Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 26 July 1945
- Tinian Island is located about 1,500 kilometers south of Japan. A large amount of enriched uranium was brought there by the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis. The uranium was used to make the bomb which was thrown on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
On this day in 1945, parts of the U.S. nuclear bomb, which would be thrown on Hiroshima, were brought to Tinian Island by the American cruiser USS Indianapolis.
It was the first atomic bomb used for military purposes. Tinian Island is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,500 kilometers south of Japan.
The bombers carrying nuclear bombs, which were thrown on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, took off from this island.
It is interesting to note that Tinian Island is still part of the USA (it is part of the Northern Mariana Islands, and their status is similar to the political status of Puerto Rico).
In 1944, during World War II, Americans conquered Tinian, which had been under Japanese occupation, and built an air force base there (for the attack on Japan).
It was one of the largest air force bases during World War II, with about 40,000 staff members.
In fact, the Americans’ railways and streets were similar to those in Manhattan, New York City (the Americans even used the same street names: Wall Streeet, Broadway, Eighth Avenue).
On this day, a large amount of enriched uranium was brought to Tinian by the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis.
The enriched uranium was used to make the bomb which was thrown on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was about half of all uranium available in the world at the time.
Only four days later, the cruiser was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine, and sank after the attack. Many people died. There were 1196 crew members, and 316 of them survived.
