Commemorating the Lives Lost in Hiroshima 80 Years Ago Today

It’s the 80th anniversary today of the dropping of an atomic bomb by the U.S. on the Japanese city of Hiroshima (above). A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. The two bombings, which took place in the final days of World War II, killed between 110,000 and 210,000 people, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Earlier today I attended a “Hiroshima Commemoration” at the Lyndale Park Peace Garden at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It’s one of a number of events this week in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis that is marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All of these events are being organized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Hiroshima/Nagasaki Commemoration Committee which recently issued the following statement.

Eighty years ago, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No country has used these bombs in warfare since then. We need to remember the power of nuclear warfare and work so they are never used again.

Related Off-site Links:
80 Years Since the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Alex Lantier (World Socialist Web Site, August 6, 2023).
80 Years of Living and Writing in the Shadow of the Bomb – Martin Halpern (Common Dreams, August 9, 2025).
What Would It Mean to Remember Hiroshima Without Hypocrisy? – Alex Ross (Common Dreams, August 12, 2025).
A Hiroshima Survivor Reminds the World Why History Must Not Repeat Itself – Athan Yanos and Leonardo Pini (Common Dreams, August 21, 2025).
Fallout Tells the Story of the Journalist Who Exposed the “Hiroshima Cover-Up” – Dave Davies (Fresh Air, August 19, 2020).
The U.S. Should Apologize for Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Olivia Alperstein (Institute for Policy Studies, August 5, 2020).

UPDATE: Were the Atomic Bombings Necessary? – Olivia Alperstein (Doomsday Scenario, September 2, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Norman Solomon on Current Nuclear Weapons Policies: “Dizzyingly Insane and Immoral”
• Prayer of the Week – August 7, 2011
• Summer Round-Up – 2011
• Remembering Dorothy Day’s Response to the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima
• Christianity and Nagasaki
• Chris Hedges: Quote of the Day – August 6, 2012
• The Challenge of Peace
• A Dangerous State of Mind


Opening image: In 1945, an Allied war correspondent stands in the ruins of Hiroshima, weeks after an atomic bomb leveled the Japanese city. (Photo: Associated Press)
All other images: Michael J. Bayly (Minneapolis, August 6, 2025).