Hiroshima simulation: Enter any location in the world and visualize the bomb’s aftermath

As Congress considers a deal with Iran that the Obama administration says would prevent the country from developing a nuclear bomb, the United States is also marking a depressing nuclear anniversary. August 6, 2015 marks 70 years since the United States became the first — and last — nation in history to use a nuclear weapon in warfare, when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

According to recent estimates, 80,000 people were killed instantly, and the total death toll reached more than 192,000 as people succumbed to radiation and died from other causes related to the bombing. Nearly everything within a one-mile radius was completely destroyed. 

How can you process violence on this scale? One way, somewhat cynically, is to imagine what it would be like if it happened to you.

As part of a series marking this tragic anniversary, Public Radio International (PRI) has built a web application that lets you visualize how bad the destruction would be if the same atomic bomb that were dropped anywhere in the world today. Enter a city or address, tag a location, and drop the bomb. 

The results, you can see, could be devastating in densely populated cities — less-so in rural areas. And of course, in some places, like war-ravaged Syria, there's not much left to destroy.

The US government's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaski remains controversial. Recent polling by Pew Research found that fewer Americans now think it was justified. A Gallup poll conducted shortly after the bombings in 1945 found that 85 percent of Americans "approved" of the US government's actions. In 2015, Pew asked Americans whether they considered the bombings "justified" — 56 percent said yes. Today's opinions were heavily skewed by demographics. Americans older than 65 tended to be more supportive of the bombings than Americans between the ages of 18 and 29. And Republicans were significantly more supportive than Democrats — 74 percent compared to 52 percent.

A Google Maps visualization might not move those numbers. But maybe this horrifying archival footage could.