The Yomiuri Shimbun
HIROSHIMA–A nuclear attack against Hiroshima would kill or injure up to 832,000 people, a study group of the Hiroshima municipal government said Wednesday.
The working group, headed by Hiromi Hasai, professor emirates of Hiroshima University, revealed the findings in the draft of the final report on its estimates of victims in a nuclear attack.
It is the first prediction of damages resulting from a nuclear attack drawn up by a local government based on the law to protect the people. The estimate will be reflected in the Hiroshima government’s plan to protect citizens of the city, which has a population of 1.1 million, in case of a military contingency.
The study group, however, concluded that the abolition of nuclear weapons would be the sole measure that would fully protect the citizens from nuclear attacks.
The draft of the report estimates four scenarios of a nuclear attack on a summer weekday during the daytime under fair weather conditions–an environment identical to Aug. 6, 1945, when the city was A-bombed. The four scenarios examined the likely effect of different types of nuclear attacks on the city. A one-megaton bomb–about 60 times as powerful as the one dropped onto the city 62 years ago–exploded in the air about 2.4 kilometers above the city would result in the largest number of victims–832,000–on the day of the bombing and during a three-to four-month period after t