77 years of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: There's a new risk of nuclear confrontation

This year on August 6, bells tolled in Hiroshima to mark the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing. On August 6 and August 9 in 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and for the first time, the world saw a new type of weapon of destruction. 

The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people and most of them were civilians. Those attacks remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. 

US physicists got to know about the experiments in Germany demonstrating the possibility of nuclear fission. They understood the potential energy that was expected to be released by it. 

The US Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was created in June 1941 to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. OSRD had a joint responsibility with the war department in the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. 

An atomic device was set off on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, after four years. The explosive power equivalent to that of more than 15,000 tons of TNT was generated and that's when an atomic bomb was born.  

An atomic bomb nicknamed 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Reports mentioned that the combined heat and blast pulverized everything in the explosion. On August 9, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It killed between 35,000 and 40,000 people. 

Japan surrendered six days later on August 15, ending the military aggression that brought it into World War II. 

Still, people condemn the decision to drop the bombs, but some supporters say that atomic bombings were necessary to bring a swift end to the war with minimal casualties. 

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war sparked fears of a full-fledged nuclear war. Several times, Moscow hinted that nuclear weapons will be used only in response to weapons of mass destruction or a conventional weapons attack that threatened the "existence of the Russian state". 

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, what it calls a "special military operation" to "demilitarise" and "de-nazify" its neighbouring country and protect Russian speakers in the country. 

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, experts are raising questions... will Russia use tactical nuclear weapons?

After the invasion, Putin had said he was moving his "deterrent forces" - meaning nuclear weapons - to "combat ready" status. This raised fears but no one knows to be precise what would exactly happen. 

On August 8, 2022, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the risk of nuclear confrontation had returned after decades. He urged the nuclear states to commit to no first use of the weapons and added that any attack on a nuclear plant is a "suicidal thing". 

His remarks come amid reports that there was renewed Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia facility in Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear power plant. 

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the latest strike at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Reports suggest that the site has been under Russian control since the early days of the war. 

Recently, the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned of "the very real risk of a nuclear disaster". 

On Monday, Ukraine has called for the establishment of a demilitarised zone around a nuclear power station in east Ukraine. The recent fighting with Russian forces raised fears of a nuclear accident. 

Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine's nuclear energy company, Energoatom, said: "What needs to be done is to remove occupying forces from the station and to create a de-militarised zone on the territory of the station."