PHOTOS: The Bombing Of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

AFP/Getty Images

American bomber pilot Paul W. Tibbets Jr. (center) stands with the ground crew of the bomber 'Enola Gay' which Tibbets flew in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Tinian Island, Northern Marianas, August 1945. Ground crew includes (left to right) engine mechanic Private Harold Olsen, Corporal John Jackson, crew chief Staff Sergeant Walter McCaleb, Tibbets, engine mechanic Sergeant Leonard Markley, engine mechanic Sergeant Jean Cooper, engine mechanic Private John Lesnieski. About 120,000 people were killed outright by just one atomic bomb (called 'Little Man') and nearly a quarter million over time from injuries and radiation effects.

The Associated Press

In this Aug. 6, 1945, file photo, smoke rises around 20,000 feet above Hiroshima, Japan, after the first atomic bomb was dropped. On two days in Aug. 1945, U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, the first and only time nuclear weapons have been used. Their destructive power was unprecedented, incinerating buildings and people, and leaving lifelong scars on survivors, not just physical but also psychological, and on the cities themselves. Days later, World War II was over.

The Associated Press

In this Aug. 6, 1945, file photo, survivors of the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare are seen as they await emergency medical treatment in Hiroshima, Japan. On two days in Aug. 1945, U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, the first and only time nuclear weapons have been used. Their destructive power was unprecedented, incinerating buildings and people, and leaving lifelong scars on survivors, not just physical but also psychological, and on the cities themselves. Days later, World War II was over.

Nippon Eiga Shinsha, The Associated Press

A man walks in the rubble near the remains of the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry building, now known as the Atomic-Bombing Dome, in this image made from a newly recovered movie footage of the western Japanese city shot weeks after the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing. The two-hour black-and-white film - taken by an Education Ministry mission - is the latest chapter in the city's half-century quest to recover bits and pieces of a pivotal day in history.

The Associated Press

This Aug. 6, 1945 file photo, shows the destruction from the explosion of an atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan. The 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are being marked with memorial services, peace concerts and art exhibits. More than 200,000 people died in the two blasts, which were the first wartime uses of nuclear weapons and which led to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Getty Images

This handout picture taken on Aug. 6, 1945 by US Army and released from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum shows a mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb dropped by B-29 bomber Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima. Charred bodies bobbed in the brackish waters that flowed through Hiroshima 70 years ago this week, after a once-vibrant Japanese city was consumed by the searing heat of the world's first nuclear attack. About 140,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the attack, including those who survived the bombing itself but died soon afterward due to severe radiation exposure. AFP PHOTO / HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL MUSEUM/AFP/Getty Images

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By The Denver Post | newsroom@denverpost.com | The Denver Post

UPDATED: August 6, 2017 at 11:41 PM MST

In the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off from the island of Tinian and headed north by northwest toward Japan. The bomber’s primary target was the city of Hiroshima, located on the deltas of southwestern Honshu Island facing the Inland Sea. Hiroshima had a civilian population of almost 300,000 and was an important military center, containing about 43,000 soldiers.

The bomber, piloted by the commander of the 509th Composite Group, Colonel Paul Tibbets, flew at low altitude on automatic pilot before climbing to 31,000 feet as it neared the target area. At approximately 8:15 a.m. Hiroshima time the Enola Gay released “Little Boy,” its 9,700-pound uranium gun-type bomb, over the city. Tibbets immediately dove away to avoid the anticipated shock wave. Forty-three seconds later, a huge explosion lit the morning sky as Little Boy detonated 1,900 feet above the city, directly over a parade field where soldiers of the Japanese Second Army were doing calisthenics.

Though already eleven and a half miles away, the Enola Gay was rocked by the blast. At first, Tibbets thought he was taking flak. After a secondEnola Gay returning from Hiroshima mission, Tinian Field, August 6, 1945 shock wave (reflected from the ground) hit the plane, the crew looked back at Hiroshima. “The city was hidden by that awful cloud . . . boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall,” Tibbets recalled. The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 15 kilotons (the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT).

No one will ever know for certain how many died as a result of the attack on Hiroshima. Some 70,000 people probably died as a result of initial blast, heat, and radiation effects. This included about twenty American airmen being held as prisoners in the city. By the end of 1945, because of the lingering effects of radioactive fallout and other after effects, the Hiroshima death toll was probably over 100,000. The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold. (U.S. Department Of Energy)

Originally Published: August 6, 2017 at 6:54 PM MST