The city was fire-bombed in World War II, between June 1944 and early August 1945, around the same time that factory workers in the nearby town of Kokura suspected their city would be a target for the atomic bombs and decided to release large amounts of black smoke into the air. The resulting combined smoke clouds obscured Kokura, causing the planes "en route" to turn and head to their secondary target, Nagasaki, where the bomber "Bockscar" would drop the atomic weapon "Fat Man".