Rice bowl from Hiroshima, 1945.

This rice bowl shows the effects of a nuclear explosion. Heat generated by the atomic explosion caused soil to be fused to the bowl. The Japanese city of Hiroshima was bombed by the American air force on 6 August 1945. The explosion killed 80,000 people immediately, and another 60,000 died within a year from radiation sicknes and other after effects. The potential of nuclear fision to create a bomb had been investigated since the 1930s.