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Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In this Aug. 9, 1945, file photo, a giant column of smoke rises after the second atomic bomb ever used in warfare explodes over the Japanese port town of Nagasaki, Japan.

‘Oppenheimer’ film ‘fails’ to show devastation of atom bombs in postwar Japan, critics say

Arts, Culture & Media

‘Oppenheimer’ is expected to win big at the 2024 Academy Awards. But one point of controversy is that the director did not depict any images of the devastating aftermath of the dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Getting those images out to the public was a longtime quest for Herbert Sussan, then a 24-year-old filmmaker who filmed in Japan at the time.

A crowd of survivors are shown standing and sitting on a bridge with several damaged buildings in the distance.

The only known photos from Hiroshima taken on Aug. 6, 1945

Photography
An older Japanese man hugs former President Barack Obama

Why this Hiroshima survivor dedicated his life to searching for the families of 12 American POWs

Justice
Social worker Minori Nakaso pays a home visit to an atomic bomb survivor in Hiroshima.

As Hiroshima’s survivors age, their need to speak out grows

Justice
Atomic bomb survivor Teruko Namura (left) with a friend at her home in Los Angeles.

Let down by two governments, US-based Hiroshima survivors fend for themselves

Justice
An elderly Korean woman appears with her son and daughter-in-law at a hearing in Hiroshima to determine whether she is eligible for special rights accorded to survivors of the atomic bomb.

Korean survivors of Hiroshima have had to fight for their rights

Justice

During World War Two, Japan imported Koreans to cities like Hiroshima to work, in slave-like conditions, in armaments factories. When the atomic bomb struck, thousands of Koreans were killed or injured. But the Japanese government has been slow to extend survivor benefits to Korean nationals.

Hiroshima survivor Sueko Hada (foreground) with her daughter, granddaughters and great-granddaughter.

‘It truly was a vision of Hell’ – a Hiroshima survivor speaks out

Justice

In the first of a 2005 series on the lingering mental health effects of the atomic bomb, a survivor who was seven in 1945 has decided to speak publicly about her ordeal.

The last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew dies

Conflict

Theodore Van Kirk was a 24-year-old navigator on the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II. He was the last surviving member of the crew, before dying this week at the age of 93.Theodore Van Kirk was a 24-year-old navigator on the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II. He was the last surviving member of the crew, before dying this week at the age of 93.

Earth Ear

The desert winds blow through the old rusted hangar in Utah where the Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, was once housed.

The World

Blog: Returning Home to Japan

The flight attendants take away our breakfast trays, leaving less than an hour before landing at Tokyo’s Narita airport. I look at the flight map on the screen, and see the airplane icon hover over the northern tip of Honshu, the largest of the Japanese archipelago. The map shows Tokyo in the distance, and Fukushima […]