70 Years Ago, A ‘Little Boy’ Was Dropped On Hiroshima & It Changed The World Forever

“If I had known they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker.” –Albert Einstein, after the Hiroshima bombing.

The world still struggles to come to terms with one of the greatest acts of mass murder in its history. On August 6, 1945, The Enola Gay, a U.S. warplane dropped the most powerful weapon on Hiroshima, a port and major army base in West Japan.

4
Image source

 

Reasons for the bombing

– The United States needed to use the atomic bomb before the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan to establish US dominance afterwards.

– The United States wanted to force Japan’s surrender as quickly as possible to minimize American casualties.

 

Decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

By the end of the WWII, most of Japan’s major cities were destroyed by U.S. air attacks. But, Hiroshima was still intact. So, Hiroshima was chosen as the target for the A-bomb. Shortly after successfully testing history’s first atomic explosion at Trinity, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, the order to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was issued on July 25.

 

When the watch stopped at 8:15 a.m.

xxx
Image source

The horrific moment that changed the world as well as Hiroshima in a millisecond.

 

Little Boy – The atomic bomb behind the destruction

Little_boy
Image source

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay was carrying the 3 meters in length by 0.7 meter in diameter uranium bomb nicknamed ‘Little Boy’,  which happened to be the first nuclear weapon in the world, had the power of 12.5 kilotons of TNT and weighed 3,600 kg.

 

That fateful day

A-hiroshima

 

The impact of the bombing on Hiroshima

70 years after the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see the images to see the devastation caused by the biggest terrorist attack in world history that killed an estimated 140,000 people in a city of 350,000.

1.

11
Image source

2.

2
Image source

3.

3
Image source

4.

6
Image source

5.

7
Image source

 

6.

9
Image source

 
Hiroshima has witnessed an amazing recovery from the city that burned to the ground in 1945 and is now a thriving metropolis.

1
Image source

 

The tree that survived the devastating Hiroshima bombing of 1945

tree
Image source

On the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing, let’s hope the world never be witness to this again.

Source

Cover Image Source 1 & 2

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.