In Pictures: Hiroshima – Before the Bomb, and 70 Years After

12 pictures that tell you the story surrounding the ghastly atomic bombing on Hiroshima in 1945.

In this Aug 9, 1945 photo, a mushroom cloud rises moments after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, southern Japan. (Photo: AP)

Last month, with a bunch of black-and-white archival photos in hand, Associated Press’s Eugene Hoshiko set out to document how Hiroshima had changed, 70 years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city.

Hoshiko grew up in Yokohama, and had never been to this western Japanese city before.

He imagined the same intense heat, even in the morning, had greeted people headed to work on the morning of Aug 6, 1945.

In this Sept. 8, 1945 photo, two people walk on a cleared path through the destruction resulting from the Aug 6 detonation of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, western Japan. (Photo: AP)

In this July 4, 2015 photo, two persons walk in the rain near the ground zero of 1945 A-Bomb, near now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. (Photo: AP)

At 8:15 am, still 2,000 feet above the ground, the falling bomb detonated, forever changing their lives. About 90% of the city was destroyed, which is why it looks so new today.

An estimated 140,000 people died in a city of 350,000, including those who succumbed to severe radiation exposure through the end of 1945.

In this Aug 8, 1945 photo, soldiers and civilians walk through the grim remains of Hiroshima, two days after the atomic bomb explosion of Aug. 6,1945. The building on left with columned facade was the Hiroshima Bank. To its right, with arched front entrance, was the Sumitomo Bank. (Photo: AP)

In this July 5, 2015 photo, a man checks with a public street map at a crossroad near now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. (Photo: AP)

The streetcars are packed again. The stark wasteland seen in the black-and-white photos taken soon after the bombing is but a memory. The remains of one building stand on a river bank, in the same place as it did 70 years ago.

The Atomic Bomb Dome, now a UN World Heritage Site, has become the iconic image of Hiroshima.

In this Aug 8, 1945 file photo, the shell of a building stands amid acres of rubble in this view of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. (Photo: AP)

In this July 6, 2015 photo, a crossroad is seen from an elevator of a department store in Hiroshima, western Japan. (Photo: AP)

A young couple passed by the dome, hand-in-hand. Before the atomic bomb, did many couples walk by like them?

In this Sept. 8, 1945 photo, an allied correspondent stands in the rubble in front of the shell of a building that once was a exhibition center and government office in Hiroshima, Japan. (Photo: AP)

In this July 1, 2015 photo, a visitor photographs now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. (Photo: AP)

In this July 4, 2015 photo, a man rests near now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. (Photo: AP)

In this Sept. 8, 1945 file photo, only a handful of buildings remain standing amid the wasteland of Hiroshima, the Japanese city reduced to rubble following the first atomic bomb to be dropped in warfare. (Photo: AP)

This reconnaissance photo from 1945 provided by the Museum of World War II Boston shows targeting information for the atomic bombing mission to Hiroshima. (Photo: Museum of World War II Boston via AP) 

Factory gutted in Nagasaki after the bombing on August 9. (Photo: AP)