On 6 August 1945, in the closing days of the Second World War, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. The 4,400kg bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was carried by the US B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, carrying 12 crew members. The bomb was detonated 2,000ft above Hiroshima, releasing energy equivalent to around 15,000 tonnes of TNT, flattening five square miles of the city in seconds.

The death toll by the end of the year was estimated at about 140,000, out of the total of 350,000 who lived there at the time. The city still has some 60,000 survivors, with an average age approaching 80.

Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, a larger atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The 4,500kg bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped from a plane called Bockscar. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 39,000 to 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, bringing the Second World War to an end.