The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were based on very different designs The United Kingdom gave its consent to the bombing of four cities – Kokura, Niigata, Hiroshima and Nagasaki – on 25 July 1945. It’s said that Kyoto was ultimately spared because US Secretary of War Henry Stimson was fond of the ancient Japanese capital, having spent his honeymoon there decades earlier. The list included Kokura, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Niigata and Kyoto. There were five Japanese cities on the US’s initial hit list and Nagasaki was not one of them

Here are 10 facts about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War Two. The bombings are widely believed to have played a decisive role in convincing Japan to surrender and bringing about an end to World War Two – though this is an assertion that has been much debated. Again, over time the number of fatalities increased considerably as the devastating effects of a nuclear fallout were played out for the world to see. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city Nagasaki, instantly killing a further 40,000 people.

Tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been deployed in warfare and the bomb immediately killed 80,000 people. On August 6 1945, an American B-29 bomber dubbed Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.