Historians and military differ on whether 1945 bombing ended the war and saved countless lives – or was an unconscionable act of brutality

Seventy-five years after it dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Enola Gay stands, restored and gleaming, as a museum exhibit close to Washington’s Dulles airport.

It was not always so well looked after. For decades after the war, the B-29 Superfortress bomber was left to rot. It was disassembled, its pieces were scattered, birds nested in its engines, and someone smashed its gun turret.

Related: The man who survived Hiroshima: 'I had entered a living hell on earth'

I'd say Soviet entry into the war had a more decisive impact on the decision to surrender

Related: 'He felt he had to do it': Truman's grandson on bombing Hiroshima