Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Date

6 & 9 August 1945

Category

Military & conflict

Region

East Asia (Japan)

Era

Modern

Significance

The United States detonated nuclear weapons over Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945) — the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. The strikes killed an estimated 110,000–210,000 people, the great majority civilians, from blast, fire and radiation.

Combined with the Soviet declaration of war on Japan on 8 August, the bombings preceded Japan's announcement of surrender on 15 August and the formal surrender on 2 September 1945, ending World War II. The attacks inaugurated the nuclear age and the strategic logic of deterrence that would shape the Cold War and international relations for decades.

Empires active in 6 & 9 August 1945

• Soviet Union
  1922 CE – 1991 CE
• Empire of Japan
  1868 CE – 1947 CE
• French Colonial Empire (Second)
  1830 CE – 1962 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE – 1997 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE – 1976 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE

Related military & conflict events

• D-Day: the Normandy landings
  6 June 1944
• Battle of Stalingrad
  23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943
• Attack on Pearl Harbor
  7 December 1941
• Operation Barbarossa: German invasion of the Soviet Union
  22 June 1941
• German invasion of Poland and outbreak of World War II
  1 September 1939
• Second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre
  7 July 1937 – 2 September 1945

Further reading

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

If you read one book

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Richard Rhodes

The Pulitzer-winning definitive account of the bomb and its use.

Get it on Amazon →

Also worth reading

• Hiroshima — John HerseyAmazon →
• Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath — Paul HamAmazon →

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