Grim Anniversary | 75 years since Hiroshima

In the words of the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, Robert Oppenheimer, ‘We knew the world would not be the same.’ Today marks the 75th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing, in Hiroshima, Japan. On August 6, 1945, the US dropped a uranium bomb, code-named ‘Little Boy.’ It was the first nuclear weapon to be used in war and killed an estimated 140,000 people. Three days later, the Japanese still had not surrendered, leading to the US dropping another nuclear bomb – ‘Fat Man’ – 420 kilometres (261 miles) to the south over Nagasaki. This killed an additional 74,000 people and led to Japan’s surrender. Here, we see Oppenheimer cite the Bhagavad-Gita as he discusses the astonishing destructive power of the atomic bomb and tries to make sense of his creation.