Nuclear bombs dropped during World War II

Nuclear weapons have only twice been deployed in combat too far. The United States launched two nuclear bombs on Japan at the close of World War II: Little Boy on August 6, 1945, and Fat Man on August 9, 1945, both on Nagasaki. Little Boy exploded with an explosive force of around 15 kilotons, leveling the majority of the structures within a mile. A heat wave of 6,000°C (10,830°F) was released after the shock wave, igniting or consuming anything combustible and transforming the explosion zone into a firestorm.

Finally, the explosion released deadly ionizing radiation and lingering radioactive fallout, in which the original explosion's debris that was launched into the stratosphere is kept aloft by atmospheric winds and returns to Earth over the following few days. According to a 1945 official investigation, the bombing of Hiroshima was responsible for a total of 66,000 fatalities and 69,000 wounded. Less tragically, but still, devastatingly, there were 39,000 fatalities and 25,000 wounded in Nagasaki.