Hiroshima, 80 Years Later: From Ashes to Hope
By Dr. Marco V. Benavides Sánchez. It's 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, August 6, 2025 in Hiroshima right now. Eighty years ago, at precisely 8:15 a.m., the world changed forever. The sky above Hiroshima was clear. The city, alive with children walking to school and shopkeepers unlocking their doors, had no warning of the fire that would soon descend upon it. Within seconds, an entire civilization was flattened. An entire morning, frozen in time. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare. It was called "Little Boy" —a name disturbingly innocent for a weapon that would instantly kill over 70,000 people and doom tens of thousands more to die slowly from radiation, burns, and broken systems of care. A blast of light brighter than a thousand suns tore across the city. Concrete melted. Shadows were seared permanently onto stone steps. Human beings vanished—some in a blink, others over days, months, years. And now, 80 years later, we remem...