The Pacific: Photos from 1941 to 1945
Photos from WWII
 
With the premiere of the ten part HBO miniseries, The Pacific,  produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, World War II  has again come into the living rooms of American families. The  Pacific, the follow-up to Band of Brothers,  focused on  the US Marines in the Pacific Theater of the war.
The following collection of 110 photos, published on a Denver Post Photo Blog, focuses on The Pacific War, a term referring to  parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, the islands  of the Pacific and the Far East. The start of The Pacific War is  generally considered to be the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii  on December 7, 1941. The Pacific War pitted the Allies against the  Empire of Japan and culminated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and  Nagasaki in August of 1945, Victory over Japan Day on August 15, 1945  and the official surrender of Japan aboard the battleship U.S.S.  Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
December  7, 1941: A small boat rescues a USS West Virginia crew member from the  water after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (AP Photo)
December  7, 1941: This picture, taken by a Japanese photographer, shows how  American ships are clustered together before the surprise Japanese  aerial attack on Pear Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941.  Minutes later the full impact of the assault was felt and Pearl Harbor  became a flaming target. (AP Photo)
December  7, 1941: Sailors stand among wrecked airplanes at Ford Island Naval Air  Station as they watch the explosion of the USS Shaw in the background,  during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (AP Photo)
December  7, 1941: The battleship USS Arizona belches smoke as it topples over  into the sea during a Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The ship sank with more than 80 percent of its 1,500-man crew. The  attack, which left 2,343 Americans dead and 916 missing, broke the  backbone of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and forced  America out of a policy  of isolationism. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that it was  "a date which will live in infamy" and Congress declared war on Japan  the morning after. (AP Photo)
December  7, 1941: Eight miles from Pearl Harbor, shrapnel from a Japanese bomb  riddled this car and killed three civilians in the attack. Two of the  victims can be seen in the front seat. The Navy reported there was no  nearby military objective. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
December  7, 1941: Heavy damage is seen on the destroyers, U.S.S. Cassin and the  U.S.S. Downes, stationed at Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack on  the Hawaiian island. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
Wreckage,  identified by the U.S. Navy as a Japanese torpedo plane , was salvaged  from the bottom of Pearl Harbor following the surprise attack Dec. 7,  1941. (AP Photo)
The  shattered wreckage of American planes bombed by the Japanese in their  attack on Pearl Harbor is strewn on Hickam Field, Dec. 7, 1941. (AP  Photo)
April  18, 1942: A B-25 Mitchell bomber takes off from the USS Hornet's flight  deck for the initial air raid on Tokyo, Japan.  President Roosevelt had answered a reporter's question by saying that   the raid came from a base called "Shangri-La" in playful   allusion to the mythical country of James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon. For a year the world knew no more than that.   (AP Photo)
June  1942: The USS Lexington, U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, explodes after  being bombed by Japanese planes in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the  South Pacific during World War II. (AP Photo)
June  4, 1942: The U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown, left, and the other  fighting ships of a United States task force in the Pacific, throw up an  umbrella of anti-aircraft fire to beat off a squadron of Japanese  torpedo planes attacking the carrier during the battle of Midway. (AP  Photo)
August  3, 1942: After hammering Port Moresby for two days, Japanese bombers  finally sank this Australian transport which sends up a cloud of smoke.  She drifted onto a reef and heeled over. Flaming oil can be seen at  left. The men in a small boat, foreground, are looking for victims. (AP  Photo)
Aug.  7, 1942: Members of the crew of a U.S. Destroyer get a good look at a  Japanese twin-motored  bomber shot down by U.S. aircraft near Tulagi in  the first day of fighting for possession of the southern Solomon  Islands. One third of the end of the fuselage was shot off.  Barely  discernible above the waves, one member of the crew of the plane clings  to the starboard wing. (AP Photo/US Navy)
