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HIROSHIMA, Japan — This holiday weekend marks the 73rd anniversary of V-J Day, or “Victory over Japan” day.  On September 2, 1945, the day Japan formally signed its surrender aboard the USS Missouri, effectively ending World War II.

The surrender came just days after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.  It was the first time in the history of the world a nuclear bomb had been detonated in war.  The bombings killed more than 129,000 people instantly, and thousands more in the weeks, months and years that followed.

As part of FOX 31’s Serving Those Who Serve initiative, anchor Jeremy Hubbard and reporter Joe St. George recently traveled to Hiroshima, Japan to examine Colorado’s close ties to the atomic bomb that changed the course of history.

From the Pueblo soldier who was among the first US troops to sift through Hiroshima’s toxic rubble in the weeks following the bombing, to the tiny Western Slope mining town where some of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project was mined, to the Enola Gay tail gunner who called Denver home… our history is intertwined with Japan’s at the end of the war.

Below, you can watch our FOX 31 Serving Those Who Serve special, “When Time Stopped: Colorado’s Connection to the Bomb,”