Atomic bomb destruction, Hiroshima, Japan. The city of Hiroshima was destroyed towards the end of World War II, on 6 August 1945, by a 13-kiloton nuclear weapon dropped by a US bomber. Around 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed, with only a few concrete-reinforced buildings surviving. Some 70,000 people died instantly, with tens of thousands more dying in the aftermath. The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki followed on 9 August, and Japan surrendered on 15 August, ending World War II. Photographed on March 1946.