Hiroshima

Hello everyone,

                          A reminder of the day when a nuclear weapon was used during an armed conflict between two countries, and the lives it took while razing a city to the ground. The effects of the atomic bomb that was dropped by the US on the city of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, saw a large number of people continue to die months after the incident, and most were innocent civilians. In memory of the day and of those who lost their lives, August 6 is marked yearly as Hiroshima Day.

The incident took place in the final year of World War II, when the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the consent of the United Kingdom, which was as per the Quebec Agreement. The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and after three days, the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, and leveled the cities to the ground.

Along with the lives the bombs took, there was massive structural damage too, with Japanese officials stating that around 69 per cent of the buildings in Hiroshima were destroyed.

Following the bombings, Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15 and signed the instrument of surrender on September 2 in Tokyo Bay. It effectively brought an end to World War II, but not to the problems of the Japanese people, who even years later suffered health problems from being exposed to the high level of radiation.