Mushroom cloud over Hiroshima: Public domain photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.Sixty-two years ago today, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, ushering in a new era of weapons that used nuclear fission to unleash tremendous amounts of destructive energy.
The Enola Gay: The historic aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima is on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington's Dulles Airport. Photo by Mark Ryan.The bomb, known as Little Boy, was delivered over Japan by the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, who, realizing the historic significance of his mission, had named his airplane after his mother.
Developed secretly and in a rush of fear that Nazi Germany was working on similar research, the bomb was released at 8:15AM (Hiroshima time) and 57 seconds later detonated 2000 feet above the city. The initial blast was equivalent to about 13 kilotons of TNT and instantly destroyed everything within a 1-mile radius. Subsequent fires swept across 4.4 square miles and left 90 percent of Hiroshima's buildings either damaged or completely destroyed. It's estimated that 140,000 people were killed directly and indirectly from the event.
The bombing of Hiroshima was followed three days later by the dropping of a second nuclear weapon (known as Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki. After seeing the horrific aftermaths of the bombs' destructive capabilities, Japan surrendered and the Second World War came to an end.
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