Rare and important: "This report describes the effects of the atomic bombs which were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. It summarizes all the authentic information that is available on damage to structures, injuries to personnel, morale effect, etc., which can be released at this time without prejudicing the security of the United States" (foreword).
A collaboration between The Special Manhattan Engineer District Investigating Group, The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, and The British Mission to Japan, this work not only details the extent and effects of the bombings but also the propaganda campaign that followed. That included a leaflet and newspaper dropping across 47 Japanese cities with populations over 100,000 (some 6,000,000 leaflets were dropped by the time surrender negotiations commenced). The leaflets and newspapers were augmented by radio broadcasts in Japanese at fifteen-minute intervals.
Father John A. Siemes' six-page account "Eyewitness Account Hiroshima -- August 6" is reprinted here. A professor at Tokyo's Catholic University, Father John A. Siemes, was a Jesuit priest who was born in 1906 and was living at the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Nagatsuka. He first sent his impressions to the magazine Jesuit Missions, but the narrative here appears fuller than what has been found online from the Jesuit Missions submission. Furthermore, this report was an important influence on John Hershey's classic account of the event, "Hiroshima," which first appeared in the New Yorker.
In addition to this, there are comparisons of the explosions in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, as well as data on blast and radiation injuries.
The photographs include a pre-strike aerial view of Hiroshima covering an area of 3.3 miles by 2.6 miles. There is an image of atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki, taken from about 8 miles distance. The height of the top of the cloud was about 40,000 feet. This is followed by another of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima. Figure 7 is a panoramic view of Hiroshima after the bomb. Figure 8 is an aerial view of Hiroshima after the bomb. Figure 9 is a panoramic view of Nagasaki after the bomb, and figure 10 is an aerial view of Nagasaki after the bomb. Remaining photographs provide more granular images and information. On 11 August, Groves ordered a survey team to report on the damage and radioactivity at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A party equipped with portable Geiger counters arrived in Hiroshima on 8 September. They remained in Hiroshima until 14 September and then surveyed Nagasaki from 19 September to 8 October.
The Hiroshima fold out map is labelled "Restricted and Emergency Provision Edition."
On 17 June, 1942, the Manhattan Engineer District was one of several created to oversee the development of the atomic bomb. Unlike other districts, the Manhattan District had no geographic boundaries and its area spread from Berkeley to Boston.
This was essentially a wartime production produced in limited numbers for private circulation only. It's very unusual to find both the report and the photographs for sale together.
Rare in the trade. Auction records locate a single copy at PBA in 2022.
McDonnell, J.A., "The Manhattan Project" in The Military Engineer, Vol. 85, No. 557 (July, 1993), p.76.
