Editing Hiroshima (section)

===World War II and the atomic bombing (1939–1945)===
{{main|Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki#Hiroshima}}
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During [[World War II]], the [[Second General Army (Japan)|Second General Army]] and Chūgoku Regional Army was headquartered in Hiroshima, and the Army Marine Headquarters was located at Ujina port. The city also had large depots of military supplies, and was a key center for shipping.<ref name="effects">{{cite web |url=http://www.nuclearfiles.org/redocuments/1946/460619-bombing-survey1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041011111052/http://www.nuclearfiles.org/redocuments/1946/460619-bombing-survey1.html |archive-date=October 11, 2004 |title=U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey: The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki |date=June 1946 |author=United States Strategic Bombing Survey |publisher=nuclearfiles.org |access-date=July 26, 2009}}</ref>

The [[bombing of Tokyo]] and [[Air raids on Japan|other cities in Japan]] during World War II caused widespread destruction and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths.<ref>{{cite book |title=Bombing to Win: Airpower and Coercion in War |last=Pape |first=Robert |year=1996 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8311-0 |page=129}}</ref> There were no such air raids on Hiroshima. However, a real threat existed and was recognized. To protect against potential [[firebombing]]s in Hiroshima, school children aged 11–14 years were mobilized to demolish houses and create [[firebreak]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/97e/peace/e/03/omoide.htm |title=Japan in the Modern Age and Hiroshima as a Military City |publisher=The Chugoku Shimbun |access-date=August 19, 2007 |archive-date=August 20, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820001539/http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/97e/peace/e/03/omoide.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15&nbsp;a.m. (Hiroshima time), the American [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress]], the ''[[Enola Gay]]'', flown by [[Paul Tibbets]] (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007), dropped the [[nuclear weapon]] "[[Little Boy]]" on Hiroshima,<ref>[http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.html The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233319/http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.html |date=March 3, 2016 }}, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of History and Heritage Resources.</ref> directly killing at least 70,000 people, including thousands of [[Koreans|Korean slave laborers]]. Fewer than 10% of the casualties were military.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Barton |last=Bernstein |title=Reconsidering the 'Atomic General': Leslie R. Groves |journal=Journal of Military History |volume=67 |issue=3 |date=July 2003 |pages=904–905 |doi=10.1353/jmh.2003.0198 |s2cid=161380682 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44239 |access-date=2019-05-20 |archive-date=2020-03-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322095315/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44239 |url-status=live | issn = 0899-3718 }}</ref> By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought the total number of deaths to 90,000–140,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html |title=Frequently Asked Questions – Radiation Effects Research Foundation |publisher=Rerf.or.jp |access-date=July 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070919143939/http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html |archive-date=September 19, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The population before the bombing was around 345,000. About 70% of the city's buildings were destroyed, and another 7% severely damaged.

The public release of film footage of the city following the attack, and some of the [[Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission]] research on the human effects of the attack, were restricted during the [[occupation of Japan]], and much of this information was censored until the signing of the [[Treaty of San Francisco]] in 1951, restoring control to the Japanese.<ref>Ishikawa and Swain (1981), p. 5</ref>

As [[Ian Buruma]] observed: {{blockquote|News of the amazing explosion of the atom bomb attacks on Japan was deliberately withheld from the Japanese public by US military censors during the Allied occupation—even as they sought to teach the natives the virtues of a free press. Casualty statistics were suppressed. Film shot by Japanese cameramen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings was confiscated. "Hiroshima", the account written by John Hersey for ''The New Yorker'', had a huge impact in the US, but was banned in Japan. As [John] Dower says: "In the localities themselves, suffering was compounded not merely by the unprecedented nature of the catastrophe&nbsp;... but also by the fact that public struggle with this traumatic experience was not permitted."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seldon |first=Mark |date=December 2016 |title=American Fire Bombing and Atomic Bombing of Japan in History and Memory |url=https://apjjf.org/2016/23/Selden.html |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=14 |via=Japan Focus |access-date=2019-03-26 |archive-date=2019-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326231734/https://apjjf.org/2016/23/Selden.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The book ''[[Hiroshima (book)|Hiroshima]]'' by [[John Hersey]] was originally published in article form in the magazine ''[[The New Yorker]]'',<ref name="autogenerated3"/> on August 31, 1946. It is reported to have reached Tokyo, in English, at least by January 1947 and the translated version was released in Japan in 1949.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2009/08/16/books/the-pure-horror-of-hiroshima/#.UdhVsfnVDTc |title=The pure horror of Hiroshima |work=[[The Japan Times]] |first=Donald |last=Richie |date=August 16, 2009 |access-date=August 11, 2021 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806215706/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2009/08/16/books/the-pure-horror-of-hiroshima/#.UdhVsfnVDTc }}</ref> Although the article was planned to be published over four issues, "Hiroshima" made up the entire contents of one issue of the magazine.<ref name="ReferenceA">Sharp, "From Yellow Peril to Japanese Wasteland: John Hersey's 'Hiroshima'", Twentieth Century Literature 46 (2000): 434–452, accessed March 15, 2012.</ref><ref name="The New Yorker 2010">Jon Michaub, "Eighty-Five From the Archive: John Hersey" ''The New Yorker'', June 8, 2010, np.</ref> ''Hiroshima'' narrates the stories of [[Hibakusha|six bomb survivors]] immediately before and four months after the dropping of the [[Little Boy]] bomb.<ref name=autogenerated3>Roger Angell, From the Archives, "Hersey and History", ''The New Yorker'', July 31, 1995, p. 66.</ref><ref name=autogenerated4>John Hersey, Hiroshima (New York: Random House, 1989).</ref>

Oleander (''[[Nerium]]'') is the official flower of the city of Hiroshima because it was the first to bloom again after the explosion of the atomic bomb in 1945.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.city.hiroshima.lg.jp/www/contents/0000000000000/1112000428867/ |script-title=ja:広島市 市の木・市の花 |access-date=July 15, 2012 |archive-date=April 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408231422/http://www.city.hiroshima.lg.jp/www/contents/0000000000000/1112000428867/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
<gallery mode="packed" style="text-align: center;" caption="Gallery" heights="130px" perrow="3">
File:Hiroshima aftermath.jpg|Hiroshima August 1945
File:AtomicEffects-Hiroshima.jpg|Hiroshima in October 1945, two months after the bombing
File:Looking South East General view looking south east building 5H-21 (5-H).jpg|Old [[Mitsui Bank|Teikoku Bank]] Hiroshima Branch (1945)
</gallery>