Hiroshima

Today is a tragic anniversary. On this day in 1945 the American crew of the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb codenamed "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 70,000 people were directly killed, and in the months following, approximately 60,000 more people died of injuries and radiation poisoning. Three days after Hiroshima a second atomic bomb codenamed "Fat Boy" was dropped on Nagasaki.

When we read and hear in the mainstream media about the dangers of other countries possessing weapons of mass destruction, and how even "preventive war" (as in Iraq, and next possibly Iran) is a solution to this problem, it is important to remember that only one country in the history of the world has ever used such weapons on a civilian population.