[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

From wikipedia

The population around 1910 was 143,000.[4] Before World War II, Hiroshima’s population had grown to 360,000, and peaked at 419,182 in 1942.[22] Following the atomic bombing in 1945, the population dropped to 137,197.[22] By 1955, the city’s population had returned to pre-war levels.[23]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima

[tanknetter]

[22] Following the atomic bombing in 1945, the population dropped to 137,197.[22] By 1955, the city’s population had returned to pre-war levels.[23]

Messed up my original reply (and thanks to the Admins/Mods for making the correction for me!).

The information above is factual, but incomplete and doesn't tell the real story ... it almost infers that the population dropped so drastically (far in excess of those killed on 8/6/45) because of the bombing.

The full story is that Japan had a militarized industrial economy that was absolutely shattered at the end of the war. Japanese fled all the cities, regardless of how devastated they'd been, because there was no work to be had - even where the factories hadn't been destroyed there was no demand for output. Without work, there was no way to eat.

On top of that, Hiroshima was a military city, being the headquarters for both the Second Army and one of the Japanese regional armies. When the military went away, so did all the jobs supporting it.

Finally, the city ate a Katrina-sized Typhoon in mid-September 1945. A lot of the infrastructure in the city that survived the bombing was wiped out.