Unlike Hiroshima, which occupied a flat alluvial plain, Nagasaki was divided by hills and ridges. The uneven terrain shielded outlying districts of the city from the worst effects of the bomb. A steep ridgeline west of Urakami Valley absorbed most of the blast wave and radiation and largely spared the rest of Nagasaki. The hills facing ground zero were scorched, with most of the structures and vegetation burned away, giving them the appearance (said one witness) of a “premature autumn.”57 But on the other side of the ridge, one found another world, where the grass and trees were still green
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