Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy," a uranium-235 atomic bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion, equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, instantly killed approximately 80,000 people and destroyed 70% of the city. Tens of thousands more died from radiation sickness in the following months. Three days later, on August 9, "Fat Man," a plutonium bomb, was dropped on Nagasaki, killing approximately 40,000 people instantly. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II. The bombings remain the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. They opened the nuclear age, triggered an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and posed a moral question that has haunted humanity ever since: was the use of atomic weapons justified, and could it ever be justified again? Total deaths from both bombings are estimated at over 200,000.