Can you survive atomic bomb

It must have been around I started to look forward to the baked potato that I had brought for lunch that day, when suddenly, I was surrounded by a blinding light.

I immediately dropped on my stomach. The slated roof and walls of the factory crumbled and fell on top of my bare back. I longed for my wife and daughter, who was only several months old.

I rose to my feet some moments later. The roof had been completely blown off our building. I peered up at the sky. The walls were also destroyed — as were the houses that surrounded the factory — revealing a dead open space.

The factory motor had stopped running. It was eerily quiet. I immediately headed to a nearby air raid shelter. There, I encountered a coworker who had been exposed to the bomb outside of the factory.

His face and body were swollen, about one and a half times the size. His skin was melted off, exposing his raw flesh. He was helping out a group of young students at the air raid shelter.

Arakawa has very little recollection of how she survived the bombing after August 9, having lost both of her parents and four siblings to the atomic bomb attack. I lived in Sakamotomachi — m from the hypocenter — with my parents and eight siblings.

As the war situation intensified, my three youngest sisters were sent off to the outskirts and my younger brother headed to Saga to serve in the military.

I worked at the prefectural office. As of April of , our branch temporarily relocated to a local school campus 2. On the morning of August 9, several friends and I went up to the rooftop to look out over the city after a brief air raid.

As I peered up, I saw something long and thin fall from the sky. At that moment, the sky turned bright and my friends and I ducked into a nearby stairwell. After a while, when the commotion subsided, we headed to the park for safety. Upon hearing that Sakamotoma- chi was inaccessible due to fires, I decided to stay with a friend in Oura.

As I headed back home the next day, an acquaintance informed me that my parents were at an air raid shelter nearby. I headed over and found both of them suffering severe burns. They died, two days later. My older sister was killed by the initial blast, at home. My two younger sisters were injured heavily and died within a day of the bombing. My other sister was found dead at the foyer of our house. There are countless tombstones all over Nagasaki with a name inscription but no ikotsu cremated bone remains.

I take solace in the fact that all six members of my family have ikotsu and rest together peacefully. At age 20, I was suddenly required to support my surviving family members. I have no recollection of how I put my younger sisters through school, who we relied on, how we survived. I am now 92 years old. I pray everyday that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren spend their entire lives knowing only peace.

I had been diagnosed with kakke vitamin deficiency a few days earlier and had taken the day off school to get a medical exam. As my mother and I were eating breakfast, I heard the deep rumble of engines overhead.

Our ears were trained back then; I knew it was a B immediately. I stepped out into the field out front but saw no planes. Bewildered, I glanced to the northeast. I saw a black dot in the sky. A gust of hot wind hit my face; I instantly closed my eyes and knelt down to the ground. As I tried to gain footing, another gust of wind lifted me up and I hit something hard.

I do not remember what happened after that. When I finally came to, I was passed out in front of a bouka suisou stone water container used to extinguish fires back then. Suddenly, I felt an intense burning sensation on my face and arms, and tried to dunk my body into the bouka suisou. The water made it worse. It burns! I drifted in and out of consciousness for the next few days. My face swelled up so badly that I could not open my eyes. I was treated briefly at an air raid shelter and later at a hospital in Hatsukaichi, and was eventually brought home wrapped in bandages all over my body.

I was unconscious for the next few days, fighting a high fever. I finally woke up to a stream of light filtering in through the bandages over my eyes and my mother sitting beside me, playing a lullaby on her harmonica.

I was told that I had until about age 20 to live. Yet here I am seven decades later, aged All I want to do is forget, but the prominent keloid scar on my neck is a daily reminder of the atomic bomb. We cannot continue to sacrifice precious lives to warfare.

All I can do is pray — earnestly, relentlessly — for world peace. I, Hayasaki, have been deeply indebted to the Heiwasuishinkyokai for arranging this meeting, amongst many other things. You have traveled far from the US — how long and arduous your journey must have been.

Seventy two years have passed since the bombing — alas, young people of this generation have forgotten the tragedies of war and many pay no mind to the Peace Bell of Nagasaki. Perhaps this is for the better, an indication that the current generation revels in peace. The blast could even be felt more than two and a half miles from ground zero. Even without massive nukes being deployed by a rogue nation, we could also experience smaller devices being detonated by individuals, whether they are acting independently or under a terrorist group.

