The atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later brought a scale of destruction the world had never seen. Many who survived the blasts died in the weeks, months and years that followed.

As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the first use of a nuclear weapon, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima near the end of World War II, the planet is closer to seeing them used again than it has been in decades,