On August 6th, 1945, The Manhattan Project culminated with the dropping of the atomic bomb named “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. While this feat of science has provided us with the foundation for many breakthroughs in nuclear technology since, it still remains a dark mark on the world as it is the direct cause of the arms race and Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the United States. Most of us think about this event in human history as something to be remembered, but not many of us feel truly connected to it. Well that all changed for reddit user ddgromit when he and his father found slides from his grandfather’s time in the Navy. Included in these slides were pictures of his grandfather in Hiroshima just a few months after the atomic bomb was detonated over the city. The utter devastation is almost unreal. Even in my time in the military, I have never seen such destruction before. I really couldn’t believe these pictures of Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb was dropped.
The world had never seen devastation on this scale before. The power of the Atomic Bomb was finally revealed to the world.
Thousands upon thousands of children were left homeless and orphaned.
Entire villages were wiped from existence in a matter of seconds. It’s hard to imagine hundreds of homes once stood here.
Concrete and brick hard structures were some of the only things left standing from the blast.
These people could almost consider themselves lucky that the roof is the only thing that fell.
I was extremely surprised to see that any telephone poles were still standing from the blast.
This is all that was left of the Nagarekawa Methodist Church.
I really can’t imagine even beginning to try to put my life together after something like this. I mean, what do you do?
I can’t imagine there was a single pane of glass left in the entire city.
I guess some wood structures were able to withstand the force of the blast though. They were most likely protected by surrounding concrete structures.
This was once a bustling city. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who could envision it as such though after seeing this photo.
This looks like a factory of some sort that was completely stripped of its siding from the bomb.
This group of buildings, even with their brick walls, were not match for the force of an atomic blast.
Carcasses of buildings littered the valley Hiroshima sits in.
I can’t imagine being a child during this and having the world around literally turned to ash.
The Atomic Bomb may have helped bring a war to its conclusion, but The Manhattan Project forever changed the landscape of what warfare entailed.
Not even metal stood a chance against the force of the atomic blast. This hunk of mangled metal makes that clear.
Trees stripped bare from the heat and wind. It really is a marvel that an area could make a comeback from something so devastating.
I don’t know if I would be able to smile for a really long time after something like this.
There were actually many people who fled to Nagasaki after the first Atomic Bomb that was dropped. Unfortunately for them, another one would drop on Nagasaki not that much later. Only 165 people out of 226,000 were recorded as having survived both blasts.
This is the remnants of the Hiroshima graveyard.
Looking out over your entire city just utterly destroyed would be one of the most heartbreaking experience I think anyone could have.
These photos only provide a small glimpse into the complete devastation that the people of Hiroshima, and also Nagasaki experienced. This was literally the first time an even like this had happened in the history of our world. Having to piece your life together after something like this would have been one of the most difficult things in the world to do. Where do you even start? There is just so much to be done that it would be absolutely overwhelming. These tragic photos give us a chance to see what these people saw, and maybe even feel a little of what they felt.