"We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home." The US airbase on Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean received the communication that the top secret mission had been successful the world's first atomic weapon had been dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. "…and that's the time that it's always been." Inside the rubble of his flattened house, he would later find his father's scorched pocket watch little remained apart from a ghostly imprint of the hands seared onto its face, forever marking the moment the bomb exploded.
In an instant, his entire body was consumed by searing pain, as if he had been doused in boiling water the skin hung off his burnt body like ragged clothes. Then he heard a blast like the sound of the universe exploding. "It's 8:15…" In disbelief, Mikamo saw a gigantic fireball brighter than the sun racing towards him. He wiped sweat from his brow as he admired the view of the city below. Under the clear skies of the fine summer morning, Shinji Mikamo had finished his breakfast of millet and grass porridge, and climbed onto the roof of his house to remove clay tiles.
Beneath the studded cockpit windows, the aircraft bore the name of the pilot's mother: Enola Gay. Lightened by disgorging its deadly cargo, the B-29 bomber rose suddenly in the air, banked steeply and flew away at full throttle. UK picture sleeve, UK labels The Story Behind The Song