Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
Even before the outbreak of war in 1939, a group of American scientists—many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe—became concerned with nuclear weapons research being conducted in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its own atomic weapons development program, which came under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the U.S. entry into World War II. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with spearheading the construction of the vast facilities necessary for the top-secret program, codenamed “The Manhattan Project” (for the engineering corps’ Manhattan district).
HISTORY Vault: Hiroshima - 75 Years Later
Marking the anniversary of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing, this special—told entirely from the first-person perspective of leaders, physicists, soldiers and survivors—provides a unique understanding of the most devastating experiment in human history.
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Over the next several years, the program’s scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission—uranium-235 and plutonium (Pu-239). They sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a workable atomic bomb. Early on the morning of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project held its first successful test of an atomic device—a plutonium bomb—at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
No Surrender for the Japanese
By the time of the Trinity test, the Allied powers had already defeated Germany in Europe. Japan, however, vowed to fight to the bitter end in the Pacific, despite clear indications (as early as 1944) that they had little chance of winning. In fact, between mid-April 1945 (when President Harry Truman took office) and mid-July, Japanese forces inflicted Allied casualties totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, proving that Japan had become even more deadly when faced with defeat. In late July, Japan’s militarist government rejected the Allied demand for surrender put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with “prompt and utter destruction” if they refused.
General Douglas MacArthur and other top military commanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan already in effect and following up with a massive invasion, codenamed “Operation Downfall.” They advised Truman that such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties of up to 1 million. In order to avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided–over the moral reservations of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, General Dwight Eisenhower and a number of the Manhattan Project scientists–to use the atomic bomb in the hopes of bringing the war to a quick end. Proponents of the A-bomb—such as James Byrnes, Truman’s secretary of state—believed that its devastating power would not only end the war, but also put the U.S. in a dominant position to determine the course of the postwar world.
A view of the atomic bomb, codenamed "Little Boy," as it is hoisted into the bay of the Enola Gay on the North Field of Tinian airbase, North Marianas Islands. The bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
"Little Boy" bomb, Hiroshima, World War II
The bomb detonated with an energy of around 15 kilotons of TNT and was the first nuclear weapon deployed in wartime.
The men who made the historic flight over Hiroshima to drop the first atomic bomb. Top: Flight crew of Enola Gay, attackers of Hiroshima. Left to right kneeling; Staff Sergeant George R. Caron; Sergeant Joe Stiborik; Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury; Private first class Richard H. Nelson; Sergeant Robert H. Shurard. Left to right standing; Major Thomas W. Ferebee, Group Bombardier; Major Theodore Van Kirk, Navigator; Colonel Paul W. Tibbetts, 509th Group Commander and Pilot; Captain Robert A. Lewis, Airplane Commander. (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)
The crew of the Boeing B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, which made the flight over Hiroshima to drop the first atomic bomb. Left to right kneeling; Staff Sergeant George R. Caron; Sergeant Joe Stiborik; Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury; Private first class Richard H. Nelson; Sergeant Robert H. Shurard. Left to right standing; Major Thomas W. Ferebee, Group Bombardier; Major Theodore Van Kirk, Navigator; Colonel Paul W. Tibbetts, 509th Group Commander and Pilot; Captain Robert A. Lewis, Airplane Commander.
Hiroshima bombing, 1945, World War II
An aerial view from a U.S. Air Force bomber of smoke rising from Hiroshima, shortly after 8:15 am. on August 6, 1945, after the atomic explosion.
Hiroshima in ruins after the dropping of the atomic bomb, the circle indicating the target. The bomb directly killed an estimated 80,000 people and by the end of the year, injury and radiation brought the total number of deaths to between 90,000 and 166,000.
The plutonium bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," is shown in transport. It would be the second nuclear bomb dropped by U.S. forces in World War II.
The atomic bomb mushroom cloud over Nagasaki seen from Koyagi-jima, August 9th, 1945.
The second nuclear bomb was dropped on the city on August 9, 1945, in the last days of WWII shortly before the surrender of Japan. The attack destroyed about 30 percent of the city.
Nagasaki bombing, World War II, 1945
Only the reinforced concrete buildings of the Nagasaki Medical College hospital remained standing after the August 9, 1945 bombing of the city. The hospital was located 800 meters from ground zero of the explosion.
Nagasaki bombing aftermath, World War II
This area in the Nagasaki suburbs, four miles away from the city proper, was almost as badly damaged as the areas in the center of the city. Wreckage is piled high on either side of the roadway.
Picture album, Nagasaki bombing, World War II
A water soaked photo album, shards of pottery and a pair of scissors amid the devastation after the bombing on Nagasaki.
7th September 1945: View of one of the only structures left standing, one day after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The building, also known as the Genbaku Dome, is now the centerpiece of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
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