| A smoke plume from the fires that followed the atomic strike on Hiroshima that rose 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) above Hiroshima at 1200 Hours. For decades this image was commonly misidentified as the mushroom cloud of the Little Boy bomb that formed around 0815 Hours local time. However, due to its greater height and the wholly different time of day, it is a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, a kind that occurs frequently over firestorms. The time of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima coincided with breakfast cooking time. Many wood, paper, coke, coal and other fuel stoves were in operation at the time. The blast wave pushed them over, scattering the flammable contents, and setting small fires across the city. Hiroshima residents were either dead, wounded or too incapacitated to deal with the kitchen fires. The heat wave of the bomb ignited some material fires as well. All of this created a firestorm that created a pyrocumulonimbus cloud – a type of cloud that forms above source of heat – that rained black droplets across the ruined city. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2102.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.83 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5100 x 3557 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Arny Air Force |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 6, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Hiroshima |
| State or Province | Hiroshima |
| Country | Japan |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database