At exactly 8:15 a.m. local time on August 6, 1945, the bomb dropped by the American B-29 bomber over Hiroshima explodes.
The crew commander is Colonel Paul Tibbets. He drops the atomic bomb “Little Boy“ over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The bomb explodes about 600 meters above the surface, killing about 70-80,000 people on the spot. The zone of complete destruction is about 1.4 km. in radius. The fires that broke out after the explosion affected about 11.4 km2. 90% of the buildings were destroyed or severely damaged.
Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped - “Fat Man“ („fat“), which destroyed the city of Nagasaki.
Almost 200,000 survivors are still being treated for the effects in Japanese Red Cross hospitals after the atomic explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Japanese Red Cross has had hospitals for the treatment of nuclear weapon survivors in Hiroshima since 1956, and in Nagasaki since 1969. Over 2.5 million outpatients and over 2.6 million hospitalized patients of survivors of the nuclear bombings have passed through them. Last year alone, Japanese Red Cross hospitals in Hiroshima and Nagasaki admitted 4,657 and 6,030 people for treatment, respectively.