On August 6, 1945, the US Air Force’s Enola Gay B-29 bomber dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, exploding with the energy equivalent of between 13,000 and 18,000 tonnes of TNT. Three days later, the US also bombed Nagasaki. In total, between 90,000 and 166,000 people died in Hiroshima and between 60,000 and 80,000 in Nagasaki. The bombings were justified as a way to accelerate the capitulation of Imperial Japan. These attacks are the sole instance of nuclear weapons ever being used in a military conflict in the history of humanity. The US still rejects bearing any moral responsibility for the attacks, saying that the bombings were a military necessity. TASS recalls the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 74th anniversary of first atomic bomb in warfare
On August 6, 2019, Japan commemorates the 74th anniversary of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Photo {{sliderIndex+1}} from 9
On August 6, 1945 US bomber B-29 Enola Gay dropped a four-tonne uranium bomb codenamed Little Boy on Hiroshima
© AP Photo/File On August 9, 1945, the US also bombed Nagasaki. Photo: The Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, seen Sept. 13, 1945, is laid waste in the aftermath of the detonation of the atom bomb over a month ago over this city
© AP Photo/ACME/Stanley Troutman In total, between 90,000 and 166,000 people died in Hiroshima
© Fotokhronika TASS And between 60,000 and 80,000 people died in Nagasaki. Photo: People walking on a cleared path through the destruction resulting from the August 6 detonation of the first atomic bomb, Sept. 8, 1945
© APN Photo/U.S. Air Force, file The bombings were justified as a way to accelerate the capitulation of Imperial Japan
© AP Photo/File These attacks are the sole instance of nuclear weapons ever being used in a military conflict in the history of humanity. Photo: Survivors receiving emergency treatment by military medics shortly after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States over the Japanese city of Hiroshima
© AP Photo, File Survivors of the atomic bomb attack of Nagasaki walking through the destruction, Aug. 9, 1945
© AP Photo A huge expanse of ruins left the explosion of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima
© AP Photo Destroyed building in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, Sept. 8, 1945
© AP Photo