On 6 August 1945, in the closing days of the Second World War, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. The 4,400kg bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was carried by the US B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, carrying 12 crew members. The bomb was detonated 2,000ft above Hiroshima, releasing energy equivalent to around 15,000 tonnes of TNT, flattening five square miles of the city in seconds.
The death toll by the end of the year was estimated at about 140,000, out of the total of 350,000 who lived there at the time. The city still has some 60,000 survivors, with an average age approaching 80.
The ground crew of the B-29 Enola Gay pose for a photo with the aircraft at their base in Tinian, Mariana Islands. Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot, is smoking a pipe in the centre of the groupUS Air Force/ReutersThe atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, is seen before being loaded into Enola Gay's bomb bayUS National ArchivesAn atomic cloud mushrooms over Hiroshima, in this photo taken from the Enola Gay flying over Matsuyama, ShikokuNational ArchivesAn aerial view of Hiroshima showing the devastation caused by a single atomic bombGettyReconnaissance photo of Hiroshima before the atomic bomb was droppedMuseum of World War II BostonReconnaissance photo of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was droppedMuseum of World War II Boston6 August 1945: An aerial view of the damage at Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb was droppedKeystone/Getty ImagesA man wheels a bicycle through Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb. The street in this photograph is approximately half a mile from the location where the bomb was detonated, indicating the extent of the devastation to the city's buildings and roadsUS National ArchivesPeople walk along a road through the devastated cityAFPHiroshima after the bomb was droppedGettyA burnt-out fire engine is seen in the rubbleGettyAugust 1945: The twisted wreckage of a theatre, located 800m from the epicentre of the atomic explosionGettySeptember 1945: A Japanese soldier walks through a levelled area of the cityNational ArchivesCirca 1947: A victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima shows the burns on his armsGettyPatients at the Tokyo Imperial University Hospital display injuries suffered as a result of the atomic bomb that was dropped on HiroshimaGettyA patient's skin is burned in a pattern corresponding to the dark portions of a kimono worn at the time of the explosionNational Archives5 October 1945: Victims of the atomic blast sit in a makeshift hospital in a damaged bank building in the centre of HiroshimaKeystone/Getty ImagesThis colour photo of Hiroshima showing damage wrought by the atomic bomb was taken in March 1946, six months after the bomb was droppedReutersApril 12, 1946: Crew members of the Enola Gay proudly parade through New York on a Jeep in the first Army Day Parade since the end of the warGetty
Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, a larger atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The 4,500kg bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped from a plane called Bockscar. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 39,000 to 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, bringing the Second World War to an end.
29 March 1946: Bockscar, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nakasaki, is seen in RoswellAFPFat Boy, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945US National ArchivesA mushroom cloud billows over Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city on 9 August 1945ReutersThe radioactive plume from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki is seen from 9.6km away, in Koyagi-jimaNagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum/Getty ImagesThe remnants of a Shinto shrine in NagasakiNagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum24 September 1945: Battered religious figures lie in the rubble of a destroyed temple on a hill above NagasakiUS National ArchivesDevastation is seen in the city of Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was droppedUS National ArchivesVictims who were thrown clear of a tram are seen in a ditch near the the tracks, in NagasakiReuters
