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Hiroshima Insight

The facts of A-bomb exposure

There were reportedly about 350,000 people in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped, and about 140,000 (±10,000) had died by the end of 1945.

The victims of the atomic bombing also included others from overseas, such as laborers from Korea, which was under Japan’s colonial rule, exchange students from China and Southeast Asian nations, and U.S. prisoners of war.

Many mobilized students, who were the same age as today’s students in middle school and above, also became victims of the atomic bomb.

Filling in for adults who had been sent off to war, these students provided valuable labor. Despite wanting to continue their studies, they were instead ordered to work at munitions factories and at demolition sites where homes were being dismantled to create fire lanes.

On August 6, 1945, many children were working at demolition sites along today’s Peace Memorial Boulevard, and at other locations, and perished when the atomic bomb exploded.