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In early August 1945, warfare changed forever when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, devastating the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killing more than 100,000 people. America’s immediate goal was to hasten Japan’s surrender, end World War II and avoid further Allied casualties. But it also wanted to showcase to the world—the Soviet Union in particular—the hugely destructive power of its new technology. The images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki below illustrate that power: what Japan’s Emperor Hirohito called in his statement of surrender “a new and most cruel bomb.”
History Shorts: How the Atomic Bomb Was Used in WWII
Hiroshima: Before and After
On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the crew of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the first wartime atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, a bustling regional hub that served as an important military communications center, storage depot and troop gathering area. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy," detonated with an estimated 15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city and directly killing some 70,000 people. Final casualty numbers remain unknown; by the end of 1945, injuries and radiation sickness had raised the death toll to more than 100,000. In subsequent years, cancer and other long-term radiation effects steadily drove the number higher.
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The downtown Hiroshima shopping district, c. 1945. After the bombing, only rubble and a few utility poles remained.
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A man wheels his bicycle through Hiroshima days after the city was leveled by the atomic bomb blast. The view here is looking west/northwest, about 550 feet from where the bomb hit.
The National Archives
Looking upriver on the Motoyasu-gawa River, circa 1945.
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View of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial with the Atomic Bomb Dome (Genbaku Dome), seen from the bank of the Ota River in Hiroshima, Japan in 1965, 20 years after the atomic bomb blast that destroyed the city center.
Nagasaki: Before and After
Three days after the destruction of Hiroshima, another American bomber dropped its payload over Nagasaki, some 185 miles southwest of Hiroshima, at 11:02 a.m. Not the original intended blast site, Nagasaki only became the target after the crew found that city, Kokura, obscured by clouds. The Nagasaki explosive, a plutonium bomb code-named “Fat Man,” weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast. Its destructive force wiped out about 30 percent of the city. Some 60,000 to 80,000 people died in Nagasaki, both from direct exposure and long-term side effects of radiation.
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The harbor at Nagasaki, Japan, c. 1920. A Christian church can be seen in the foreground.
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Among the few buildings that survived after the plutonium bomb decimated Nagasaki was the same Christian church as above.
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A street in Nagasaki, Japan, c. 1940.
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The ruins of Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bomb, seen from street level.
VIEW MORE: Photos of the Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
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.
A group of men preparing 'Little Boy,' code name for the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945
The crew of the Enola Gay. 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.
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 on August 6, 1945. The circle indicates the target of the bomb. The bomb directly killed an estimated 80,000 people. 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 shown in transport, nicknamed "Fat Man," became the second nuclear bomb dropped by U.S. forces in World War II.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A homeless group of mostly children warm their hands over a fire on the outskirts of Hiroshima after the end of WWII.
A victim of the atomic bomb blast over Hiroshima, in a makeshift hospital in a bank building, September 1945.
Children in Hiroshima, Japan are shown wearing masks to combat the odor of death after the city was destroyed, pictured October 1945.
Hiroshima pictured eight months after the atomic bomb was dropped, still standing in ruins.
Survivors hospitalized in Hiroshima show their bodies covered with keloids caused by the atomic bomb, circa 1947.
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