Aug.  29, 1942: After landing in force, U.S. Marines pause on the beach of  Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands before advancing inland against the  Japanese during World War II. (AP Photo)
Aug.  1942: U.S. Marines approach the Japanese occupied Guadalcanal in the  Solomon Islands during World War II. (AP Photo)
Aug.  1942: U.S. Marines, with full battle kits, charge ashore on Guadalcanal  Island from a landing barge during the early phase of the U.S.  offensive in the Solomon Islands during World War II. (AP Photo)
June  1942: Crewmen picking their way along the sloping flight deck of the  aircraft carrier Yorktown as the ship listed, head for damaged sections  to see if they can patch up the crippled ship. Later, they had to  abandon the carrier and two strikes from a Japanese submarine's  torpedoes sent the ship down to the sea floor after the battle of  Midway. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
Oct.  29, 1942: U.S. Marines man a .75 MM gun on Guadalcanal Island in the  Solomon Islands during World War II. (AP Photo)
October  16, 1942: Six U.S. Navy scout planes are seen in flight above their  carrier. (AP Photo)
Nov.  3, 1942: Pushing through New Guinea jungles in a jeep, General Douglas  MacArthur inspects the positions and movements of Allied Forces, who  would push the Japanese away from Port Moresby and back over the Owen  Stanley Mountain range. (AP Photo)
November  5, 1942: With the towering 20,300 feet peak of Mt. McKinley as a  backdrop, a formation of U.S. Army Air Force A-29 planes drone along on  the alert in defense in Alaska during World War II. (AP Photo)
Nov.  4, 1942: Two alert U.S. Marines stand beside their small tank on  Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during World War II. The military  tank was used against the Japanese in the battle of the Tenaru River  during the early stages of fighting. (AP Photo)
May  1942: After defending the island for nearly a month, American and  Filipino soldiers surrender to Japanese invasion troops on Corregidor  island, Philippines. This photograph was captured from the Japanese  during Japan's three-year occupation. (AP Photo)
January  1943: The bodies of three American soldiers, fallen in the battle for  Buna and Gona, lie on the beach of the island in the Papua New Guinea  region during World War II.  (AP Photo)
January  1943: While on a bombing run over Salamau, New Guinea, before its  capture by Allied forces, photographer Sgt. John A. Boiteau aboard an  army Liberator took this photograph of a B-24 Liberator during World War  II. Bomb bursts can be seen below in lower left and a ship at upper  right along the beach.  (AP Photo/U.S. Army Force)
February  2, 1943: An American jeep proceeds along a trail through the jungle on  Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands during World War II. (AP Photo)
Jan.  26, 1943: An infantryman is on guard on Grassy Knoll in Guadalcanal,  Solomon Islands during World War II.  (AP Photo)
January  1943: Two American soldiers of the 32nd Division cautiously fire into a  Japanese dugout before entering it for inspection during a drive on  Buna, which resulted in a defeat of Japanese forces in the Papaun  peninsula of New Guinea during World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal  Corps)
Jan.  21, 1943: Native stretcher bearers rest in the shade of a coconut grove  as they and the wounded American soldiers they are carrying from the  front lines at Buna, New Guinea take the opportunity to relax. The  wounded are on their way to makeshift hospitals in the rear. (AP Photo)
Feb.  1943: Soldiers of the Australian forces advance through a coconut grove  and kunai grass in Japanese occupied New Guinea  during World War II.  The smoke is from mortar fire during the fierce fighting in the final  assault which took Buna, the Japanese stronghold.  (AP Photo)
March  22, 1943: Technical Sgt. R.W. Greenwood, a Marine, sits in the cockpit  of a Grumman Wildcat fighter plane, based at Henderson Field,  Guadalcanal, that is credited with shooting down 19 Japanese aircraft,  as illustrated by the number of Japanese flags on his plane. Several  different pilots have flown the ship during successful missions, but  Sgt. Greenwood has remained plane captain. (AP Photo)
May  11, 1943: American invasion troops of the 7th Infantry Division approach  a landing area code-named Beach Red in the western arm of Holtz Bay, on  Japanese-occupied Attu island in Alaska. (AP Photo)
June  23, 1943: U.S. Army reinforcements land on a beach in Attu, Alaska on  during World War II. U.S. troops invaded Attu on May 11 to expel the  Japanese from the Aleutians. (AP Photo)
July  6,1943: Across this valley on Attu up above the fog line that obscures  the tops of the mountains lie the passes that lead to Holtz Bay and  Chichagof Bay. In the Valley at right center leading back into the  mountains are strong Japanese positions shown. Attu Island was the site  of the only World War II land battle on United States soil. (AP Photo)
