A report on Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)
U.S. Army propaganda poster depicting Uncle Sam preparing the public for the invasion of Japan after ending war on Germany and Italy
A B-29 over Osaka on 1 June 1945
The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945, was the single deadliest air raid in history; with a greater area of fire damage and loss of life than either of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
Leslie Groves, Manhattan Project director, with a map of Japan
The "Tinian Joint Chiefs": Captain William S. Parsons (left), Rear Admiral William R. Purnell (center), and Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell (right)
Aircraft of the 509th Composite Group that took part in the Hiroshima bombing. Left to right: Big Stink, The Great Artiste, Enola Gay
The mission runs of 6 and 9 August, with Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kokura (the original target for 9 August) displayed
Various leaflets were dropped on Japan, three versions showing the names of 11 or 12 Japanese cities targeted for destruction by firebombing. The other side contained text stating "...we cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked ..."
General Thomas Handy's order to General Carl Spaatz ordering the dropping of the atomic bombs
The Enola Gay dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Paul Tibbets (center in photograph) can be seen with six of the aircraft's crew.
Strike order for the Hiroshima bombing as posted on 5 August 1945
The Hiroshima atom bomb cloud 2–5 minutes after detonation
For decades this "Hiroshima strike" photo was misidentified as the mushroom cloud of the bomb that formed at c. 08:16. However, due to its much greater height, the scene was identified by a researcher in March 2016 as the firestorm-cloud that engulfed the city, a fire that reached its peak intensity some three hours after the bomb.
Leaflet AB12, with information on the Hiroshima bomb and a warning to civilians to petition the Emperor to surrender was dropped over Japan beginning on 9 August, by the 509th Composite Group. An AB11 is in the possession of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
The Bockscar and its crew, who dropped a Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki
The harbor at Nagasaki in August 1945 before the city was hit with the atomic bomb
Strike order for the Nagasaki bombing as posted 8 August 1945
Nagasaki before and after the bombing, after the fires had burned out.
Urakami Tenshudo (Catholic Church in Nagasaki) destroyed by the bomb, the dome/bell of the church, at right, having toppled off
The Nagasaki Prefecture Report on the bombing characterized Nagasaki as "like a graveyard with not a tombstone standing".
Partially incinerated child in Nagasaki. Photo from Japanese photographer Yōsuke Yamahata, one day after the blast and building fires had subsided. Once the American forces had Japan under their military control, they imposed censorship on all such images including those from the conventional bombing of Tokyo; this prevented the distribution of Yamahata's photographs. These restrictions were lifted in 1952.
Memorandum from Groves to Marshall regarding the third bomb, with Marshall's hand-written caveat that the third bomb not be used without express presidential instruction.
A telegram sent by Fritz Bilfinger, delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on 30 August 1945 from Hiroshima
Torii, Nagasaki, Japan. One-legged torii in the background

The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively.

- Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

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The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project on 16 July 1945 was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.

Manhattan Project

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Research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons.

Research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons.

