Envis Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India
Printed Date: Thursday, December 19, 2024
Nagasaki & Worlds Indigenous people Day
Nagasaki & Worlds Indigenous people Day
Nagasaki was the second city to be damaged by the atomic bombing in 1945. August 9 was designated as Nagasaki Peace Day, and the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony is held at Nagasaki Peace Park every year. Nagasaki is known as Japan's most exotic city, so visiting there would be interesting for many travellers.
About the bombing: On the morning of August 9, 1945, the U.S. B-29 Super fortress Bockscar, flown by the crew of 393rd Squadron commander Major Charles W. Sweeney, carried the nuclear bomb code-named "Fat Man", with Kokura as the primary target and Nagasaki the secondary target. At 11:01, a last minute break in the clouds over Nagasaki allowed Bockscar's bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan, to visually sight the target as ordered. The "Fat Man" weapon, containing a core of ~6.4 kg (14.1 lbs.) of plutonium-239, was dropped over the city's industrial valley. Forty-three seconds later it exploded 469 meters (1,540 ft) above the ground exactly halfway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works (Torpedo Works) in the north. This was nearly 3 kilometers (2 mi) northwest of the planned hypocenter; the blast was confined to the Urakami Valley and a major portion of the city was protected by the intervening hills.[49] The resulting explosion had a blast yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT. The explosion generated heat estimated at 3,900 degrees Celsius (7,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and winds that were estimated at 1005 km/h (624 mph). A Japanese report on the bombing characterized Nagasaki as "like a graveyard with not a tombstone standing". Casualty estimates for immediate deaths range from 40,000 to 75,000.[50][51][52] Total deaths by the end of 1945 may have reached 80,000. The radius of total destruction was about a mile (1.6 km), followed by fires across the northern portion of the city to two miles (3.2 km) south of the bomb. An unknown number of survivors from the Hiroshima bombing had made their way to Nagasaki, where they were bombed again.
Indigenous People Day
On 23rd December 1994, the General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The term indigenous peoples can be used about any ethnic group who inhabit the region which they have the earliest historical connection. They include distinct cultural groups who have a historical continuity or association with a given region in which thy live. Native Americans, Australian, aborigines, and Indian tribes are considered indigenous people. They number more than 370 million people in 70 countries. Most of them are poor, and suffer different forms of discrimination.
Indigenous societies possess an often unique body of cultural and environmental knowledge, which is being lost in the face of modern development. This day has been designated by the UN to review the problems faced by indigenous people in different countries and to seek ways to improve their lives.