Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Haunting Black and White Photos From the Ruins in 1945

On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”

Urakami Cathedral (Roman Catholic), Nagasaki, September, 1945.

Nagasaki, September, 1945.

Hiroshima streetcar, September, 1945.

A photo album, pieces of pottery, a pair of scissors — shards of life strewn on the ground in Nagasaki, 1945.

Hiroshima, 1945.

Nagasaki, 1945, a few months after an American B-29 dropped an atomic bomb, codenamed "Fat Man," on the city.

The landscape around Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki, September, 1945.

Neighborhood reduced to rubble by atomic bomb blast, Hiroshima, 1945.

Nagasaki, Japan, September 1945.

Bust in front of destroyed cathedral two miles from the atomic bomb detonation site, Nagasaki, Japan, 1945.

Hiroshima, 1945, two months after the August 6 bombing.

Nagasaki, 1945.

Two women pay respects at a ruined cemetery, Nagasaki, 1945.

Hiroshima, September, 1945.

(Photos by Bernard Hoffman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)