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project on 16 July 1945 was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.
Enrico Fermi, John R. Dunning, and Dana P. Mitchell in front of the cyclotron in the basement of Pupin Hall at Columbia University
March 1940 meeting at Berkeley, California: Ernest O. Lawrence, Arthur H. Compton, Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant, Karl T. Compton, and Alfred L. Loomis
Different fission bomb assembly methods explored during the July 1942 conference
Manhattan Project Organization Chart, 1 May 1946
Oppenheimer and Groves at the remains of the Trinity test in September 1945, two months after the test blast and just after the end of World War II. The white overshoes prevented fallout from sticking to the soles of their shoes.
Groves confers with James Chadwick, the head of the British Mission.
Shift change at the Y-12 uranium enrichment facility at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on 11 August 1945. By May 1945, 82,000 people were employed at the Clinton Engineer Works. Photograph by the Manhattan District photographer Ed Westcott.
Physicists at a Manhattan District-sponsored colloquium at the Los Alamos Laboratory on the Super in April 1946. In the front row are Norris Bradbury, John Manley, Enrico Fermi and J. (Jerome) M. B. Kellogg (1905-1981). Robert Oppenheimer, in dark coat, is behind Manley; to Oppenheimer's left is Richard Feynman. The Army officer on the left is Colonel Oliver Haywood.
Map of Los Alamos site, New Mexico, 1943–45
Hanford workers collect their paychecks at the Western Union office.
The majority of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project came from the Shinkolobwe mine in Belgian Congo.
Oak Ridge hosted several uranium separation technologies. The Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant is in the upper right. The K-25 and K-27 gaseous diffusion plants are in the lower left, near the S-50 thermal diffusion plant. The X-10 was for plutonium production.
Alpha I racetrack at Y-12
Calutron Girls were young women who monitored calutron control panels at Y-12. Gladys Owens, seated in the foreground, was unaware of what she had been involved in.
Oak Ridge K-25 plant
The S-50 plant is the dark building to the upper left behind the Oak Ridge powerhouse (with smoke stacks).
Workers load uranium slugs into the X-10 Graphite Reactor.
Aerial view of Hanford B-Reactor site, June 1944
Map of the Hanford Site. Railroads flank the plants to the north and south. Reactors are the three northernmost red squares, along the Columbia River. The separation plants are the lower two red squares from the grouping south of the reactors. The bottom red square is the 300 area.
A row of Thin Man casings. Fat Man casings are visible in the background.
An implosion-type nuclear bomb
Remote handling of a kilocurie source of radiolanthanum for a RaLa Experiment at Los Alamos
The explosives of "the gadget" were raised to the top of the tower for the final assembly.
The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.
Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., speaks to service personnel Oak Ridge Tennessee in August 1945.
A billboard encouraging secrecy among Oak Ridge workers
Security poster, warning office workers to close drawers and put documents in safes when not being used
Allied soldiers dismantle the German experimental nuclear reactor at Haigerloch.
Silverplate B-29 Straight Flush. The tail code of the 444th Bombardment Group is painted on for security reasons.
Little Boy explodes over Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945 (left); Fat Man explodes over Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945 (right).
Presentation of the Army–Navy "E" Award at Los Alamos on 16 October 1945. Standing, left to right: J. Robert Oppenheimer, unidentified, unidentified, Kenneth Nichols, Leslie Groves, Robert Gordon Sproul, William Sterling Parsons.
President Harry S. Truman signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, establishing the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
The Lake Ontario Ordnance Works (LOOW) near Niagara Falls became a principal repository for Manhattan Project waste for the Eastern United States. All of the radioactive materials stored at the LOOW site—including thorium, uranium, and the world's largest concentration of radium-226—were buried in an "Interim Waste Containment Structure" (in the foreground) in 1991.
A "bomb" (pressure vessel) containing uranium halide and sacrificial metal, probably magnesium, being lowered into a furnace
After the reaction, the interior of a bomb coated with remnant slag
A uranium metal "biscuit" from the reduction reaction

Little Boy and Fat Man bombs were used a month later in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, with Manhattan Project personnel serving as bomb assembly technicians and weaponeers on the attack aircraft.

Replica of the original Fat Man bomb

Fat Man

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Replica of the original Fat Man bomb
Replica of the original Fat Man bomb
Replica mockup of a Fat Man displayed in the National Museum of the United States Air Force, beside the Bockscar B-29 that dropped the original device – black liquid asphalt sealant was sprayed over the original bomb casing's seams, simulated on the mockup.
Flash X-ray images of the converging shock waves formed during a test of the high-explosive lens system.
A pumpkin bomb (Fat Man test unit) being raised from the pit into the bomb bay of a B-29 for bombing practice during the weeks before the attack on Nagasaki.
Fat Man internal schematic
Fat Man's detonation method
Fat Man's "physics package" nuclear device about to be encased
Fat Man on its transport carriage, with liquid asphalt sealant applied over the casing's seams
Preserved Tinian "bomb pit#2", where Fat Man was loaded aboard Bockscar
Mushroom cloud after Fat Man exploded over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945
Effects of the Fat Man's detonation on Nagasaki
Espionage information procured by Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall, and David Greenglass led to the first Soviet device "RDS–1" (above), which closely resembled Fat Man, even in its external shape.

"Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States on 9 August 1945.

