August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Americans drop atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Although the war in Europe ended in May 1945, it continued to rage in Asia. The Allies expected to win, but knew it would take a long time and involve many casualties. For years, under the code name “Manhattan Project,” Americans had been working secretly on a nuclear bomb; now they were ready to use it. On the morning of August 6, 1945, U.S. Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan from his plane, the “Enola Gay.” An estimated 129,558 people were killed, wounded or went missing. Three days later, the U.S. dropped another bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese surrendered, ending the second world war. The Canadian government, proud of its part, announced that Canadian scientists had worked with the Americans, and the uranium the bombs required had been mined from Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. Prime Minister Mackenzie King wrote in his diary, “It is fortunate that use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe.”

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