Hiroshima (広島市) is a city in Japan, known for being the target of the first military atomic bomb in history during the Second World War.
Hiroshima was founded in 1589 as a castle town. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Hiroshima rapidly transformed into a major urban center and industrial hub. The city was a center of military activities during the imperial era, playing significant roles such as in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the two world wars.
A nuclear bomb was dropped at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 in the Pacific theatre of World War II, at 8:15 a.m. Most of Hiroshima was destroyed, and by the end of the year between 90,000 and 166,000 had died as a result of the blast and its effects.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) serves as a memorial of the bombing. The closest surviving building to the location of the bomb’s detonation, was designated the “Atomic Dome”.
The 49th annual G7 summit was held in Hiroshima in May 2023.
As of June 1, 2019, the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391.