The atomic bombs that fell on August 6 and 9, 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki became a historic day for Japan and people in the world. The bombing was carried out by the United States as a form of retaliation for the US being attacked by Japan on December 7, 1941. The United States dropped the atomic bombs after obtaining the consent of Great Britain as officially agreed in the Quebec Agreement. The operations of nuclear bombs which killed at least 120,000 civilians were the first and only use of nuclear weapons in the history of mankind.
Prior to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, tensions between the US and Japan had been rising for decades before World War II. Japan’s occupation of eastern China led to war between the two countries in 1937. The US and Japan have been at war for nearly four years, since April 1941. Bloody conflicts and fierce battles in the Pacific have claimed the lives of millions of Japanese and Americans. The war in Europe had ended almost two months earlier, in May 1945, after Germany’s unconditional surrender. The US was preparing for a land invasion of Japan that would be extremely difficult to fight. It was estimated that at least 500,000 Americans soldiers were likely to die. At the same time, the US had been developing the nuclear bomb since the late 1930s after hearing that Germany was developing the nuclear weapons. The bomb was ready by the summer of 1945. The Allies called on Japan to surrender at the end of July 1945 and threatened total annihilation if Japan did not surrender.
Because Japan did not raise the white flag, on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. The city was destroyed, tens of thousands of people died instantly, and as many as 146,000 people died three months after the attack. Many victims reportedly suffered from cancer and other forms of illness caused by the bomb’s radiation. Majority of buildings in the area were totally destroyed or damaged. Japanese government somehow knew that another attack could happen after Hiroshima, but they decided to hold out rather than surrender. The next attack, another bomb nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. A total of 80,000 people died. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians including infants and children.
It was on August 15, nearly a week after the attack on Nagasaki, that Japan surrendered to the US and the Allies. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities were rebuilt after the war, although Hiroshima was hit by a typhoon in September 1945 that also caused major destruction. About 145,000 survivors of either bombing – called “hibakusha” in Japanese – were still alive as of March, 2019, according to the Japanese government. Memorials have been installed in both cities for the victims of the bombings.
