Hiroshima and Nagasaki The First and Only Use of Nuclear Weapons in World History

Hiroshima, Japan: August 6th, :15 am: The mushroom cloud looms over the city and tens of thousands of people are killed instantly.

Hiroshima, Japan: August 6th, 1945 The atomic bomb fell 400 meters from a shopping center. Not a living thing in sight. The atomic bomb fell 400 meters from a shopping center. Not a living thing in sight. Hiroshima, Japan: August 6th, 1945

The shadow of a man burned onto a granite step. Hiroshima, Japan: August 6th, 1945

Lunch Box Reiko Watanabe (15 at the time) was doing fire prevention work under the Student Mobilization Order, at a place 500 meters from the hypocenter. Her lunch box was found by school authorities under a fallen mud wall. Its contents of boiled peas and rice, a rare feast at the time, were completely carbonized. Her body was not found.

Watch Kengo Futagawa (59 at the time) was crossing the Kannon Bridge (1,600 meters from the hypocenter) by bicycle on his way to do fire prevention work. He jumped into the river, terribly burned. He returned home, but died on August 22, 1945.

Deformed Nail Yoshio Hamada (26 at the time) was at Army Division Headquarters, 700 meters from the hypocenter. His left hand, which was hanging out of a window when the bomb fell, was burned by thermal radiation. His injury resulted in an abnormal growth of fingernails on his left hand. Even today he suffers from this continual abnormal growth. As the nails contain blood vessels, they cannot be trimmed without bleeding.

Hair Hiroko Yamashita (18 at the time) was at home. 800 meters from the hypocenter. She and her six-year-old brother were caught under the house as it collapsed. After rescuing her brother, she sought refuge elsewhere in the fire-ravaged town. On August 21, her younger brother died. Around August 25, when her mother combed her hair, all of it fell out with only three strokes.

Seven years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima hastily dug graves were excavated. This one contained 252 bodies.

Nagasaki, Japan: August 9th, :02 am: A mushroom cloud looms over the city.

Nagasaki, Japan: August 9th, 1945 Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki. It took thirty years to build this cathedral. It disappeared instantly when the bomb fell 500 meters from it.

Nagasaki, Japan: August 9th, 1945 The charred remains of a boy found on August 10th, 700 meters from the hypocenter in Nagasaki.

Nagasaki, Japan: August 9th, 1945 Doctors remove maggots from a boy's burns.

What followed?

Victims of the Nuclear Arms Race There were almost 250,000 U.S. soldiers who became 'atomic veterans' after taking part in nuclear tests and military exercises. Some of them were forced to march into the ground zero area immediately after a nuclear explosion.

The U.S. began nuclear testing in the Nevada Desert in Radioactive dust was carried downwind to Utah and Arizona and polluted the local people, cattle, and farms products. The child cancer rate rose sharply in these areas. It is reported that 750,000 people suffered from the radiation.

Victims of the Nuclear Arms Race

This boy was exposed to nuclear fallout from a U.S. nuclear test on the Marshall Islands. He had burns all over his body due to the deadly ashes (fallout containing radioactive dust and powdered coral blown up by the nuclear explosion). He died from cancer several years later.