In July 1945, US President Harry Truman and allies demanded the “immediate and unconditional” surrender of Japan, but Japan did not issue a clear response. The Japanese had publicly stated their intent to fight to the bitter end, and were using tactics such as kamikaze attacks, suicide attacks by Japanese fighter pilots against US warships. Japan was a fierce enemy of the US and its allies, Britain, China and the Soviet Union during World War II.īy 1945, the allies had turned the tide of the war and pushed the Japanese forces back from many locations. Thousands more died from their injuries, radiation sickness and cancer in the years that followed, bringing the toll closer to 200,000, according to the Department of Energy’s history of the Manhattan Project. The radiation released from the explosion kept causing suffering. Those outdoors were burned to death, while those indoors were killed by the indescribable pressure and heat.”īut the damage did not end there. “All the dead and injured were burned beyond recognition. “The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things – human and animal – were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure set up by the blast,” Tokyo radio said in the aftermath of the explosion, according to a report by The Guardian in August 1945. The radius of total destruction was reportedly 1.6km. The resulting explosion killed 70,000 people instantly by December 1945, the death toll had risen to some 140,000. The destruction was unlike anything in the history of warfare. On August 6, 1945, at about 8:15am local time, the US aircraft Enola Gay dropped an untested uranium-235 gun-assembly bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” over Hiroshima. Civil society must reject self-centred nationalism and unite against all threats.”īelow we take a look at the events that devastated Hiroshima and ushered in the era of weapons of mass destruction. We must never allow this painful past to repeat itself. “A subsequent surge in nationalism led to World War II and the atomic bombings. “When the 1918 flu pandemic attacked a century ago, it took tens of millions of lives and terrorised the world because nations fighting World War I were unable to meet the threat together,” Matsui said. The mayor went on to urge Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to sign the international treaty banning nuclear weapons, and called on the world to unite in the face of global threats. “And yet, Hiroshima recovered, becoming a symbol of peace.”
Rumour at the time had it that ‘nothing will grow here for 75 years’,” Matsui said at the memorial ceremony. “On August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb destroyed our city. In a ceremony sharply downsized due to the coronavirus pandemic, survivors, their relatives and officials stood for a moment of silence as cicadas shrilled in the heavy summer heat and the Peace Bell rang out over Peace Park. The city that survived the world’s first atomic bombing marked the 75th anniversary of the attack in Japan on Thursday, with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urging nations to reject self-centred nationalism and commit more seriously to nuclear disarmament.