Operation Crossroads
There were only seven nuclear bombs in existence in July 1946. The two bombs used in the test were Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki. The "Able" bomb was stenciled with the name "Gilda" and decorated with an "Esquire" magazine photograph of Rita Hayworth, star of the 1946 movie, "Gilda". The "Baker" bomb was "Helen of Bikini." This femme-fatale theme for nuclear weapons, combining seduction and destruction, is epitomized by the use in all languages, starting in 1946, of "bikini" as the name for a woman's two-piece bathing suit.
Air raids on Japan
Hiroshima was attacked on 6 August. At 8:15 am local time the B-29 "Enola Gay", piloted by Tibbets, dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb over the center of the city. The resulting explosion killed tens of thousands of people and destroyed about of buildings. The six American aircraft involved in this attack returned safely to the Marianas. Postwar estimates of casualties from the attack on Hiroshima range from 66,000 to 80,000 fatalities and 69,000 to 151,000 injured. Tens of thousands more subsequently died as a result of radiation and other injuries from the attack; it has been estimated that 140,000 people had died as a result of the atomic bomb by the end of 1945. Estimates of the total number of fatalities range as high as 230,000. Of the survivors of the bombing, 171,000 were rendered homeless.