avoid being vaporized by the heat and blast generated by fissioning atoms of Uranium-235. But she was close enough to absorb the awful light rays generated by those exploding atoms. The flash was so intense that it bleached the colour from brick wall behind her, leaving behind a shadowy memorial to her young life.

SHE may have lived for a time, depending on the severity of her injuries, but the enveloping cloud of radioactivity would, in all probability, kill her a few days later. One can easily imagine how survivors of the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would come to envy the dead.  

FOR A SOBERING DISCUSSION on the effects of nuclear detonations, see Professor Ted Postol on  Glen Diesen’s podcast, here.  

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