On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first and only country to use atomic weapons in wartime by dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. About 80,000 people were killed as a result of the explosion and 35,000 others were injured. At least 60,000 more are said to have died by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
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Although the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians claim that it also started the Cold War.
Since 1940, the United States had been working on the development of an atomic weapon, after being warned that Nazi Germany was already conducting research on nuclear weapons. By the time the United States carried out the first successful test (an atomic bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert in July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan in the Pacific continues to rage, however. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered the new weapon to be used to end the war quickly.
On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. An explosion equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from injuries and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.
READ MORE: Photos: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, before and after the bombs
In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have suggested that the weapons served a dual purpose. First, of course, it was about ending the war with Japan quickly and saving American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union.
READ MORE: The bombing of Hiroshima didn’t just end World War II – it started the Cold War
By August 1945, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had seriously deteriorated. The Potsdam conference between US President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill (before being replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima. The meeting was marked by recriminations and suspicions between the Americans and the Soviets. Russian armies occupied most of Eastern Europe. Truman and many of his advisers hoped that the US atomic monopoly could provide diplomatic leverage to the Soviets. In this way, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan can be considered the first shot of the Cold War.
If American officials truly believed they could use their atomic monopoly for diplomatic purposes, they had little time to put their plan into action. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race began.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOMBS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI:
The Inside Story of Harry Truman and Hiroshima
Hiroshima, then Nagasaki: why the United States deployed the second A bomb
The man who survived two atomic bombs
