In the early dawn hours on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber, took off from Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands and headed straight to Hiroshima with an atomic bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy.” The morning of August 6, the weather in Hiroshima was sunny. On August 2, the decision to use an atomic bomb on August 6 was made and the first target was Hiroshima. On July 25, 1945, the United States narrowed down the potential targets of the A-bombing to the four cities of Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki (Kyoto was also picked at first, but excluded for political reasons). In addition, during the final days of World War II, the Headquarters of the Second General Army, established to command troops in western Japan, was stationed in Hiroshima in preparation for decisive battles on the mainland.
It was not generally known that a major poison gas production facility had been constructed (in April, 1929) on the Okunoshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea, located in the prefecture.
With the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War started in July 1894, Hiroshima became a major base for troop dispatchand military logistics.
As described above, Hiroshima was one of the most important military cities in Japan.
