Hiroshima was the first city bombed in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The United States Army Air Forces attacked Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, during the final weeks of World War II. The B-29 bomber Enola Gay released the uranium weapon Little Boy at about 8:15 a.m. local time. The bomb detonated above the city, causing immense destruction and loss of life.
Nagasaki was attacked three days later, on August 9, with the plutonium weapon Fat Man. Kokura had been the primary target for that second mission, but cloud cover led the crew to proceed to its secondary target, Nagasaki.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only cities to have experienced wartime nuclear attacks. The bombings, together with the Soviet declaration of war and Japan’s internal deliberations, preceded Japan’s announced acceptance of the Allied surrender terms on August 15, 1945.