A city died instantly the moment a single bomb hit the ground. Thousands of people were evaporated the moment they opened their eyes without knowing what was happening. Houses and buildings collapsed in a moment. A ball of fire shot up from the earth into the sky. In the atmosphere known as ‘Ground Zero’, the heat wave that melted the soil and even rocks from the area immediately below the detonation of the atomic bomb rose to the ground level. Buildings for miles around were blown down by this hot wind.
At the end of World War II in 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is now 78 years since the incident that shocked the conscience of the world. On 6 and 9 August 1945, the atomic bomb nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ was dropped on these two cities during World War II.
The flames rose as high as the sun and burned the city of Hiroshima. Mountain-like plumes of smoke rose up to 40,000 feet in a mushroom shape. Clouds of dust swirled up to a height of 1000 feet. About one and a half lakh people disappeared in half a second. At nine o’clock in the morning on the 9th of August, a plutonium bomb known as ‘Fat Man’ with a weight of 4630 kilotons and a high explosive capacity was dropped on Nagasaki. The first target was the Japanese armory in the city of Kokura. But the aviators’ difficulty in discovering this led to the end of another city. During these two dark days, about thirty-seven thousand people were severely burned by nuclear radiation. It’s a terrible condition that can be felt even when you hear it. With melting skin and flesh, thousands of people jumped into boiling rivers and wells to cool their burning bodies are still burning memories that bring tears to the eyes of thousands of people. More than 400,000 people only got their lives back and their descendants died after years of suffering from deadly diseases like cancer. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are many thousands who live and die as martyrs as a reminder of war.
From these descriptions and studies, it should be understood that in those cities, even a grass seed that would have germinated under the soil was evaporated. However, the experiences of the eight priests who miraculously escaped from it are still indescribable to the scientific world. The life of these eight priests known as Hiroshima Eight remains a wonder to the world of science and theologians.
A Jesuit priest named Fr. Schiffer describes a rare occurrence in his monastery. On August 6, 1945, he had just reached the dining room for breakfast after returning from the morning Holy Mass as usual. At the same moment as he took a spoonful into the glass of grape juice that was set out for him to drink, a silver light filled the place with a lot of popping noises. He thought an oil tanker had exploded from a nearby port. “Suddenly, a terrible explosion filled the air with one bursting thunder stroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me round and round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind.” When he opened his eyes, Fr. Schiffer was lying on the floor. There was nothing left on either side. All the railways and roads that were on all sides were not even left to name. Despite all the damage around Fr. Schiffer had only a scratch. That and some leaves flying in the wind caused a very small scratch on the back of his neck. That was his only casualty in the world-shaking nuclear test that happened to him. When the accident happened Fr. Huber Schiffer was 30. This priest lived for another 33 years in perfect health after that day when he had a disease and other difficulties that lasted for generations are a wonder to the scientific world today.
Only eight priests of the Church of Jesus who lived in a small monastery near the parish church escaped unharmed. It became a subject of study later because it was unbelievable that they were safe living only eight blocks from where the bomb fell. All living beings within a kilometer and a half of the incident site have been vaporized to death, while the eight priests are safe just eight blocks away. As an explanation for this Fr. Schiffer says: “We believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in that house.” Fr. Schiffer feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Virgin, which protected him from all radiation and ill effects. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to his devotion to Our Lady, and his daily Fatima Rosary: “In that house, the Holy Rosary was recited together every day.”
From a scientific point of view, what happened to those priests in Hiroshima still defies all the laws of physics. The level of force it takes to change energy from one form to another is beyond our comprehension. Therefore it must be concluded that there was some other power behind this special protection. Within three days of this event, the atomic bomb was also dropped on Nagasaki. According to reports, most of those who survived the accident were Catholics.
Dr. Stephen Rinehart of the U.S. Department of Defense is widely recognized as an international expert in the field of atomic blasts. Says Rinehart: “A quick calculation says that at one kilometer the bulk temperature was in excess of 20,000 to 30,000 degrees F, and the blast wave would have hit at sonic velocity with pressures on buildings greater than 600 PSI. If the Jesuits, at one kilometer from the geometric epicenter, were outside the atomic bomb’s “plasma” their residence should still have been utterly destroyed. Un-reinforced masonry or brick walls, representative of commercial construction, are destroyed at 3 PSI, which will also cause ear damage and burst windows. At 10 PSI, a human being will experience severe lung and heart damage, and burst eardrums, and at 20 PSI limbs can be blown off. All the cotton clothing would be on fire at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and your lungs would be inoperative within a minute of breathing even one lungful of air at these temperatures.
After these events, US Army doctors over two hundred times Fr. Schiffer’s body was examined. The doctors judged that his body would deteriorate very quickly after being exposed to nuclear radiation. But to the surprise of the doctors, Fr. Schiffer’s body had no radiation or ill effects from the bomb. Anyone within this range from the epicenter must have been exposed to enough radiation to die within minutes. But over the next 30 years, scientists subjected these eight Jesuit priests, known as the ‘Hiroshima Eight’, to various tests, but found no ill effects.
“No way could any human have survived nor should anything have been left standing at one kilometer. At ten times the distance, about ten to fifteen kilometers, I saw the brick walls standing from an elementary school and there were a few badly burned survivors; all died within fifteen years of some form of cancer. Reconnaissance pictures taken of a panoramic view from the epicenter of the blast, at Shima Hospital looking towards the Jesuits’ house, did show some kind of two-story building totally intact, at least from what I could make out, and it looked to me the windows were in place. Also, there was a church with walls still standing a few hundred yards away, but the roof was gone.”
“The Department of Defense never commented officially on this and I suspect it was classified and never discussed in open literature. I think it is possible the Jesuits were asked not to say anything either at the time.” Years later, when the world remembers with fear those dark days marked in history due to war, it is a great wonder that no science can define those eight priests with the hand of God and their faith. Some indescribable white sevens of faith in two black days should be seen as some miraculous moments that the creator of the universe has kept for the world.