On the fateful day of August 6, 1945, the second-ever atomic device, Little Boy, detonated over the city of Hiroshima killing 90,000- 166,000 people. Nearly half of the deaths occurred immediately after the bombing on the first day itself. In days to follow, many lost their lives or quality of life due to burns, injuries, illness, malnutrition and radiation sickness. Those who were killed are considered lucky by the survivors, since they did not even have enough time know what was happening, unlike the survivors who lived to suffer the after effects both physically and psychologically. The debate regarding the ethics of killing civilians in warfare still goes on with the critics holding their point of view that it is a crime to incinerate civilians en masse; whereas the defenders claim that the bombing was necessary to bring the war to a close, thereby saving countless American and other allies’ lives. Let us look into incidents that led to the explosion of Little Boy, which played a big role in ending the World War II and also some interesting facts about the first nuclear weapon used in war.

1. Postdam Declaration

The allied forces had declared in Postdam that they would invade Japan if the country did not agree for unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurance of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan was prompt and utter destruction. Japan did not agree.

2. False Alerts

The United States Army conducted many missions over Japanese cities that were composed of very few B-29 bombers prior to the actual bombing of Hiroshima to wear down the alertness of Japanese anti-aircraft defense crew. This ensured that when the actual atomic bomb arrived, the guard was let down by the Japanese defense team.