15: World War II

Henry Stimson to Harry S. Truman, with handwritten Truman reply on reverse, July 30, 1945

The <b>atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki</b> were <a href="/wiki/Nuclear_warfare" title="Nuclear warfare">nuclear attacks</a> near the end of <a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a> against the <a href="/wiki/Empire_of_Japan" title="Empire of Japan">Empire of Japan</a> by the United States at the executive order of <a href="/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States">U.S. President</a> <a href="/wiki/Harry_S._Truman" title="Harry S. Truman">Harry S. Truman</a> on August 6 and 9, 1945. After six months of intense <a href="/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#United_States_strategic_bombing_of_Japan" title="Strategic bombing during World War II">fire-bombing of 67 other Japanese cities</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Nuclear_weapon" title="Nuclear weapon">nuclear weapon</a> "<a href="/wiki/Little_Boy" title="Little Boy">Little Boy</a>" was dropped on the city of <a href="/wiki/Hiroshima" title="Hiroshima">Hiroshima</a> on Monday,<sup id="cite_ref-DOE-HIRO_0-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-DOE-HIRO-0" title=""><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> August 6, 1945 <sup id="cite_ref-eyewitness_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-eyewitness-1" title=""><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup>, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the "<a href="/wiki/Fat_Man" title="Fat Man">Fat Man</a>" nuclear bomb over <a href="/wiki/Nagasaki,_Nagasaki" title="Nagasaki, Nagasaki">Nagasaki</a>. These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2" title=""><span></span></a></sup>

Targeted for military reasons and for its terrain (flat for easier assessment of the aftermath), Hiroshima was home to approximately 250,000 people at the time of the bombing.