He added: "Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but would lead also to the total extinction of human civilisation.
He added that special thanks went to the US "without whose prodigious efforts the war in the East would still have many years to run". After the surrender of Japan, two days of national holiday were announced for celebrations in the UK, the US and Australia. The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, seen below in August , was one of the few buildings to survive the bomb and has been preserved as a memorial.
All photographs subject to copyright. Image source, Getty Images. The devastated city of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb blast. It is estimated that about , of Hiroshima's , population were killed by the atomic bomb. The crew of Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
A shadow of a victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb seen on stone steps. A woman shows her injuries in Hiroshima; her skin was burned in a pattern corresponding to the dark portions of a kimono worn at the time of the explosion. A watch from the wreckage of Hiroshima, which stopped at A composite image shows aerial views of Hiroshima before the atomic bomb bottom left and after top right.
However, Japan did not surrender. The atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima left and Nagasaki right. The ruined buildings of Nagasaki after the atomic bomb.
Michiko's sprint saved her life. It meant she was safely inside her workplace when her city - Hiroshima - was hit by the first nuclear bomb ever used in war. Read more: The day Michiko nearly missed her train. The United States believed that dropping a nuclear bomb - after Tokyo rejected an earlier ultimatum for peace - would force a quick surrender without risking US casualties on the ground. The attack was the first time a nuclear weapon was used during a war. At least 70, people are believed to have been killed immediately in the massive blast which flattened the city.
Tens of thousands more died of injuries caused by radiation poisoning in the following days, weeks and months. When no immediate surrender came from the Japanese, another bomb, dubbed "Fat Man", was dropped three days later about kilometres miles to the south over Nagasaki. The recorded death tolls are estimates, but it is thought that about , of Hiroshima's , population were killed, and that at least 74, people died in Nagasaki. They are the only two nuclear bombs ever to have been deployed outside testing.
The dual bombings brought about an abrupt end to the war in Asia, with Japan surrendering to the Allies on 14 August But some critics have said that Japan had already been on the brink of surrender and that the bombs killed a disproportionate number of civilians. Japan's wartime experience has led to a strong pacifist movement in the country. At the annual Hiroshima anniversary, the government usually reconfirms its commitment to a nuclear-free world.
After the war, Hiroshima tried to reinvent itself as a City of Peace and continues to promote nuclear disarmament around the world. Seventy-five years after the Enola Gay opened its bomb bay doors, 31,ft above Hiroshima, views on what happened that day are still deeply polarised.
Those on the ground who lived to tell the tale see themselves, understandably, as victims of an appalling crime. Sitting and talking with any "hibakusha" survivor is a deeply moving experience. The horrors they witnessed are almost unimaginable. Hordes of zombie like people, their skin melted and hanging in ribbons from their arms and faces; mournful cries from the thousands trapped in the tangle of collapsed and burning buildings; the smell of burned flesh. Later came the black rain and the agonising deaths from a strange new killer - radiation sickness.
But any visitor to the Hiroshima Peace Museum might justifiably ask, where is the context? After all, the atom bombs didn't come out of nowhere. As a result, the overloaded Enola Gay used more than two miles of runway to get aloft. US Army Air Force photo. Meanwhile, in Hiroshima, Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto awoke at 5 a. Hiroshima time, which was an hour behind Tinian time.
Tanimoto remained in the city to remove the transportable objects in his church to the safety of a suburban estate. He had slept poorly because of several air raid warnings the previous night.
Hiroshima had not yet endured an American bombing raid, but its good fortune was not expected to last. That morning, Tanimoto had agreed to help a friend move a large armoire filled with clothes out to the suburbs. As the two men trundled the piece of furniture through the streets, they heard an air raid siren go off. The alarm sounded every morning when American weather planes flew overhead, so the men were not particularly worried.
They continued on with their handcart through the city streets. The morning was still; the place was cool and pleasant.
Hiroshima time, the Enola Gay arrived over the city. Ferebee took control of the bomber and opened the bomb bay doors. Just after a. The plane jumped nearly 10 feet at the sudden loss in weight.
Tibbets immediately resumed control of the plane and banked it sharply on a degree turn. He had practiced this difficult maneuver for months because he had been instructed that he had less than 45 seconds to get his plane clear of the subsequent explosion.
Not even the scientists who designed the bomb were sure if the Enola Gay would survive the shock waves from the blast. Little Boy fell almost six miles in 43 seconds before detonating at an altitude of 2, feet. The bomb exploded with the force of more than 15, tons of TNT directly over a surgical clinic, feet from the Aioi Bridge.
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