Tag - atomic bombings

 
 

ATOMIC BOMBINGS

The diary of a 13-year-old girl who died in the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima was donated to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the city in June.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2025
Hiroshima museum continues to receive artifacts 80 years after atomic bombing
With fewer atomic bomb survivors still alive to share their stories, donated materials are becoming more and more vital for expressing the impact of the bombing.
Ralph Edwards (far left), Capt. Robert Lewis (rear left), Bertha Starkey (rear center), Marvin Green (rear right), Kiyoshi (seated, left) and Chisa Tanimoto (seated, right), Koko Kondo (front left) and her three younger siblings, on the show “This Is Your Life,” on May 11, 1955
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 12, 2025
How an A-bomb survivor found forgiveness for Hiroshima bombers
Koko Kondo’s anger was extinguished when she saw the co-pilot of the Enola Gay bomber recall with regret what he and his crew had done on Aug. 6, 1945.
Michi Saito touches a piece of a dummy atomic bomb that took away her brother's life in 1945, during an interview at Zuiryu Temple in Fukushima on July 14.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Aug 11, 2025
98-year-old woman recalls brother's death from dummy atomic bomb
A U.S. military unit dropped dummy bombs in various parts of Japan as part of exercises aimed at training forces to gain the high skills required to drop nuclear weapons.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki speaks at the closing ceremony of the General Conference of Mayors for Peace on Sunday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2025
Mayors for Peace adopt the 'Nagasaki Appeal'
At the Nagasaki peace conference, joined by representatives from 138 cities in 16 countries, discussions were held on activities to be carried out until the next general meeting.
Terumi Tanaka (left), co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, and Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, hold a news conference in Tokyo on July 27.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2025
Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor calls on young people to inspire movement
"The era of hibakusha themselves working to share their experiences and talking about nuclear weapons is coming to an end," 93-year-old Terumi Tanaka said.
Doves are released during a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, at the city's Peace Park on Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2025
Nagasaki marks 80 years since atomic bombing as hibakusha numbers dwindle
The anniversary comes amid frustration among the dwindling number of survivors that their powerful calls for eradicating nuclear arms are falling on deaf ears.
From left to right: Green Legacy Hiroshima volunteer staff Mariko Kikuchi, Tomoko Watanabe, Nassrine Azimi and Sophie Qano stand before one of the trees that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Aug 9, 2025
A campaign to preserve Hiroshima’s historic trees for another 1,000 years
A total of 170 trees survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Since 2011, a nonprofit organization has been dedicated to sharing their seeds and saplings with the world.
Now part of the city of Kitakyushu, the former castle town of Kokura, its collection of retro architecture and many of its inhabitants were once targeted for atomic catastrophe that eventually befell the population of Nagasaki to the south.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 9, 2025
A walk through Kokura, the city spared nuclear destruction
Now part of the industrial sprawl of Kitakyushu, the city was originally meant to suffer the destruction that would eventually befall Nagasaki to the south.
Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 8, 2025
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
At 17, Koichi Tagawa survived Nagasaki’s atomic blast and recording two months of grief, destruction and the loss of his mother in a diary he kept for life.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki delivers a speech at a conference held by Mayors for Peace, a worldwide organization of city leaders, on Friday in the city of Nagasaki.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2025
Mayors for Peace start general conference in Nagasaki
The conference will discuss actions to be taken by 2029 and adopt a resolution on the abolition of nuclear weapons on the closing day.
Students at the Taira First Elementary School in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, learn about the World War II "mock atomic bombs" during a special class given at the school in July.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2025
People work to pass on stories of U.S. 'mock atomic bombs' dropped on Japan in WWII
Over 400 people were killed by 49 of what are also called "pumpkin bombs" that the U.S. dropped on Japan between July 20 and Aug. 14, 1945.
People pay their respects for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the attack.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2025
Why Hiroshima must keep being commemorated
The anniversary is generating a wave of commemorations and renewing the arguments for and against the mission.
Three teenage student nurses (from left: Karin Ono, Asuka Kawatoko and Hinako Kikuchi) face the aftermath of the atomic bombing of their hometown in “Nagasaki: In the Shadow of the Flash.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 7, 2025
‘Nagasaki: In the Shadow of the Flash’ honors young nurses thrust into hellish nightmare
Searing and based on true accounts, Jumpei Matsumoto’s drama follows teenage girls turned wartime caregivers as they navigate the unthinkable.
In Kyoto, the former headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army's 16th Division is now the home of the Kyoto Seibo Gakuin school, one of the city's several remaining signs of World War II.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 7, 2025
Saved from the worst, Kyoto still bears scars of war
Contrary to popular belief, Japan’s ancient capital was not completely insulated from the consequences of war that devastated much of the country.
The Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is on display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Virginia after restoration in August 2003.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2025
Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings necessary?
Was it necessary to drop the bombs on civilian population centers to demonstrate the power of the weapons?
A woman prays at the Peace Memorial Park ahead of the memorial service to mark the 80th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, in the city of Hiroshima early on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2025
Documents show U.S. initially estimated Hiroshima bombing victims at 100,000
One of the documents said that the heart of the city of Hiroshima was so completely devastated that "not even debris of buildings was left."
A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 6, 2025
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped
As a 7-year-old boy in Hiroshima, Howard Kakita was hoping to catch the vapor trail of a B-29 bomber. A sudden blast knocked him out.
People pray in front of the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city of Hiroshima on Wednesday, which marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2025
Hiroshima calls for nuclear-free world on 80th anniversary of atomic bombing
Any message to create a world free of nuclear weapons from the only country that experienced atomic bombings appears to be losing momentum amid global conflicts.
The Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima on July 24. Each year, some 10 million paper cranes are donated for display at the monument in memory of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of leukemia following the U.S. atomic bombing of the city 80 years ago.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 6, 2025
Passing on Hiroshima's message of peace, one paper crane at a time
Through recycling, the millions of paper cranes offered at a memorial each year in the city where an atomic bomb was dropped 80 years ago live on.
Kunihiko Iida speaks about his experience as a hibakusha, in the city of Hiroshima on July 14.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2025
Orphaned hibakusha continues to tell of the destructive reality of nuclear weapons
Kunihiko Iida has made it his mission to share his experience, believing that conveying the truth of the bomb will "lead to the abolition of nuclear weapons."

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person