Atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki dates

How it works

The civil calendar in Japan keeps 6 August and 9 August as fixed dates. They do not move to a Monday. They do not wait for a weekend. In 1945 those mornings were in August of that year. Every later year reprints the same month-and-day pair, with a different weekday walking underneath.

Hiroshima’s bombing was in the morning of 6 August 1945, at 8:15 local time. Nagasaki’s was in the morning of 9 August 1945, at 11:02 local time. Those clock times belong to Japan, not to a visitor’s home zone. If you are reading the dates from another country, the local date in Hiroshima or Nagasaki is the one the observances use.

The two dates are three calendar days apart inside the same August. They are not a single combined holiday with one opening ceremony. Hiroshima marks 6 August. Nagasaki marks 9 August. A trip that tries to treat them as one afternoon has misread the grid.

August in Japan is a summer month. The dates sit in heat and in the long northern-hemisphere day, but the observances are not seasonal festivals. They are anniversary dates. Weather is a packing fact. It is not the reason the squares exist.

The same dates every year

Hiroshima holds a Peace Memorial Ceremony on 6 August each year in Peace Memorial Park. The city’s published programme for 2026 is Thursday 6 August, beginning at 8:00 a.m. and scheduled to end at 8:50 a.m. At 8:15 a.m. there is a silent prayer and the Peace Bell, matching the clock time of the 1945 bombing.

Nagasaki holds a peace ceremony on 9 August each year. A minute of silence is observed at 11:02 a.m., matching that morning’s clock time in 1945. The weekday under 9 August changes with the year. In 2026, 9 August is a Sunday. The date does not slide to the following Monday to make a long weekend.

Hiroshima: 6 August, every year, Japan time. Nagasaki: 9 August, every year, Japan time. 1945 clock times kept in the ceremonies: 8:15 a.m. in Hiroshima, 11:02 a.m. in Nagasaki. No Monday shift: the anniversary stays on the numbered date.

If you are counting “days until” from a date after 9 August, the next pair is next year’s 6 August and 9 August. The 1945 year does not return. The month-and-day labels do.

Time of day on those dates

A calendar date is a civil box. The ceremonies pin a minute inside that box. Standing in Hiroshima at 8:14 a.m. on 6 August is still the anniversary morning; the silent minute is the next minute. Watching from a zone many hours behind can still be 5 August on your wall clock. Say which zone you mean if you are joining a broadcast.

Japan does not use daylight-saving time, so the local civil clocks for those August mornings do not jump an hour from a spring or autumn change. A visitor flying in from a region that does use daylight-saving time still converts to Japan Standard Time for the ceremony clocks.

The calendar reprints 6 August and 9 August every year. The events those dates name happened once. These pages are for the dates, not for a history of the war in full. If you need the year, it is 1945. If you need the annual return, it is every 6 August and every 9 August that follows. Keep the two cities on their own mornings.