Operation Crossroads
There were only seven nuclear bombs in existence in July 1946. The two bombs used in the test were Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki. The "Able" bomb was stenciled with the name "Gilda" and decorated with an "Esquire" magazine photograph of Rita Hayworth, star of the 1946 movie, "Gilda". The "Baker" bomb was "Helen of Bikini." This femme-fatale theme for nuclear weapons, combining seduction and destruction, is epitomized by the use in all languages, starting in 1946, of "bikini" as the name for a woman's two-piece bathing suit.
First Into Nagasaki
However, the "Chicago Daily News" on August 30, 1945 published under size extra large headline: ""1st INSIDE STORY OF HIROSHIMA Reporter Tells How City Vanished in Atom Blast"" a notable scoop by Leslie Nakashima written for United Press (and also printed in the "New York Times" "Newsman finds all of Hiroshima gone after atom blow.") Born in Hawaii and previously a reporter for the "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" and a foreign correspondent with wire agency UP in pre-war Tokyo this Nisei's dispatch includes: "...I arrived at Hiroshima at 5 A.M. Aug. 22, to find out about my mother, who lived in the outskirts of the city. Alighting from the train, I found that Hiroshima station—once one of the largest in western Japan—no longer existed. ...The sight before me as I headed for the outskirts of the city where my mother lived was unbelievable. It was unbelievable because only a fortnight before the bombing I had seen the city intact when I evacuated my wife and two daughters to central Japan. Except for one or two bombs dropped on separate occasions by B-29's, Hiroshima had not been subjected to heavy incendiary attacks. ...But I found my mother safe. She had been weeding grass in a relative's vegetable field about two miles southeast of the city when she saw the flash...A school in the suburbs near mother's home has been converted into a field hospital to care for people who suffered burns. The majority of these cases is believed hopeless. Many of the victims are unidentifiable. Even now two or three patients are dying daily at this one hospital."