The death toll rose, as well as the destruction of property reaching into the thousands of buildings in both cities. The numbers are staggering, especially when considering that a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki just three days later on August 9. One Bomb: That was just from one of the two bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. The combined death toll on all sides would have been in the millions, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands that were a direct result of the atomic bombs.Īugust 6, 1945, 8:16 AM: An American B-29 bomber named the Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.Ĩ0,000 people, both military and civilians, are killed in the blast, with another 35,000 injured.Ħ0,000 people would die from the radioactive fallout by the following year. Bombing Hiroshima ultimately saved lives because Japanese policies coupled with their unwillingness to surrender would have led the country to fight both the US and the Soviet Union simultaneously.