The bomb and its aftermath

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Twenty-one days after the first successful detonation in the desert at Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA, an atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945, and three days later over Nagasaki. What brought World War II to an end, ended an estimated 160,000 - 240,000 lives and changed our world.

We are honoured to display three artefacts on loan from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and to tell the stories of their young owners on that terrible day.

This project supported by the museum's USA Bicentennial Gift Fund

Atomic-bombed dress worn by a toddler
1,300m from the hypocenter　Hiratsuka-cho
Donated by Tomoyuki Kubo
Collection of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

The morning of August 6, Shoji Kubo (then 3) was watching his father and brother leave for their evacuation site through a second-floor window of their home when he was hit by the flash of the atomic bomb and burned terribly. His mother, Tsune (then 39), sought treatment for him in hospitals and hot springs, but on May 5, 1946, he developed septicemia. He died on the 16th. The diagnosis was “septicemia, atomic bomb aftereffects.” The right side of the dress that Shoji was wearing at the time of the bombing remains deeply stained from the neck to the shoulder.