Hiroshima was the Japanese city hit by the first atomic bomb used in warfare, on August 6, 1945.
The United States dropped the uranium bomb Little Boy from the B-29 bomber Enola Gay. The explosion devastated much of Hiroshima, a major military and industrial center, and caused enormous loss of life immediately and in the following months.
Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, Fat Man, on Nagasaki. The bombings occurred alongside the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan and intensified the crisis facing Japanese leaders. Historians continue to debate the relative weight of these events in Japan’s decision to surrender.
Emperor Hirohito’s August 15 broadcast referred to the enemy’s use of a new and exceptionally destructive bomb. The formal surrender, however, was not signed until September 2 aboard USS Missouri.