June  4, 1943: A wounded U.S. Marine is given a plasma transfusion by nurse  Mae Olson aboard an aerial evacuation unit, over Guadalcanal, Solomon  Islands. (AP Photo)
August  1943: Wounded American soldiers are seen as they lie aboard a lighter  onshore at Munda Point, New Georgia island. (AP Photo)
November  1943: A U.S. soldier wounded in the initial invasion at Empress Augusta  Bay is being hoisted aboard a Coast Guard-manned transport off shore of  Bougainville island. (AP Photo)
Sept.  11, 1943: After three days of fighting on the front lines on Munda, a  Marine's tank crew take a rest, during which their machine guns are  overhauled. This platoon wiped out 30 Japanese pill boxes. Left to right  are: Pfc. Arnold McKenzie, Los Angeles, Calif.; Joseph Lodico, Sharon,  Mass.; Pvt. Noel M. Billups, Columbus Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Douglas  Ayres, Los Angeles. (AP Photo)
November  2, 1943: A B-25 bomber of the U.S. Army 5th Air Force strikes against a  Japanese ship in the harbor at Rabaul, New Britain during an air raid  on the Japanese-held air and naval base. (AP Photo)
November  1943: As the invasion at Empress Augusta Bay gets under way on  Bougainville, U.S. troops are seen climbing over the side of a Coast  Guard-manned combat transport to enter the landing barges. (AP Photo)
Nov.  11, 1943: A supply ship, one of two that the Japanese were able to work  through U.S. Air attacks, explodes in Rangoon Harbor (center) after a  direct hit by a bomb from a Tenth U.S. Air Force Plane. Hits also were  scored on port facilities, seen smoking (top center). Note numerous  small craft moored at docks and offshore, (right). (AP Photo)
November  20, 1943: Under attack from Japanese machine gun fire on the right  flank, men of the 165th Infantry are seen as the wade through coral  bottom water on Yellow Beach Two, Butaritari, during the assault on the  Makin atoll, Gilbert Islands. (AP Photo)
Nov.  11, 1943: Crewmen of a U.S. Coast Guard combat transport go for a swim  under the hull of a Japanese landmark in the Solomon Islands during  World War II. The boat is the Kinugawa Maru, beached by the Japanese  after being riddled by American gunners. Coast guardsmen took part in  the original invasion of the Solomons.  (AP Photo)
Dec.  1943: American Navajo Indians from Southwest United States, members of  the 158th U.S. Infantry, are seen on a beach in the Solomon Islands.  They are in their traditional dress for a tribal ceremony at  Christmastime. From left to right are, Pfc. Dale Winney, Gallup, N.M;  Pvt. Perry Toney, Holbrook, Ariz.; Pfc. Joe Gishi, Holbrook; and Pfc.  Joe Taraha, Gallup. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
December  26, 1943: U.S. Marines are seen from above as they wade through rough  water to take the beach at Cape Gloucester on New Britain, Papua New  Guinea. (AP Photo)
Dec.  26, 1943: U.S. Marines march ashore as they arrive in six landing  crafts at Cape Gloucester on the northwestern coast of New Britain  Island, New Guinea. The Allied forces made a second big invasion  operation of the Japanese occupied island in an attempt to capture the  big air base of Rabual, on the southwestern coast of the island.  (AP  Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
January  1944: U.S. Marines carry their weapons and ammunition overhead as they  wade through a wetland area at Cape Gloucester, New Britain Island. (AP  Photo)
January  1944: U.S. Marines come ashore from the mouth of a Coast Guard manned  LST, during the invasion of New Britain Island, at Cape Gloucester. (AP  Photo)
January  1944: These U.S. Marine Raiders, with the reputation of being skillful  jungle fighters, pose in front of a Japanese stronghold they conquered  at Cape Totkina, Bougainville. (AP Photo)
February  23, 1944: Captain Carter, upper center with map, briefs his men for  amphibious assault operations at Arawe, New Britain aboard a troop  transport ship. (AP Photo)
February  1944: A wounded marine receives treatment from a Navy medical corpsman  at a jungle first aid station behind the lines on New Britain Island,  New Guinea, in the Battle for the Strategic Japanese air field on Cape  Gloucester during World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps)
May  1944: The first wave of U.S. Infantrymen leave their higgins boats and  race through the surf for the beach during the invasion of Wakde Island,  Dutch New Guinea during World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
March  1944: Hundreds of pictures of pin-up girls adorn the entire wall of  this bomber crew shack on Adak Island in the Aleutians in Alaska during  World War II. (AP Photo)
March  1944: Following in the cover of a tank, American infantrymen secure an  area on Bougainville, Solomon Islands after Japanese forces infiltrated  their lines during the night. (AP Photo)
June  1944: U.S. Marines move up the beach on Saipan under heavy machine gun  fire, during landing operations at the island of the Mariana group. (AP  Photo)
June  1944: A Japanese bomber is shot down as it attempted to attack the USS  Kitkun Bay, near the Mariana Islands. (AP Photo)
June  1944: Two U.S. Marines are seen crawling to their assigned positions  under enemy fire on the beach at Saipan, Mariana Islands. (AP Photo)
July  1944: Columns of troop-packed LCIs trail in the wake of a Coast  Guard-manned transport ship en route for the invasion of Cape Sansapor,  New Guinea. The deck of the LST is densely packed with heavy military  machinery and other war supplies. (AP Photo)
July  1944: U.S. Marines walk away from a Japanese foxhole after blowing it  up with explosives, during the invasion at Saipan, in the Mariana  Islands.  (AP Photo)
July  1944: U.S. Army reinforcement troops are seen as they disembark from  LST's in the background and proceed across the coral reef toward Saipan  beach, Mariana Islands. (AP Photo)
July  27, 1944: Flak fills the sky as U.S. antiaircraft guns fight off a  Japanese attack during the invasion of Saipan, Mariana Islands. (AP  Photo)
March  10, 1945: U.S. troops in the Pacific islands continued to find enemy  holdouts long after the main Japanese forces had either surrendered or  disappeared. Guam was considered cleared by August 12, 1944, but parts  of the island were still dangerous half a year later. Here, patrolling  Marines pass a dead Japanese sniper. These Marines may belong to the  Fifty-second Defense Battalion, one of two black units sent to the  Pacific. (Charles P. Gorry, AP Staff/AP Archives)
August  24, 1944: Curtiss Helldivers from the Fast Carrier Task Force 58 are  seen midair on a mission over Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. (AP Photo)
September  13, 1944: Japanese-occupied harbor of Cebu is under attack by U.S. Navy  carrier-based fighter planes, at Cebu island, Philippines. (AP Photo)
October  20, 1944: U.S. troops head toward the beaches of Leyte island during  the amphibious assault to reconquest the Philippines. (AP Photo)
Nov.  1944: American soldiers take cover from fire of a Japanese machine gun  in the Philippines during World War II. The troops are part of the first  wave to land on Leyte Island in the Philippine invasion.  (AP  Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
October  20, 1944: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, center, is accompanied by his  officers and Sergio Osmena, president of the Philippines in exile,  extreme left, as he wades ashore during landing operations at Leyte,  Philippines, after U.S. forces recaptured the beach of the  Japanese-occupied island. To his left is Lt. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland,  his chief of staff. (AP Photo)
November  1944: A U.S. Marine flame throwing tank attacks a Japanese pillbox,  during the invasion of Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. (AP Photo)
November  12, 1944: U.S. medics are seen as they treat wounded comrades at an  portable surgical unit during the 36th Division's drive on Pinwe, Burma.  (AP Photo)
November  1944: Ground crew members prepare bombs to be loaded into the racks of  the waiting B-29 Superforts, at a U.S. airbase on Saipan, in the Mariana  Islands. (AP Photo)
November  1944: U.S. landing ship tanks are seen from above as they pour military  equipment onto the shores of Leyte island, to support invading forces  in the Philippines. (AP Photo)
November  1944: Two Coast Guard-manned landing ships open their jaws as U.S.  soldiers line up to build sandbag piers out to the ramps, on Leyte  island, Philippines. (AP Photo)
Nov.  25, 1944: Firefighters are almost hidden by smoke as they turn their  hoses on many small fires started on the flight deck of the USS Intrepid  after a Japanese suicide plane crashed into the carrier while it was  operating off the coast of Luzon, the Philippines. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
Nov.  25, 1944: Wounded sailors are treated on the flight deck of the USS  Intrepid after a Japanese suicide pilot crashed his plane on the  carrier's deck while it sailed off the coast of Luzon, the Philippines,  during World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
Nov.  26, 1944: Burial at sea ceremonies are held aboard the USS Intrepid for  members of the crew lost after the carrier was hit by a Japanese  suicide pilot while operating off the coast of Luzon, the Philippines,  during World War II. Sixteen men were killed in the kamikaze attack. (AP  Photo/U.S. Navy)
December  12, 1944: After being hit in a Japanese air raid, a B-29 Superfortress  explodes in ball of fire, while crewmen of the U.S. air base try to  fight the inferno on Saipan, Mariana Islands. (AP Photo)
