Hiroshima mushroom cloud
Photographer: George R. Caron
Date: August 6, 1945
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
George R. Caron, the tail gunner of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, photographed the mushroom cloud rising over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, after the aircraft dropped the uranium atomic bomb 'Little Boy.' The photograph was taken from the Enola Gay shortly after the detonation at an altitude of approximately 31,000 feet. The explosion destroyed most of the city and killed an estimated 70,000–80,000 people instantly, with tens of thousands more dying later from burns and radiation sickness. The image became one of the most widely reproduced photographs of the atomic age and one of the defining visual records of World War II.
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