These bombs will be markedly smaller, but the devastation they could cause would be enough to wreak havoc. Among the list of vulnerable spots at higher risk for nuclear attack include, missile sites and military bases, centers of government Washington D. People in these areas should make sure to understand the threat and know how to act when appropriate. The most important factor to consider is the ability to find the most secure shelter. Blast shelters provide the most protection, but not even they can survive a direct hit from a nuclear bomb.

Fallout shelters are your next safest bet, as they will provide the highest protection from this debris. Even after the immediate blast, the greatest dangers still have not passed. Fallout, materials irradiated from the blast, can be spread by the wind across hundreds of miles, endangering countless more lives in the process — so its best to remain within a shelter until the danger has passed. The effects could get worse. The lack of food would drive up prices for what sustenance remains.

Surely there would be worldwide skirmishes — and perhaps wars — over remaining resources. The situation could get so bad that we might see another nuclear war as states try to seize control of more food and water, Helfand fears.

Each country would effectively take out the other — and likely bring down most of humanity as well. According to Robock and others , the roughly million tons of black smoke rising from burning cities and other areas would spread around to most of the planet over a period of weeks. That would plunge surface temperatures by about 17 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit for the first few years, and then come back up just by 5 degrees Fahrenheit for the following decade.

The Northern Hemisphere would suffer the coldest temperatures, but the world would feel the impact. Global precipitation would also drop by around 45 percent. That would harm nearly every ecosystem and make it harder for some humans to go outside. Still, the point remains the same: A nuclear war would almost certainly affect hundreds of millions or billions of people not directly caught in the fighting.

Its effects would reverberate, sometimes literally, around the planet. Former senior US leaders have made this case for years. It is a humanitarian imperative. Worries over nuclear weapons have led many to push for a nonnuclear world. She and her team helped get 69 countries to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations, although none of the countries that have nukes signed on to the measure. It will take 50 countries to ratify the treaty for it to become international law; so far, only 19 have done so.

The nine countries that have them consider them useful for their protection. And Elbridge Colby, who until earlier this year was a top Pentagon official, in October wrote in Foreign Affairs that the US should consider nuclear weapons as a key tool to fend off global challenges from Russia and China. That means the chance that a nuclear bomb is dropped sometime in the future — and perhaps in our lifetimes — is more than zero.

If that frightens you, it should. Correction, October 24, An original version of this article misstated the temperature change in the second decade of a nuclear winter, based on Robock et al.

It got warmer by 5 degrees Fahrenheit, not colder by 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Kudos to Brian Hawkins for pointing it out. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today to help us keep our work free for all.

Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. This is exactly how a nuclear war would kill you This is how the world ends — not with a bang, but with a lot of really big bombs.

Share this story Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share All sharing options Share All sharing options for: This is exactly how a nuclear war would kill you. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email.

Then presidential candidate Donald Trump attending a rally against the Iran Agreement at the Capitol on September 9, Hiroshima, Japan, after the dropping of the atom bomb, in August Trump realDonaldTrump January 3, People walking through the ruins of Hiroshima in the weeks following the atomic bomb blast. The mushroom cloud produced by the first explosion by the US of a hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific.

Future Perfect Are we turning the corner on Covid treatments? Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for The Weeds Get our essential policy newsletter delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. What should you stock up on? According to Ready.

Here is a FEMA fact sheet with additional supplies — including prescription medications; a first-aid book; a warm blanket for each person; household chlorine bleach and medicine dropper; a fire extinguisher; matches; and feminine supplies — listed. Is there anything to have that is specific to a nuclear attack? Another basic supply that has seen demand surge recently: potassium iodide, which helps protect against certain types of radiation poisoning, according to a CDC webinar from August Unfortunately, in the case of a detonation, it might not help you much, the State Department website says.

KI is useful in response to a nuclear reactor mishap, where radioactive iodine release is a hazard. The blast from fission-driven atomic bombs , like those dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, and Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, could kill everyone in a one-mile radius, Edward Morse, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told Time.

Yet a fusion-driven thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb radius could be more like 5 or 10 miles, Morse said. And beyond the immediate fireball and direct radiation, local winds could blow radioactive fallout to locations hundreds of miles away, according to Ready. Make sure windows, doors, fireplaces, air conditioners and other air access points are sealed off. Put the clothing in a plastic bag or other sealable container.

Put the bag in an out-of-the-way place, away from other people and pets.