A post-war Little Boy model

Little Boy

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A post-war Little Boy model
As part of Project Alberta, Commander A. Francis Birch (left) assembles the bomb while physicist Norman Ramsey watches. This is one of the rare photos where the inside of the bomb can be seen.
The "gun" assembly method. When the hollow uranium projectile was driven onto the target cylinder, a nuclear explosion resulted.
Two Little Boy type bombs with casings open.
Arming plugs for a Little Boy type atomic bomb on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
Little Boy in the bomb pit on Tinian island, before being loaded into Enola Gays bomb bay. A section of the bomb bay door is visible on the top right.
Enola Gay after Hiroshima mission, entering hardstand. It is in its 6th Bombardment Group livery, with victor number 82 visible on fuselage just forward of the tail fin.
The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of Little Boy
Frame house in 1953 nuclear test, 5 psi overpressure
Hiroshima blast and fire damage, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey map
One of five casings built for the Little Boy bomb used on Hiroshima on display at the Imperial War Museum in London during 2015

"Little Boy" was the codename for the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) as General Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945.

Surrender of Japan

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Announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close.

Announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) as General Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945.
Representatives of the Empire of Japan stand aboard USS Missouri (BB-63) prior to signing of the Instrument of Surrender.
Allied landings in the Pacific Theatre of operations, August 1942 to August 1945
The rebuilt battlecruiser sank at her moorings in the naval base of Kure on July 24 during a series of bombings.
The Suzuki cabinet in June 1945
As prime minister, Admiral Kantarō Suzuki headed the Japanese government in the final months of the war.
Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō
Naotake Satō
A session of the Potsdam Conference – those pictured include Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William D. Leahy, James F. Byrnes, and Harry S. Truman
Atomic bombing of Nagasaki
War Minister Korechika Anami
A leaflet dropped on Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima. The leaflet says, in part: The Japanese people are facing an extremely important autumn. Your military leaders were presented with thirteen articles for surrender by our three-country alliance to put an end to this unprofitable war. This proposal was ignored by your army leaders... [T]he United States has developed an atom bomb, which had not been done by any nation before. It has been determined to employ this frightening bomb. One atom bomb has the destructive power of 2000 B-29s.
Kenji Hatanaka, leader of the coup d'état
The coup collapsed after Shizuichi Tanaka convinced the rebellious officers to go home. Tanaka committed suicide nine days later.
Allied personnel celebrate the Japanese surrender in Paris.
Allied battleships in Sagami Bay, August 28, 1945
MacArthur at surrender ceremony. The flag flown by Perry is visible in the background.
Gen. Umezu signed

On 6 August 1945, at 8:15 AM local time, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, which led J. Robert Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one "... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".

Nuclear weapon

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Explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb).

Explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb).

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, which led J. Robert Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one "... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".
Robert Oppenheimer, principal leader of the Manhattan Project, often referred to as the "father of the atomic bomb".
The two basic fission weapon designs
The basics of the Teller–Ulam design for a hydrogen bomb: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heat a separate section of fusion fuel.
Edward Teller, often referred to as the "father of the hydrogen bomb"
The first nuclear weapons were gravity bombs, such as this "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. They were large and could only be delivered by heavy bomber aircraft
A demilitarized, commercial launch of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces R-36 ICBM; also known by the NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan. Upon its first fielding in the late 1960s, the SS-18 remains the single highest throw weight missile delivery system ever built.
Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles
The now decommissioned United States' Peacekeeper missile was an ICBM developed to replace the Minuteman missile in the late 1980s. Each missile, like the heavier lift Russian SS-18 Satan, could contain up to ten nuclear warheads (shown in red), each of which could be aimed at a different target. A factor in the development of MIRVs was to make complete missile defense difficult for an enemy country.
The International Atomic Energy Agency was created in 1957 to encourage peaceful development of nuclear technology while providing international safeguards against nuclear proliferation.
UN vote on adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on July 7, 2017
Large stockpile with global range (dark blue), smaller stockpile with global range (medium blue), small stockpile with regional range (light blue).
The USSR and United States nuclear weapon stockpiles throughout the Cold War until 2015, with a precipitous drop in total numbers following the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Ukrainian workers use equipment provided by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to dismantle a Soviet-era missile silo. After the end of the Cold War, Ukraine and the other non-Russian, post-Soviet republics relinquished Soviet nuclear stockpiles to Russia.
Anti-nuclear weapons protest march in Oxford, 1980
Over 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted in over a dozen different sites around the world. Red Russia/Soviet Union, blue France, light blue United States, violet Britain, yellow China, orange India, brown Pakistan, green North Korea and light green (territories exposed to nuclear bombs). The Black dot indicates the location of the Vela Incident.
This view of downtown Las Vegas shows a mushroom cloud in the background. Scenes such as this were typical during the 1950s. From 1951 to 1962 the government conducted 100 atmospheric tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site.
A photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi's back injuries taken in January 1946 by a U.S. Marine photographer
Protest in Bonn against the nuclear arms race between the U.S./NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1981
Demonstration against nuclear testing in Lyon, France, in the 1980s.

