

Today in History: Aug 6, 1945, American bomber drops atomic bomb on HiroshimaOn this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
The United States had earlier called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945, threatening Japan with “prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response, made the decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland.