Hiroshima Day is observed on August 6.
On that day, the United States B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 changing the course of history. This decision was taken by then US president Harry S Truman.
In 2026, the world marked the 81st anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, honouring the victims and reflecting on the devastating human cost of nuclear warfare.
Little Boy And Fat Man
The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, known as Little Boy, was powered by enriched uranium-235.
Three days later, Fat Man, a more technically-advanced plutonium bomb, was detonated over Nagasaki.
Why Hiroshima Was Chosen
Hiroshima was an important military and industrial centre, with army bases, factories and ammunition facilities.
Historians believe it was selected because its size and surrounding landscape would clearly reveal the destructive impact of the atomic bomb.
Devastating Human Toll
An estimated 140,000 people lost their lives in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki and of them 38,000 were children.
Many died instantly, while thousands more succumbed to severe burns, radiation sickness and related illnesses in the months that followed.
An article on the National Park Service web site described the scene: 'The temperature near the blast site reached 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky seemed to explode. Birds ignited in midair; asphalt boiled. People over two miles away burst into crumbling cinders. Others with raw skin hanging in flaps around their hips leaped shrieking into waterways to escape the heat.
'Men without feet stumbled about on the charred stumps of their ankles. Women without jaws screamed incoherently for help. Bodies described as "boiled octopuses" littered the destroyed streets. Children, tongues swollen with thirst, pushed floating corpses aside to soothe their scalded throats with bloody river water'.
Lives Changed Forever
Much of Hiroshima was reduced to rubble. Survivors, known as hibakusha, faced lifelong health complications, emotional trauma and social discrimination caused by radiation exposure.
The Story Of Sadako's Cranes
Paper origami cranes became an enduring symbol of peace through the story of Sadako Sasaki.
Exposed to radiation as a toddler, she developed leukaemia years later and began folding paper cranes in the hope of recovery, inspired by a Japanese legend that promises a wish to anyone who folds a thousand cranes.
Sadako passed away just months after beginning her paper crane project, but her story continues to inspire people worldwide. She, died age 12, in 1955.
Lasting Symbol Of Peace
Jawaharlal Nehru, Mother Teresa, US president Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, physicist and Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov, philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, Pope John Paul II, Sweden prime minister Olof Palme, President K R Narayanan, Fidel Castro, Clifton Truman Daniel (Harry S Truman's grandson) and Mikhail Gorbachev are some of the famous visitors to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
During his visit to Hiroshima in 2016, then US president Barack Obama presented four paper cranes he had folded, which are now preserved at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as symbols of remembrance and hope.
