The early morning of August 6, 1945 gave no indication of the catastrophe that would change the world forever on that day. In Hiroshima people were rushing to work, classes had just started in schools, and a blue sky was shining over the city. At 8:16 a.m. the time stopped. “Little Boy” exploded in the middle of Hiroshima: the first atomic bomb in history to be used in war. The explosion heralded a new age.
On July 25, 1945, US President Harry S. Truman gave the order to use the new weapon. This was intended to force Japan to surrender in World War II. A few days later, the US bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Up to ten million degrees Celsius
At 8:16 a.m. and two seconds, the bomb exploded at a height of 600 meters. 43 seconds later, 80 percent of the city center was destroyed. 70,000 to 80,000 people died instantly. The explosive force of the “Little Boy” was equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. This resulted in temperatures of up to ten million degrees Celsius. In humans, literally the top layers of skin evaporated. Trees and houses went up in flames ten kilometers away.
The mushroom cloud rose 13 kilometers in the air. Radioactive fallout fell 20 minutes after the explosion. The nuclear radiation released killed thousands more people in the coming months. An estimated 140,000 people had died by 1946.
Nagasaki shares the fate of Hiroshima
But when Japan did not surrender immediately after dropping the first atomic bomb, a second followed. On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped the “Fat Man” plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. The bomb had an explosive force of 22,000 tons of TNT. At 11.02 a.m. it exploded over a densely populated urban area. 22,000 people died instantly. Another 40,000 died over the next four months.
On September 2, Japan signed the surrender.
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