PlanetPic: How Hiroshima marks the anniversary of the atom bomb
Candles and paper lanterns float on the Motoyasu River in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome at the Peace Memorial Park, in memory of the victims of the bomb on the 64th anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb on August 6, 2009 in Hiroshima, Japan.
On Tuesday, Hiroshima marks the 68th anniversary of the day the United States dropped an atom bomb named "Little Boy" on the Japanese city.
At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped a bomb that instantaneously killed an estimated 60 to 80,000 people. The final death toll stood at a grim 140,000.
Three days after the United States bombed Hiroshima, it dropped a second atom bomb in Nagasaki killing tens of thousands, and ultimately leading to Japan's surrender in World War II.
The Atomic Bomb Dome, a symbolic memorial that withstood the destruction of the bomb, has played a central role in the commemoration of the lives lost.
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