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.
Potsdam Declaration
At a press conference with the Japanese press in Tokyo, Suzuki stated that the Japanese policy towards the declaration would be one of , which the United States interpreted as meaning "rejection by ignoring", leading to a decision by the White House to carry out the threat of destruction. Subsequent to the White House decision, the United States Army Air Forces dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then the second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki three days later on August 9, 1945. These two bombings devastated the two cities, killing an estimated 129,000–246,000 people and destroying much of the cities' infrastructure as well as military bases and war industries in a matter of seconds in a radius that stretched for more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers).