You can take a virtual tour of the peace memorials in both cities.
Eighty years ago this week, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, another fell on the city of Nagasaki. Between 120,000 and 220,000 people died in the blasts or from burns, other wounds and radiation exposure over the next few months.
In the summer of 1945, the war in Europe was over, but fighting in the Pacific remained intense. The U.S. and its allies were closing in on the Japanese mainland, yet Japan’s military refused to surrender.
Hiroshima, a manufacturing center of about 350,000 people, had a key military role, serving as the port for much of Japan’s Imperial Navy.
On Aug. 6, 1945, an American B-29 dropped the world’s first atomic bomb used in warfare. The detonation over the city instantly killed about 80,000 people and left tens of thousands more exposed to lethal radiation. Three days later, a second A-bomb was detonated over Nagasaki, immediately killing an estimated 40,000 people.
On Aug. 15, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, ending World War II. On Aug. 6, 1949 — the four-year anniversary of the bombing — the Japanese people decided the Hiroshima district should be maintained as a peace memorial.
