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Today’s anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki arrives in a moment of increasingly heated nuclear rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea.
These historic pictures show the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a black-and-white reminder of what “fire and fury” actually looks like—although the capabilities of modern nuclear weapons far outstrip those of their mid-century counterparts.
As the anniversary of these attacks is marked with prayer, reflection, and ceremony, get a refresher on nuclear weapons, then and now.
At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb—codenamed Little Boy—detonated 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, Japan. Though accurate estimates are impossible, it's believed the immediate blast killed about 70,000 people and injured another 70,000. The vast majority of casualties were civilians. After effects, such as complications from radiation exposure, have since taken the lives of unknown thousands more. This event marked the first time a nuclear weapon was used against people in earnest.
At 11:02 a.m. on August 9, a second bomb, called Fat Man, hit Nagasaki, causing another 80,000 casualties. The city’s topography—shielded by a valley...
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