"It’s pretty terrific. What a relief it worked" -Enola Gay crewman

On August 6, 1945, the world changed. That was the day that the first atomic bomb, known as "Little Boy," was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Ten days earlier, on July 26, the Allies had issued the Potsdam Declaration, giving the Empire of Japan the opportunity to end the war in the Pacific with unconditional surrender. Japan refused and in response, US President Harry S. Truman gave the order to drop the atomic bomb.

Photo: nuclearweaponarchive.org

In 1939, the Allies learned that the Nazis had discovered how to split uranium atoms. The fear was that the Germans would be able to develop this energy into an extremely dangerous weapon. In response, the Manhattan Project began, begun by Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, both refugees from Fascism. The utmost secrecy surrounded the project because neither the Germans nor the Japanese could know what was being developed in the United States.

Photo: biography.com

Photo: hanford.gov

July 16, 1945 was the first test of an atomic bomb at Trinity Site, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The result was unexpected. The force of the bomb blew out windows in homes 100 miles away, sand was turned into glass, a mushroom cloud arose and a half-mile wide crater was all that was left at the test site. While at the Potsdam Conference in Germany, President Truman learned of the successful test. 

Photo: atomicheritage.org (Moving the bomb, Jumbo, to the Trinity Site)

On the morning of August 6, the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" was loaded onto the B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay, named after the pilot's mother. At 7:00 a.m., the Japanese early warning radar detection network discovered the plane and its two escorts and sent out an alert to halt radio broadcasting. But by 8:00 a.m., it was determined that three planes did not present enough of a threat and the air raid alert was lifted. At 8:15 a.m., the bomb exploded over the port city and army base of Hiroshima. 70,000 people died instantly. Military leaders in Tokyo did not receive confirmation as to what exactly had happened at Hiroshima until President Truman issued a statement about the event the next day. 

Photo: atomicarchive.com

Today is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The official death count of people who died because of the bomb is now recorded at 292,325. The survivors of the bomb, known as hibakusha, are now over the age of 80. Up until now, they have been working diligently to convince the world that development of nuclear weapons needs to end but they are unsure how much longer they will live. Despite this, many will continue to fight the existence of nuclear weapons and so will their families.

The decision to drop the bomb was made because Japan refused to surrender and the normal path to victory would cost countless Allied lives. But was it worth it to destroy the lives of more than 290,000 people? The hibakusha deal with illnesses and cancer that are related to the radioactive fall-out they endured.

Photo: theguardian.com (Sunao Tsuboi points to himself in a photo taken three hours after the bombing)

Follow the link to watch a video about a 14 year-old girl's experience at the time of the bombing. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33772230?OCID=twitterasia)