INDEPTH: HIROSHIMA ANNIVERSARY August 6, 1945 CBC News Online | August 5, 2004
A tall column of smoke billows above Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb strike by American forces on Aug. 6, 1945. This picture was made by Bob Caron, tail gunner of the Enola Gay, the B-29 aircraft that dropped the bomb. (AP Photo/USAF)
At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. army air force dropped one atomic bomb on Hiroshima, then a major military base for western Japan.
The B-29 bomber used in the attack was the Enola Gay built by the Boeing Aircraft Company. The target was the T-shaped Aioi Bridge.
The pilot on that day's mission was U.S. Col. Paul Tibbets, commander of the 509th Group.
The bomb, called Little Boy, fell into the heart of the city and destroyed all buildings within a three-kilometre radius of the epicentre.
The bomb exploded 43 seconds after it was dropped. The power of its explosion was the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT.
Upon detonation, temperatures on the ground reached 5,000°C.
Approximately 92,000 people died immediately from the bombing and two-thirds of the city was razed. Exposure to radiation claimed about 200,000 additional lives by 1950.
The city's wooden government building and its city hall were burned.
Hiroshima's mayor and other government officials died in their office buildings that were liquefied from the intense heat.
The initial belief was that it would take 70 years for anything to grow in Hiroshima.
The Atomic Bomb Dome was the city's former Industrial Promotion Hall and was the only bombed building left to stand. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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