Kids Web Japan

Q. When and where were the atomic bombs dropped?

The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, which has been preserved as a memorial of the blast. In 1996, it was designed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A.

The first atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. military over Hiroshima, a city in southwestern Honshu -- Japan's main island -- on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II. So far about 264,000 people have died from this bomb, including from its radioactive fallout.

The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a city in Kyushu, three days later on August 9. So far about 150,000 people have died as a result of this bombing.

Japan, the only country in the world to have suffered from atomic bombings, has adopted the "three nonnuclear principles" of not manufacturing, not possessing, and not permitting the entry into Japan of nuclear weapons.

Internationally, Japan is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and, as a nonnuclear state, was one of the first countries to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in September 1996.