Hiroshima marks 80th anniversary of US atomic attack

Hiroshima today marks the 80th anniversary of the American nuclear attack on the city, which was the first such attack in human history.

Every year there is a ceremony, which begins with a minute of silence at exactly 8.15am local time, when the attack took place.

On August 29, 6, at 1945:8.15 a.m., the B-9.600 bomber "Enola Gay" dropped a bomb called "Little Boy" from an altitude of 43 feet (600 meters). It exploded 3.000 feet (4.000 meters) above the ground XNUMX seconds later. It is estimated that the temperature at the center of the explosion reached between XNUMX and XNUMX degrees Fahrenheit (XNUMX to XNUMX degrees Celsius).

The bomb, weighing about four tons, killed everyone within 500 meters and destroyed 90 percent of the city. About 45 minutes after the explosion, a "black rain" of radioactive particles began to fall.

Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the US dropped the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki, where about 74.000 people died, after which Japan capitulated on August 15.

The war officially ended two weeks later, on September 2, 1945. At the time of the attack, 350.000 people lived in Hiroshima, of whom 40.000 were military personnel.

According to some estimates, more than 220.000 people died in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan pursued a policy of expansionism and militarization in the early 20th century, especially during World War I.

He continued his expansionist policy by occupying Manchuria in 1931, and after this was met with international condemnation, Japan demonstratively withdrew from the League of Nations (the forerunner of the UN) two years later.

In 1936, Japan signed a pact with Nazi Germany, and by joining the Tripartite Pact in 1940, it became one of the Axis powers.

After Manchuria, Imperial Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, thus triggering the Second Sino-Japanese War.

In 1940, Japan attacked French Indochina, and on December 7, 1941, bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor and declared war, bringing the United States into World War II.

Following the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan accepted unconditional surrender on August 15 of that year.

Expansionism and war cost Japan and its possessions millions of lives, along with the destruction of much of its industry and infrastructure.