The United States detonated an atomic bomb above Hiroshima, Japan on this day in 1945. It was the first use of a nuclear weapon in history and one of only two used in an armed conflict. It would be followed by the bombing of Nagasaki three days later.
The writing was on the wall after Germany surrendered a month earlier, but Japan staunchly refused to give up. The U.S. knew it would have to invade the Japanese islands to force it to capitulate, and Japan prepared for that scenario by readying over half a million troops to defend them. If it had happened, the confrontation would have been the costliest of the war for the U.S.
President Harry Truman decided to take another path and deploy the atomic bomb that his country had been developing for years in a bid to end the war immediately. The bombing of Hiroshima killed somewhere between 90,000 and 166,000 people in a city of around 550,000 people, with many of them dying in the years following the blast from their injuries or radiation poisoning. It also hastened the war’s end; Japan surrendered in early September.
You can learn more about the bombing of Hiroshima at the National WWII Museum (which Annual Convention-goers should know is in New Orleans!).
