The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1946)

The Manhattan Engineer District’s own report on what the bombs did to two cities and their people.

In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Afterward, investigators from the Manhattan Project surveyed both cities and wrote this report on the destruction, the casualties and the effects of radiation.

It is sober, factual and difficult to read. It is also an essential document for anyone who wants to understand the human cost of the weapon Oppenheimer and his colleagues built, and why so many of them spent the rest of their lives working to control it.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Every book and document here is free to read.