Fission
“Y-3, Q-3, B-2, C-1” is the code that Claude Eatherly, pilot of the B-29 ‘Straight Flush’, sent to pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets of the B-29 ‘Enola Gay’ while flying over Hiroshima in the morning of 6 August 1945. The meaning of the code: “Cloud cover less than three-tenths all altitudes. Advice: bomb primary target.” An hour later, at 8.15 a.m. local time, the ‘Enola Gay’ reached its designated position above Hiroshima and dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in combat. After the war, Eatherly developed crushing feelings of guilt over his role in the bombing. He was judged insane multiple times, both in court and in the media. He received heavy electroshock therapy in 1953, at his own request. Tibbets, on the other hand, maintained that he stood behind his actions as a military man and signed the aerial photograph of the devastated city, which had been taken on 7 August 1945. The photograph has a text overlay, which consists of four columns that provide different historical perspectives. From left to right, the columns portray the roles of Claude Eatherly, Paul Warfield Tibbets, the U.S. government, and the effects of the bomb.
Detail Y-3, Q-3, B-2, C-1
Detail Y-3, Q-3, B-2, C-1
Madonna of Nagasaki, Defacement 9 August 1945. In the morning of 9 August 1945, the B-29 Superfortress ‘Bock’s Car’ flies over the city of Kokura. This city is the primary target of ‘Fat Man’, the second American atomic bomb. Fat Man contains a plutonium core, which is more powerful than the uranium core of ‘Little Boy’, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima three days before. ‘Bock’s Car’ circles above Kokura for 45 minutes, because a layer of clouds prohibits the bombardment. Having crossed the city three times without finding an opening, pilot Charles W. Sweeney diverts to Nagasaki, only to find it obscured as well. But at 11:00 the clouds break open and the bombardier can visually target Nagasaki. By that time, the plane is running out of fuel, so Sweeney decides to drop the bomb almost immediately. Fat Man explodes more than 2.5 kilometers from the projected hypocenter, right above Urikami Cathedral, then the biggest Catholic church in Southeast Asia. Among the estimated 40,000 to 75,000 casualties are 8,500 of Nagasaki’s 12,000 parishioners, who constituted the largest concentration of baptized Christians in Japan at that time. Two months later, a Japanese Catholic priest discharged from military service visits the ruins of the cathedral. After an hour of praying and looking for a memento, he notices the scorched head of the Madonna lying in the debris
Paul Tibbets, Pilot, B 29 Enola Gay, Hiroshima, 6 August 1945
Charles Sweeney, Pilot, B 29 Bocks Car, Nagasaki, 9 August 1945
Charles Sweeney, Pilot, B 29 Bocks Car, Nagasaki, 9 August 1945 & Paul Tibbets, Pilot, B 29 Enola Gay, Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 at the exhibition POSITIONS, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
Charles Sweeney, Pilot, B 29 Bocks Car, Nagasaki, 9 August 1945 & Paul Tibbets, Pilot, B 29 Enola Gay, Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 at the exhibition 'To the Arts, Citizens!' at Fundacao de Seralves, Porto