August 6, 1945

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima

At 8:15 a.m., much of Hiroshima was starting an ordinary workday; thousands of schoolchildren were outdoors clearing firebreaks. The bomb detonated about 600 metres above a hospital.

6 August 1945, 8:15 a.m.

On the morning of 6 August 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay — piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, with an 11-man crew including weaponeer William Parsons, who helped arm the bomb in flight — approached Hiroshima from Tinian carrying the uranium gun-type weapon called Little Boy.

At 8:15 a.m. local time, bombardier Thomas Ferebee released the bomb. It detonated approximately 600 metres above Shima Hospital near the city center — an airburst, not a ground strike. Sources differ slightly on whether 8:15 marks release or detonation, since the bomb fell for roughly 43 seconds.

What the blast did to a city of roughly 350,000

The detonation produced blast, thermal radiation, ionizing radiation and widespread fires. Hiroshima's survey recorded 51,787 of 76,327 buildings completely destroyed or burned and 6,180 partially destroyed; nearly every building within about two kilometres of the hypocenter was destroyed or burned, and the city's institutions and communications collapsed.

Among the dead were approximately 6,000 young people mobilized outdoors to clear fire lanes. The city held civilians, soldiers, Korean and Taiwanese colonial subjects, foreign students, clergy and U.S. prisoners of war — population records were destroyed, which is one reason no exact death toll can be established.

Counting the uncountable

Tens of thousands died that day; many others died later from burns, traumatic injuries and acute radiation effects. Hiroshima's official estimate is approximately 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945, expressed by the prefecture as 140,000 ±10,000 — with the caveat that the precise toll cannot be known.

Hiroshima was the first wartime use of a nuclear weapon; Nagasaki, three days later, was the second — together they remain the only two. From Enola Gay's tail position, gunner George Caron photographed the rising cloud; his image became the official Army Air Forces photograph of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date and approximate time are firmly documented. Sources differ slightly over whether 8:15 denotes release or detonation because the bomb fell for roughly 43 seconds; minute-level accounts conventionally use 8:15 for the bombing.
No exact death toll exists. Hiroshima’s official estimate is approximately 140,000 by the end of December 1945, with an uncertainty of about ±10,000. Figures such as 90,000–166,000 usually differ in methodology and cutoff date.
Immediate-death estimates are especially uncertain because population records were destroyed and the city contained commuters, mobilized workers, military personnel and people from colonized territories.
The proportion of victims who were civilians cannot be reduced reliably to the article’s precise 90% claim from the official evidence consulted.