From LIFE photographer Bernard Hoffman's account of what he saw September 3, 1945:
"We saw Hiroshima today - or what little is left of it. We were so shocked with what we saw that most of us felt like weeping.... we were so shocked and revolted by the new terrible form of destruction. Compared to Hiroshima, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, are practically untouched. What was formerly Japan's most modern, most westernized city, is now nothing more than a two foot layer of twisted tin and rubble. Couldn't do much with captions because there is nothing to caption."