There was virtually no protection from the blast, ... The...

There was virtually no protection from the blast, ... The very flatness of the city center helped seal its destruction. The lack of any warning also contributed: Nobody was in the shelters when the bomb exploded. The whole city was taken by surprise. Only freakish accidents of fate ensured survival. Eizo Nomura was one such survivor, a clerk in the Fuel Distribution and Control Cooperative, a concrete building 100 meters from the hypocenter. Moments before the explosion, he had gone down into the basement to retrieve a document his chief had forgotten. Quite possibly he was the closest man to the hypocenter to survive.