Witnessing Devastation in Hiroshima: Survivors Retell Their Stories 73 Years After the Atomic Bomb Dropped

Seventy-three years ago today, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan—a city of 350,000 people. The bomb flattened the city and killed tens of thousands in an instant. An hour after the blast, some 80,000 people were dead.

It was the first time any country had dropped an atomic bomb on another. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki—a blast that killed tens of thousands more outright.

Many injured survivors languished for weeks and months. For many that survived the initial blasts, radiation sickness and cancer slowly crept through their bodies. Although it is impossible to know the exact number of lives cut short by the bombs, estimates reach 290,000.

As of March 2017, more than 160,000 hibakusha, the Japanese name for atomic bomb survivors, were still alive. A small sliver of this number have spent their lives retelling their stories in one of the most enduring political campaigns of our time.