The United States dropped the Hiroshima atomic bomb on 6 August 1945, during the final weeks before Japan’s surrender.
The B-29 Enola Gay released the uranium weapon Little Boy at about 8:15 a.m. local time. The explosion devastated Hiroshima, a major Japanese city on Honshu, and created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
The bombing was followed three days later by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August. On that same date, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, creating two major shocks for Japanese leaders.
The Hiroshima date is sometimes confused with 9 August, which belongs to Nagasaki, or 15 August, when Emperor Hirohito’s surrender broadcast was heard by the Japanese public. These were separate events in a rapidly unfolding sequence.