August 6th 1945: The Day the World Changed

The summer of 1945 found the world in a state of exhausted anticipation. World War II, a conflagration that had consumed continents and claimed tens of millions of lives, was slowly sputtering to an end in Europe, but the Pacific theater remained a bloody and protracted struggle. Japan, despite overwhelming Allied superiority and the devastating strategic bombing campaigns that had already ravaged its cities, continued to resist fiercely.