(Mushroom clouds visible from Enola Gay just after dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Photo credit: Everett Collection/Shutterstock
At 80 years ago today, at 8:15am, the world entered a terrifying new era. From the belly of an American B-29 bomber Inola Gaythe first atomic bomb used in the war fell towards Hiroshima city. Weapon, codename “Little Boy” It exploded from 600 meters above the ground, releasing an explosion equal to about 15,000 tonnes of TNT. A blind flash of light and a wave of heat at its center of temperature exceeding 4,000 degrees Celsius, disappeared Hiroshima.
Within seconds, about 78,000 men, women and children had died. By the end of 1945, tolls had reached approximately 140,000 as burns, injuries and radiation diseases had killed more lives. The whole neighborhood has disappeared. The city, home to about 350,000 people, has become a wasteland of smoldering ruins. Three days later, August 9th, the second bomb, nickname “Fatman” It fell to Nagasaki and killed an estimated 40,000-70,000 people at that moment, and 80,000 by the end of the year. On August 15th, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender. World War II, the most deadly conflict in history, is over. But the atomic bombs did more than end the war. They marked the beginning of the nuclear age. This is an era when humanity quickly acquired the ability to annihilate itself.
Hiroshima was chosen for its military importance and housed the headquarters of the Second General Army and Supply Reservoir, but was also a civilian city, including school children mobilized for wartime labor. When the bomb exploded, thousands of these students were clearing the fire outside and preparing for an air raid. Many were incinerated immediately.
The explosion leveled 70% of the city’s buildings. Fire was furious at the out of control. Those who survived the first explosion shifted through the scenery of hell, their skin burning and hanging from their bodies, searching for water they couldn’t save. During the following days and months, radiation poisoning caused symptoms: hair loss, internal bleeding, death: little is the understanding of the doctor. Recorded by survivors and later published around the world, these accounts were horrified even by those who believed the bomb had been justified. The photographs of Hiroshima burned at the ruins where the family once lived, and burned at concrete, becoming a symbol of humanity’s ability to destruction.
Atomic bomb father and calm reflection
Behind the cloud of mushrooms that rose above Hiroshima were the minds of years of secret research and the magnificent, conflicted scientists. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Sciences of the Manhattan Project, oversaw the development of the world’s first nuclear weapons at Los Alamos.
(On July 16, 1945, when the first atomic device was tested in the New Mexico Desert at the Trinity Site, Oppenheimer famously recalls a line from the Hindu Bible.Bhagavad Gita:
“Now I’m dead, the destroyer of the world.” The phrase he spoke while looking at the dizzying light of the first atomic explosion became one of the historic most memorable acknowledgements of scientific achievements intertwined with moral fear. Oppenheimer himself later admitted that he felt deep regret and fear about what he helped create, and that he had told President Truman after the war, “President, I feel that I have blood in my hands.” The bomb was more than just a weapon. It was the beginning of an existential problem for humanity. Is knowledge unleashed by science ever truly controlled, or will it ultimately destroy its creator?
Did the bomb end the war or have it changed?
From the moment the mushroom cloud rises above Hiroshima, one question is plagued by history. Was that necessary?
(By the summer of 1945, Japan’s military status was hopeless. Its navy and air force had been crushed. The city was abandoned from months of traditional bombing raids that had already killed hundreds of thousands, and Tokyo’s firefighting alone had killed 100,000 people in one night. Food shortages and illnesses had been ramping.
The US claimed that the atomic bomb saved lives for both the US and Japan by forcing immediate surrender. Estimates at the time suggest that invasion of Japan’s hometown island, known as a downfall operation, could take the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of Japanese people. President Harry S. Truman defended the decision as a necessary step to “end the war and save lives.” Some note that Japanese leaders showed no signs of unconditional surrender by August 1945. Others argue that Japan is already on the verge of collapse, and that the Soviet entry into the war, declared on August 8, is likely to end the conflict without bombing. Critics argue that bombing is not a purely military decision, but a political decision designed to insist on our control in the postwar order and threaten the Soviet Union. Secret documents reveal that some American officials believe that if they are guaranteed about the emperor’s position, Japan may surrender if they provide guarantees that were ultimately given after the bomb has fallen. Discussions endure as they bump into the heart of wartime morality. Could massive killings of civilians be justified to shorten the war?
For those who have overcome it, the question is not abstract. Survivors, hibakusha, I endured unimaginable pain ever since the war. They faced radiation-induced illness, social stigma and psychological scars. Some people lost their entire family in an instant. Their testimony, stored in museums and archives, speaks of children crying for water, black rain falling from the sky, and bodies floating in rivers.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park now stands where the epicenter of the blast used to be burning. Each year, on August 6th, thousands gather to mourn, remember and encourage the world to not repeat fear. This year’s ceremony attracted representatives from over 120 countries. The city mayor called for new efforts to disarmament at a time when such efforts were shaking.
80 years from now: the world
Anniversaries come in a harsh background. The war in Ukraine revived the ghosts of nuclear weapons with global rhetoric. Military spending is rising around the world. The US, Russia and China are modernizing nuclear weapons. Smaller forces are pursuing advanced missile programs. Strategic doctrines openly debate the language of “limited nuclear strikes” and “nuclear attacks” that defend disarmament. Meanwhile, the war has been raging in multiple regions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. According to the Global Peace Index, 2024 recorded the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II. The very conditions Hiroshima had intended to warn against unidentified militarism, arms race and political brinks again.
Eighty years later, Hiroshima remains both wounds and warnings. Whether the atomic bomb was a necessary evil will never be answered to the satisfaction of everyone. What is clear is that that August morning, the world entered an era of existential risk. The survivor’s pleas were simple. Never again. However, the problem persists as nuclear weapons remain stockpiled by around 12,000 cases in nine countries. Has humanity really learned Hiroshima’s lessons, or is history preparing to repeat itself?
