Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
By the summer of 1945 Japan's military position was hopeless. On 6 August 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped 'Little Boy' — a uranium bomb — on Hiroshima. The explosion destroyed 90 per cent of the city instantly; between 70,000 and 80,000 people died on the day, with radiation deaths raising the total to as many as 140,000 by year's end. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August, killing 40,000–80,000. On the same day the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration in a radio address on 15 August — the first time most Japanese had heard his voice. Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945 aboard USS Missouri. The bombings produced not only massive trauma — the hibakusha (survivor) experience shaping Japanese culture for decades — but also a constitutional pacifism enshrined in Article 9 of the 1947 constitution.
- Year: 1945 CE
- Category: Military