Nuclear weapons have been deployed twice in war, by the United States against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II.

The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

World War II

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Global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945.

Global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945.

The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930
Adolf Hitler at a German Nazi political rally in Nuremberg, August 1933
Benito Mussolini inspecting troops during the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935
The bombing of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, sparked fears abroad in Europe that the next war would be based on bombing of cities with very high civilian casualties.
Japanese Imperial Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937
Red Army artillery unit during the Battle of Lake Khasan, 1938
Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939
Soldiers of the German Wehrmacht tearing down the border crossing into Poland, 1 September 1939
Soldiers of the Polish Army during the defence of Poland, September 1939
Finnish machine gun nest aimed at Soviet Red Army positions during the Winter War, February 1940
German advance into Belgium and Northern France, 10 May-4 June 1940, swept past the Maginot Line (shown in dark red)
London seen from St. Paul's Cathedral after the German Blitz, 29 December 1940
Soldiers of the British Commonwealth forces from the Australian Army's 9th Division during the Siege of Tobruk; North African Campaign, September 1941
German Panzer III of the Afrika Korps advancing across the North African desert, April-May 1941
European theatre of World War II animation map, 1939–1945 – Red: Western Allies and the Soviet Union after 1941; Green: Soviet Union before 1941; Blue: Axis powers
German soldiers during the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis powers, 1941
Soviet civilians leaving destroyed houses after a German bombardment during the Battle of Leningrad, 10 December 1942
Japanese soldiers entering Hong Kong, 8 December 1941
The USS Arizona (BB-39) was a total loss in the Japanese surprise air attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Sunday 7 December 1941.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill seated at the Casablanca Conference, January 1943
Map of Japanese military advances through mid-1942
US Marines during the Guadalcanal Campaign, in the Pacific theatre, 1942
Red Army soldiers on the counterattack during the Battle of Stalingrad, February 1943
American 8th Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombing raid on the Focke-Wulf factory in Germany, 9 October 1943
U.S. Navy SBD-5 scout plane flying patrol over USS Washington (BB-56) and USS Lexington (CV-16) during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, 1943
Red Army troops in a counter-offensive on German positions at the Battle of Kursk, July 1943
Ruins of the Benedictine monastery, during the Battle of Monte Cassino, Italian Campaign, May 1944
American troops approaching Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944
German SS soldiers from the Dirlewanger Brigade, tasked with suppressing the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation, August 1944
General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte, 20 October 1944
Yalta Conference held in February 1945, with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin
Ruins of the Reichstag in Berlin, 3 June 1945.
Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
Ruins of Warsaw in 1945, after the deliberate destruction of the city by the occupying German forces
Defendants at the Nuremberg trials, where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany for crimes against humanity
Post-war border changes in Central Europe and creation of the Communist Eastern Bloc
David Ben-Gurion proclaiming the Israeli Declaration of Independence at the Independence Hall, 14 May 1948
World War II deaths
Bodies of Chinese civilians killed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Nanking Massacre in December 1937
Schutzstaffel (SS) female camp guards removing prisoners' bodies from lorries and carrying them to a mass grave, inside the German Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945
Prisoner identity photograph taken by the German SS of a Polish Catholic girl who died in Auschwitz. Approximately 230,000 children were held prisoner and used in forced labour and Nazi medical experiments.
Polish civilians wearing blindfolds photographed just before their execution by German soldiers in Palmiry forest, 1940
Soviet partisans hanged by the German army. The Russian Academy of Sciences reported in 1995 civilian victims in the Soviet Union at German hands totalled 13.7 million dead, twenty percent of the 68 million persons in the occupied Soviet Union.
B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers on the Boeing assembly line in Wichita, Kansas, 1944
A V-2 rocket launched from a fixed site in Peenemünde, 21 June 1943
Nuclear Gadget being raised to the top of the detonation "shot tower", at Alamogordo Bombing Range; Trinity nuclear test, New Mexico, July 1945

Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and the only two uses of nuclear weapons in war.

Hiroshima

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Capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan.

Capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan.

Hiroshima Urban Employment Area
Downtown Hiroshima
Hondōri Shopping Street
Hiroshima Zero Gate
Former Faculty of Science Building No. 1 at Hiroshima University
Satake Memorial Hall at Hiroshima University (in Higashihiroshima City)
Hiroshima Airport
Astram Line
Shukkei-en
Hiroshima Flower Festival 2011
A man making an okonomiyaki at a restaurant in Hiroshima
Edion Stadium Hiroshima
Mazda Stadium, home of Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
Mitaki-dera
Fudoin
Hiroshima Castle
Old Mitsui Bank Hiroshima Branch (1928)
Map of Hiroshima City in the 1930s (Japanese edition)
Old Hiroshima Army Weapon Depot
Hiroshima August 1945
Hiroshima in October 1945, two months after the bombing
Old Teikoku Bank Hiroshima Branch（1945）
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
alt=Atomic Bomb Dome by night on 8 September 2017|Atomic Bomb Dome by Jan Letzel and modern Hiroshima
Andersen Takaki Bakery
Atomic Bomb Dome by night
Hiroshima City CBD (2005)
Skyline of Hiroshima City from Mount Futaba（2019）
Hiroshima Station (2021)
Around Hondōri Station (2010)
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (2010)
Hiroshima Station
Hiroshima Bus Center
A Hiroshima tram, 2015
Hiroden
Hiroshima–Nishi Airport
Port of Hiroshima
Niho JCT
Hiroshima Expressway
Hiroshima City CBD (2016)

This occurred on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on the city.

The Pacific War Council as photographed on 12 October 1942. Pictured are representatives from the United States (seated), Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, the Netherlands, and the Philippine Commonwealth

Pacific War

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The theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania.

The theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania.

