MPNHP News:
The National Park Service at Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MPNHP) in Los Alamos will be hosting a moment of silence to observe 76 years since the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the waning days of World War II.
The park will host two separate events, one Aug. 6, in observance of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and one Aug. 9, in observance of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The event is at the Ashley Pond Park Pavilion, at 2200 Trinity Dr. in Los Alamos:
- Friday, Aug. 6, 2021 at 9:15 a.m. MDT; and
- Monday, Aug. 9, 2021 at 11 a.m. MDT.
The uranium fueled atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, at 8:16 a.m. local time in Japan, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of people. It is one of only two times an atomic weapon was intentionally used on a human population.
The second being when the plutonium fueled “Fat Man” was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m. local time in Japan, also killing tens of thousands. World War II came to an end less than a week later with the surrender of Japan on Aug. 15, 1945. The surrender became official on Sept. 2, 1945, 6 years and 1 day after World War II began when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
Formally established in November 2015 via a Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Energy and the National Park Service to preserve portions of three World War II sites where the United States developed the first atomic weapons, the park marks the history of the people, science, events, and controversy associated with the creation of the atomic bomb in the top-secret effort known as the Manhattan Project. Under the agreement, the NPS and DOE jointly manage and administer the park.