December  1944: U.S. soldiers at the Saipan airbase, in the Mariana Islands,  watch as a B-29 Superfortress takes off for an air raid on the Japanese  mainland. (AP Photo)
Feb.  1945: U.S. paratroopers of the 503rd Paratroop Regiment float to earth  on Corregidor, a rocky island strategically located at the entrance of  Manila Bay on Luzon Island, Philippines during World War II. (AP  Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
Feb.  13, 1945: Two Yank Infantrymen of the hard fighting 37th American  division, climb through some Japanese barbed wire during street fighting  in Manila in the Philippines. (AP Photo)
Feb.  1945: This general view shows amtracs bogged down in the sands along  the beaches of Iwo Jima after the American invasion of the Japanese  stronghold during World War II. In the background, U.S. Marines and  Coast Guard beach parties operate communications and command posts and  fox hole "hospitals" as assault troops push back the enemy from  established beaches on the Volcano Island. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
February  19, 1945:  The first landings on Iwo Jima. (US Navy photo)
February  1945: Amphibious tractors underway of the coast of Iwo Jima. (US Navy  photo)
February  1945: The booted feet of a dead Japanese soldier, foreground, protrude  from beneath a mound of earth on Iwo Jima during the American invasion  of the Japanese Volcano Island stronghold in World War II. U.S. Marines  can be seen nearby in foxholes. (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal)
Feb.  19, 1945: In the Pacific theater of World War II, U.S. Marines hit the  beach and charge over a dune on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands during  the start of one of the deadliest battles of the war against Japan. (AP  Photo/Joe Rosenthal)
Feb.  19, 1945: U.S. Fourth Division Marines move in from the beach on Iwo  Jima, the Japanese Volcanic Island. A dead Marine lies at right in the  foreground. Mt. Suribachi, in the background, was turned into a beehive  of guns by Japanese troops. It was scaled by the U.S. Marines, who took  control. (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal)
February,  19, 1945: U.S. Marines of the 5th Division inch their way up a sand dune  on Red Beach No. 1 toward Mount Suribachi, as the smoke of the battle  drifts over them during the initial invasion on Iwo Jima. (AP Photo)
Feb.  23, 1945: U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raise the  American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima. Strategically located only  660 miles from Tokyo, the Pacific island became the site of one of the  bloodiest, most famous battles of World War II against Japan. (AP  Photo/Joe Rosenthal)
Feb.  25, 1945: U.S. Corpsmen carry a wounded Marine on a stretcher to an  evacuation boat on the beach at Iwo Jima while other Marines huddle in a  foxhole during invasion of the Japanese Volcano Island stronghold in  World War II. The U.S. invasion fleet can be seen offshore. (AP  Photo/Joe Rosenthal)
Feb.  28, 1945: Wounded when Jap fire made a direct hit on an Amtrac, a  Marine is transferred by Coast Guardsmen to a landing craft off the  flaming shore of Iwo Jima, Japan on D-Day. After darting in with  boatloads of Marines, a Coast Guard-manned landing craft ran back to sea  with casualties to LST's, specially fitted as temporary hospital ships.  Intense enemy fire exacted a heavy toll as the beachhead was  established on the island fortress only 750 miles from Tokyo. (AP Photo)
March  1945: U.S. Marines prepare graves in the cemetery of the third and  Fourth Marine Divisions for their buddies who died in taking the island  of Iwo Jima, Japan, during World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
March  16, 1945: A U.S. Marine approaches a Japanese soldier on Iwo Jima,  Japan during World War II. The Japanese soldier was buried for 1 1/2  days in this shell hole playing dead and ready with a live grenade  inches away from his hand. The Marines feared he might be further booby  trapped underneath his body after knocking the grenade to the bottom of  the shell hole. Promising no resistance, the prisoner is given a  cigarette he asked for and was dragged free from the hole. (AP Photo)
April  1945: White markers designate the final resting place for hundreds of  Third and Fourth Marine Division fighters, who died during the invasion  of Iwo Jima in World War II, in this cemetery located near the beach  where the U.S. Marines first established a beachhead. In the background,  an American flag flies at half staff in tribute to the late President  Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died in Warm Springs, Ga., on April 12. (AP  Photo/Murray Befeler)
July  9, 1945: A B-29 burns furiously after an emergency landing on Iwo Jima,  Japan while returning from a raid on the Japanese Mainland. Army Air  Forces caption says the plane was badly shot up on the raid but the fire  resulted from damage to hydraulic systems which caused a locked brake  and a crash upon landing. (AP Photo)