The Pacific War Council as photographed on 12 October 1942. Pictured are representatives from the United States (seated), Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, the Netherlands, and the Philippine Commonwealth
Political map of the Asia-Pacific region, 1939
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theater from 1942 to 1945
A mass grave of Chinese prisoners killed by the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre
Chinese casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese aerial bombing of Chongqing
USS Arizona (BB-39) burned for two days after being hit by a Japanese bomb in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japanese aerial photo of battleship HMS Prince of Wales (top) and battlecruiser HMS Repulse under attack.
British forces surrender Singapore to the Japanese, February 1942
The Bombing of Darwin, Australia, 19 February 1942
Surrender of US forces at Corregidor, Philippines, May 1942
Dutch and Australian PoWs at Tarsau, in Thailand in 1943. 22,000 Australians were captured by the Japanese; 8,000 died as prisoners of war.
US General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area, with Australian Prime Minister John Curtin
Japanese advance until mid-1942
A B-25 bomber takes off from USS Hornet (CV-8) as part of the Doolittle Raid.
The aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) explodes on 8 May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.
under attack by B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers
US Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign in November 1942.
Chinese troops during the Battle of Changde in November 1943
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and General Joseph Stilwell, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945
Allied attack routes against the Empire of Japan
American forces landing at Rendova Island, June, 1943
The Allied leaders of the Asian and Pacific Theaters: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill meeting at the Cairo Conference in 1943
The torpedoed, as seen through the periscope of an American submarine, USS Nautilus (SS-168), in June 1942
The, the largest non-nuclear submarines ever constructed
Chinese forces on M3A3 Stuart tanks on the Ledo Road
British Indian troops during the Battle of Imphal
Marines fire captured mountain gun during the attack on Garapan, Saipan, 21 June 1944.
US Marines during mopping up operations on Peleliu, September 1944
The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku and two destroyers under attack in the Battle of the Philippine Sea
The four engagements in the Battle of Leyte Gulf
General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore at Leyte
US troops approaching Japanese positions near Baguio, Luzon, 23 March 1945
Royal Marines landing at Ramree
British soldiers patrolling the ruins of a Burmese town during the advance on Mandalay, January 1945
Iwo Jima location map
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, an iconic photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, depicts six United States Marines raising a US flag atop Mount Suribachi.
USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) burns after being hit by two kamikazes. At Okinawa, the kamikazes caused 4,900 American deaths.
US Marines pass a dead Japanese soldier in a destroyed village on Okinawa, April 1945
US LVTs land Australian soldiers at Balikpapan on 7 July 1945.
American B-29 Superfortresses drop incendiary bombs over the port city of Kobe, June 1945
The mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 60,000 feet (18 km) into the air on the morning of 9 August 1945
Pacific Fleet marines of the Soviet Navy hoist the Soviet naval ensign in Port Arthur, on 1 October 1945.
Douglas MacArthur signs the formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender on USS Missouri (BB-63), 2 September 1945.
American corpses sprawled on the beach of Tarawa, November 1943
Indian prisoners of war shot and bayoneted by Japanese soldiers
IJA soldiers after a suicide charge on US Marine positions in Guadalcanal
Charred remains of civilians killed in the 10 March firebombing of Tokyo, codenamed Operation Meetinghouse, which killed an estimated 100,000 people, March 1945
Australian POW Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet of M Special Unit being beheaded by a Japanese officer, Yasuno Chikao, on 24 October 1943. AWM photo.
A Filipino woman and child killed by Japanese forces in the Manila massacre
A young Chinese girl from a Japanese 'comfort battalion' being interviewed by a British officer. Rangoon, Burma, 1945
American stretcher party carrying a wounded soldier through a devastated Manila street, 23 February 1945
The damaged by American carrier aircraft in the Sibuyan Sea.

The war culminated in massive Allied air raids over Japan, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, accompanied by the Soviet Union's declaration of war and invasion of Manchuria and other territories on 9 August 1945, causing the Japanese to announce an intent to surrender on 15 August 1945.

1946 emblem of the 509th Composite Group while part of the 58th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy

509th Composite Group

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Unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons.

Unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons.

1946 emblem of the 509th Composite Group while part of the 58th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy
First Ordnance Squadron area on Tinian
Assembly Building where bombs were assembled
Commander Ashworth in the First Ordnance Squadron Area
Rear Admiral William R. Purnell, Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, and Captain William S. Parsons
Aircraft of the 509th Composite Group on Tinian. Left to right: Big Stink, The Great Artiste, and Enola Gay
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It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

Nagasaki

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Capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.

Capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.

Night view of Nagasaki city seen from Mount Konpira (金比羅山)
A busy street in Nagasaki
A plaque and the Peace Statue at the Nagasaki Peace Park
Monument at the atomic bomb hypocenter in Nagasaki
Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims
Sōfuku-ji (National treasure of Japan)
Nagasaki Lantern Festival
Original Shikairō Champon
Portuguese (green) and Spanish (yellow) trade routes to Macao and Nagasaki
Nanban trade. The screen shows foreigners arriving at a shore of Japan. Kano Naizen "Nanbanjin Inauguration" (right), circa. 1600
The Chinese traders at Nagasaki were confined to a walled compound (Tōjin yashiki), circa 1688
Plan of Nagasaki, Hizen province, 1778
View of Nagasaki in 1870s
View of Dejima island in Nagasaki Bay (from Siebold's Nippon, 1897)
Mushroom cloud from the atomic explosion over Nagasaki at 11:02 am, August 9, 1945
Torii, Nagasaki, Japan. One-legged torii in the background, October 1945
Modern Nagasaki, Oura Cathedral on a slope, 2005.
Nagasaki view from Glover Garden, 2014
View of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay by Kawahara Keigo c1836

Near the end of World War II, the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and, to date, last city in the world to experience a nuclear attack (at 11:02 am, August 9, 1945 'Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)').