The bombing of Hiroshima was a defining moment of the 20th century, but the aircraft that flew the mission was largely forgotten and left to deteriorate until restoration finally began in 1984.įifty years after Hiroshima, the airplane flew into controversy of a different sort. Until the atomic bombs fell, Japan had not been ready to end the war.īy eliminating the need for an invasion of Japan, the bombs prevented casualties, both American and Japanese, that would have exceeded the death tolls at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. However, these missions brought an end to a war in which 17 million people had died at the hands of the Japanese empire between 19. 15.Īt Hiroshima, more than half the city was destroyed in a flash, and 80,000 were killed instantly.

6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.