On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m.

, the first atomic bomb used directly on a

civilian population was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima from a
U.S. plane. A month earlier, on July 16, the first atomic bomb in the history
of mankind had exploded, as part of the preparatory tests of this devastating
war instrument that the United States of America was carrying out in the
shadow of the Manhattan Project in the desert of Arizona, New Mexico.

After the Nazi defeat, the representatives of the three great victorious
Allied countries met in Potsdam -from July 17 to August 2, 1945- Harry S.
Truman, president of the United States, already knew the effects of his
secret weapon and, in spite of this, insisted on conditioning Japan to total
surrender; it was also known that this was not going to happen in a people
heir to the samurai tradition. The aim was to teach an unforgettable lesson;
thus, on March 9, 1945, the Americans had destroyed part of Tokyo with
their M69 napalm bombs, with a toll of around 80,000 dead and a similar
number of wounded. After Potsdam, everything was precipitated, only the
United States knew, and not completely, the destructive capacity of
weapons such as fusion and radioactive fission bombs.

On August 6, 1945, the people of Hiroshima woke up ready to go about

their business as on any other day in those wartime days. An American
plane was flying over the area and, before being detected, dropped "Little
Boy", the code name of the atomic bomb: with 4.4 tons and 64 kilos of
uranium, it detonated with a power of approximately 16 kilotons of
Trinitrotoluene (TNT) and, with an intensity greater than a thousand flashes
of lightning, in an instant killed 70,000 people. The after-effects remained
for years, and are still present. The plane was a B-29, the Enola Gay, and
was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets. Also on board were Colonel Thomas
W. Ferebee, bombing expert, Captain Theodore J. van Kink, co-pilot, and
Captain Robert Lewis, crew officer.

As soon as the death mushroom rose into the sky over Japan, the launchers
alerted President Truman, who was returning to the U.S. from Potsdam
aboard the Augusta.

On August 8 of that year, Stalin began the invasion of Japan through the
territory of Manchuria -in accordance with the Potsdam agreements-. It was
one more measure of pressure to obtain unconditional surrender, and this
stratagem included an event which, in view of the results of August 6, may
seem incomprehensible as an attack on the human right to life: the
dropping of the second atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, on the city of
Nagasaki.

The Manhattan Project had been directed since September 17, 1942 by
General Leslie Groves, who on March 4, 1945 was commissioned by U.S.
Chief of Staff James C. Marshall to search for possible targets for use of
the bomb. Four Japanese cities were selected: Hiroshima, Kokura, Kyoto
and Niiagata. Nagasaki was not on the original list, but Henry L. Stimson,
Secretary of War, protested the presence of Kyoto, Japan's most important
religious and cultural center. He succeeded in convincing Marshall, and
Nagasaki was placed instead.

The launch over the second target was scheduled for August 11, but due to
bad weather was moved up to August 9. Charles W. Sweeny took off from
the island of Tinian in another B-29, the Bock's Car, at 2:56 a.m. bound for
Kokura. In flight, the mechanic on board, John Kuharek, reported that one
of the fuel pumps was not working, there would not be enough fuel to reach
the target. Sweeney alerted mission chief Tibbets, who left the decision in
the hands of the pilot, who took over. Then, "Fat Man" - the name of the
second bomb, a Plutonium bomb - went off in mid-flight. Nervous,
Sweeney decided to abort the mission, and radioed: this put the Japanese on
notice. Faced with this new tensor, at 11:02 a.m. they found themselves
over the third target on the list (closer than the second) and dropped the
bomb. It fell on Nagasaki, exploding with an energy of approximately 20
kilotons of TNT.

Since early that morning, the Japanese military had been discussing
surrender. The new disaster unified the decision and Japan entered into
negotiations to surrender. On August 15, 1845, Emperor Hiroito II read
over the radio the Imperial Rescript on the termination of the War. On
September 1, Harry S. Truman announced to the world the Japanese
surrender and the end of the war. Finally, on September 2, Mamoru
Shigemitsu signed the Act of Surrender in his capacity as Minister of
Foreign Affairs. With the signature of the representatives of the Allied
powers present -USA, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France,
Netherlands, China, Australia, New Zealand and Canada- the historic
document put an end to World War II.

No one then knew the true effects of the atomic bombs, radiation
poisoning. The destruction of much of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the
immediate evidence, as well as the death of about two hundred thousand
people from the acute effects of the explosions, many incinerated in a
second. There were survivors, there are truly amazing stories, but in
addition to severe burns, those who were around at the time developed
cancer. According to the Hiroshima-based Radiation Effects Research
Foundation, it is likely that those people with cancer suffered a
"chromosomal rearrangement" - RET/PTC (Transformation
Rearrangement/Papillary Thyroid Carcinomas) - carrying a cancer-prone
gene, which has affected their descendants. In addition, water, air and soil
were contaminated with the radioactive aftermath, sickening for decades
those who drank or ate produce from the area, an effect similar to that
caused by the explosion of the Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl.

The large number of human rights violated during the years of the Second
World War led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. It was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris
on December 10, 1948... also, in the name of historical memory and peace
as tools for life, every August 6 or 9, awareness-raising events are held
around the world, especially in Hiroshima, in the Peace Park, and in
Nagasaki. This 2023 the anniversary is 78 years.