Hiroshima Aftermath, Japan, 1945

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, a Japanese city with a population of about 300,000. The force of the atomic blast was greater than 20,000 tons of TNT. According to U.S. statistics, 60,000-70,000 people were killed by the bomb. Other statistics show that 10,000 others were never found, and more than 70,000 were injured. Nearly two-thirds of the city was destroyed.

Three days later, on August 9, the day after the U.S.S.R. declared war on Japan, another atomic bomb called “Fat Man” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, which had a population of 250,000. About 40,000 people were killed by the Nagasaki bomb, and about the same number injured. On August 14, Japan agreed to the Allied terms of surrender.

Photographer Wayne Miller shot this story for the U.S. Navy in mid-September, 1945.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Center of atomic bomb blast. Japanese soldier walks through site where army barracks once stood in the center of town.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Destruction caused by the atomic bomb blast.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. The epicenter of the atomic blast. Army barracks once stood at this site in center of the city.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Destruction caused by the atomic bomb blast.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Japanese workers begin cleaning a bombed building. It is just a small part of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb blast.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Victim of atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima lies in a makeshift hospital in the bank building of Kango Ginku.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Victims of the atomic blast are treated in primitive conditions at the fly-infested Kangyo Ginko bank. Many suffered from radiation burns and shock.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Victims of the atomic blast in Hiroshima find refuge in aa makeshift hospital in the bank building of Kango Ginku.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Makeshift Hospital in the bank of Kango Ginku houses victims of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Considered to be the best in the area, Shinagawa Hospital in Tokyo was found to be dirty and disorganized by Navy and Marine Corps men who liberated allied patients. Japanese medical attendants are shown here in their quarters.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. A woman holds her child at a Shinto temple service where friends and relatives gathered to offer sympathy and money to victims' families.

JAPAN. Tokyo. August 1945. DR. Hisikichi Tokoda, head medical officer, is shown in the operating room at Shinagawa Hospital Tokyo, Japan.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Marine Corporal Leopold Kulikowski, captured in 1942 by the Japanese, convalesces at a military hospital.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Old woman, a victim of the atomic blast, lies in a makeshift hospital in the bank of Kango Ginku.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Victims of the atomic blast are treated in primitive conditions at the Kangyo Ginko bank. Many suffered from radiation burns and shocke Kangyo Ginko Bank.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Japanese soldiers crowd trains bound for Tokyo after the demobilization of the Japanese military.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Japanese soldiers and civilians crowd trains to Tokyo at a Hiroshima station after the demobilization of the Japanese military.

JAPAN. Hiroshima. September 8, 1945. Japanese soldiers and civilians crowd trains bound for Tokyo after the demobilization of the Japanese military.

(Photos © Wayne Miller/Magnum Photos)