A City Destroyed
A City Obliterated
When the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, it did not merely destroy a city—it erased it.
The destruction was instantaneous and absolute. Hiroshima, once a bustling military and transportation hub nestled between the Chugoku mountain range and the Seto Inland Sea, was transformed into a smouldering wasteland. Entire neighbourhoods were demolished within seconds. Apart from a handful of concrete structures, Hiroshima had ceased to exist.
Photographs taken in the hours and days after the bombing show a level of destruction that defies belief. Block after block had been flattened. The few figures in these images appear ghostlike, some aimlessly wandering, others collapsed in place. Shadows etched into walls were often the only trace of those who had stood there when the bomb detonated. Hiroshima's rivers ran with bodies, since many victims had fled to the water to seek relief from their burns. Over 70,000 lives had ended in an instant when the bomb detonated, with tens of thousands more fated to die from injuries or radiation exposure.
The shadow of an atomic bomb victim at the entrance to the Hiroshima Sumitomo Bank
Scenes of Destruction
Among the survivors was Keiko Ogura, then only eight years old. From a hilltop, she looked down on her hometown and saw only ruin. 'The entire city had been burned to the ground,' she recalled. As one of the hibakusha—a term for Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors—she later described the unthinkable scenes she witnessed. Victims staggered through the rubble, their skin hanging in tatters. 'None of us could comprehend what had happened… we kept asking ourselves how an entire city could have been destroyed by a single bomb.'
Signs of Life
And yet, even as the fires still smouldered, signs of life emerged. Within hours, survivors began tending to the injured. Makeshift hospitals were established among the ruins. Black-and-white images of these early efforts show people organising aid amidst piles of debris.
A Typhoon Brings Further Destruction
On September 17, 1945, just six weeks after the bombing, the Makurazaki Typhoon swept through the Hiroshima region. Torrential rains and winds further devastated the city, flooding relief sites and temporary shelters. Many buildings that the bomb had not destroyed, the typhoon came to finish.
After Japan formally surrendered, reconstruction began. Hiroshima’s revival was slow, painful, and deeply symbolic. Factories once used for war manufacturing were returned to civilians. Local authorities launched a five-year plan to stimulate economic recovery and reclaim a measure of normalcy.
Map of Blast and Fire Damage to Hiroshima, from U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey
Controversial Atomic Bomb Research
As Hiroshima was slowly reviving, teams of American scientists arrived in Japan. Their mission was to study the physical, medical, and environmental effects of the atomic bombings. On August 30, 1945, they entered the ruins of Hiroshima. Led by Col. Stafford Warren, a pioneer in nuclear medicine, they attempted to assess radiation levels, environmental damage, and, most controversially, human casualties.
Later, Warren explained 'I am embarrassed by the fact ... that we could not come back with any definitive figures that I would be able to say were more than a guess.' The death toll was—and remains—very difficult to determine. Many victims left no trace, and many others died in the days and weeks that followed, making precise estimates challenging.
Today, even without an exact death count, the shadows of Hiroshima victims—captured in haunting photographs and in the memories of survivors—continue to serve as a powerful reminder of the human cost of the bombing and the many lives lost.