Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day, August 1945
Channel: GlobalTrends
Date: 2020-08-05

It commemorates 6 August 1945, the day when an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, followed a few days later by another dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

First, of course, was to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end and spare American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union.

The bombs immediately devastated their targets. Over the next two to four months, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed between 90,000 and 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 and 80,000 people in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.

Among some there is the unfounded fear that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still radioactive; in reality, this is not true. Following a nuclear explosion, there are two forms of residual radioactivity. The first is the fallout of the nuclear material and fission products.

Today, Hiroshima has recovered into a bustling manufacturing hub with a population of 1.1 million people and counting.

#Japan 
#America
#WorldWar
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U.S. Department of Defense - U.S. Department of Defense, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92616
By Fastfission : File:Nagasaki 1945 - Before and after.jpg.U.S. National Archives : RG 77-MDH (according to William Burr, The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 162). - File:Nagasaki 1945 - Before and after.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=811044
By Fg2 - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2254994
By US Army - http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27569060