Name: 80 years since US dropped atomic bombs on Japan | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-08-05T13:50:49.000Z
Duration: 3 min 41 s
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Eighty years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, survivors continue to warn against the use of nuclear weapons.

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It's thought that about 140,000 of Hiroshima's 350,000 population were killed in the atomic blast and at least 74,000 people died in Nagasaki.

Our Japan correspondent Shima Khalil has spent time in Hiroshima speaking to survivors and the students trying to keep their stories alive.

A warning, her report contains upsetting images from the start.

At 8:15 in the morning of August 6th, Japanese time, the first atomic bomb struck an enemy target.

This is the moment the U.S. hit Hiroshima with a weapon so powerful it wiped out whole communities in seconds.

Under the atomic bomb's mushroom cloud, men, women and children were burning alive.

Nuclear radiation engulfed the city, poisoning those who survived the blast.

The horrors of that day are etched in Shingo Naito's memory and now in these paintings by young pupils.

For the past few months, he made regular visits to their school and shared his memories.

My father was badly burned and blinded by the blast.

He placed his hands on my shoulders, but I just couldn't walk with all his weight on me.

My mom gave us a stick to hold and stay together.

My mother also suffered terrible injuries, but she was trying to save my four-year-old brother and two-year-old sister from under the collapsed roof.

It's a level of suffering that 17-year-old Miyabi and Ichigo found hard to grasp.

They've spent weeks painting Naito-san's account of the day, trying to do it justice.

I needed to picture the exact color of blood, for example.

But I feel very strongly that it is my duty to pass this on to next generations.

The damage caused 80 years ago was horrifying, so I can't even start to imagine what we could experience today.

That's why I want to tell the world about what happened.

With the dwindling number of survivors, Naito-san says it's even more crucial now to keep sharing his story.

As the bloodshed in Ukraine and Gaza continues, and with the recent bombings by the US and Israel of Iran's nuclear facilities, he fears the world could face another unthinkable disaster.

What if the radioactive substances were released in those bombings?

The atomic bomb helped end the Second World War, but it unleashed the terror of nuclear warfare.

Today, Hiroshima stands as the city of peace, a testament to its survivors with a message to the world.

Never again should any nation or people endure such devastation.

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80 years since US dropped atomic bombs on Japan | BBC News

crucial

exact

strike

awful