More than 70 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event still arouses controversy and passionate perspectives. Ever since the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, questions surrounding the first use of what is now called weapons of mass destruction persist. Advocates say it quickly ended the war and saved a million U.S. casualties. Critics argue that Japan was essentially defeated and looking for a settlement. They also say the bomb was really about setting the stage for post-war power relations with the Soviet Union. New research and declassified government documents have shed much light on why the bomb was dropped.

Gar Alperovitz is one of the most highly regarded experts on Hiroshima and U.S. policy. He is professor of political economy at the University of Maryland. His articles appear in the Washington Post, Tikkun, The Nation and Dollars & Sense. His books include Atomic Diplomacy and America Beyond Capitalism. His award-winning book The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, is a classic.

(Ed. Note) Hiroshima was chosen, not as a city that posed a major military threat, but because of its 'interesting' urban and geographical environment with a mix of traditional and modern structures spread across a delta basin. In an act of conscientious aggression against a civilian population, the US, with full agreement from the UK, dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on the city killing 70 to 80, 000 immediately and injuring the same number. No-one knows how many babies are yet to be born with the genetic legacy of the first of the two most inhuman medical and engineering experiments every carried out.