April  21, 1945: A B-29 Superfortress rests on a dirt mound after it crash  landed with two engines working at Iwo Jima, Japan during World War II.  The U.S. Air Force plane was damaged in a raid over Tokyo. (AP  Photo/Murray Befeler)
March  1945: Japanese night raiders are greeted with a lacework of  antiaircraft fire by the U.S. Marine defenders of Yontan airfield, on  Okinawa during World War II. In the foreground are Marine Corsair  fighter planes of the "Hells Belles" squadron standing silhouetted  against the sky. (AP Photo)
March  19, 1945: The USS Santa Fe lies alongside the heavily listing USS  Franklin to provide assistance after the aircraft carrier had been hit  and set afire by a single Japanese dive bomber, during the Okinawa  invasion off the coast of Honshu, Japan. (AP Photo)
April  13. 1945: About 350 miles from the Japanese mainland, U.S. invasion  forces establish a beachhead on Okinawa island. Pouring out war supplies  and military equipment, the landing crafts fill the sea to the horizon,  where stand the battleships of the U.S. fleet. (AP Photo)
May  11, 1945: While supporting the Okinawa invasion, the USS Bunker Hill is  hit and severely damaged by two Japanese Kamikaze planes off the coast  of Kyushu, Japan. The ship suffered 372 dead and 264 injured. (AP Photo)
July  1945: Australian troops storm ashore in the first assault wave to take  Balikpapan on the southeast coast of oil-rich Borneo. Standing in the  LST, Coast Guard Combat Photographer James L. Lonergan is documenting  the landing operations. (AP Photo)
Aug.  6, 1945: This picture made from the town of Yoshiura on the other side  of the mountain north of Hiroshima, Japan, shows the smoke rising from  the explosion of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. It was picked up from an  Australian engineer at Kure, Japan. Note the radiation spots on the  negative caused by the explosion of the A-bomb, almost ruining the film.  (AP Photo)
Aug.  6, 1945: Japanese victims wait to receive first aid in the southern  part of Hiroshima, Japan, a few hours after the U.S. atomic bomb  exploded in the heart of the city. The explosion of the first A-bomb,  known as "Little Boy," instantly killed 66,000 people and injured  another 69,000 people. (AP Photo)
Aug.  9, 1945: A massive column of billowing smoke, thousands of feet high,  mushrooms over the city of Nagasaki, Japan, after an atomic bomb was  dropped by the United States. A B-29 plane delivered the blast killing  approximately 70,000 people, with thousands dying later of radiation  effects. The attack came three days after the U.S. dropped the world's  first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The attacks brought  about Japan's unconditional surrender. (AP Photo/U.S.Signal Corps)
Aug.  9, 1945: Terraced hillsides surrounding Nagasaki did little to lessen  the destructiveness of the bomb dropped on this Japanese city. The city  was almost completely destroyed except for a lone house standing here  and there. (AP Photo)
August  10, 1945: An arrow marks the spot where the A-bomb struck at Nagasaki,  Japan. Much of the bombed area is still desolate, the trees on the hills  in the background remained charred and dwarfed from the blast and  little reconstruction, except of wooden shacks as homes, has taken  place. (AP Photo)
Sept.  3, 1945: This desolated area, with only some buildings standing here  and there is what was left of Hiroshima, Japan after the first atomic  bomb was dropped. (AP Photo)
August  14, 1945: A sailor and a nurse kiss passionately in Manhattan's Times  Square, as New York City celebrates the end of World War II. The  celebration followed the official announcement that Japan had accepted  the terms of Potsdam and surrendered. (AP Photo/Victor Jorgensen)
August  14, 1945: A jubilant crowd of American Italians are seen as they wave  flags and toss papers in the air while celebrating Japan's unconditional  surrender in their neighborhood in New York City. (AP Photo)
September  2, 1945: F4U and F6F fighter planes are flying in formation over the  USS Missouri, while the surrender ceremonies to end World War II take  place aboard the U.S. Navy battleship. (AP Photo)
September  2, 1945: Spectators and correspondents from all over the world pick  vantage positions on the deck of the USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay to watch  the formal Japanese surrender ceremony marking the end of World War II.  (AP Photo, Frank Filan)
September  2, 1945: Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs the Japanese surrender documents  aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, left  foreground, who surrendered Bataan to the Japanese, and British Lt.  Gen. A. E. Percival, next to Wainwright, who surrendered Singapore,  observe the ceremony marking the end of World War II. (AP Photo)