Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki - Aug 09, 1945 - HISTORY.com Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki Share this: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki Author Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender. The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” on August 11 in the event of such recalcitrance, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th. So at 1:56 a.m., a specially adapted B-29 bomber, called “Bock’s Car,” after its usual commander, Frederick Bock, took off from Tinian Island under the command of Maj. Charles W. Sweeney. Nagasaki was a shipbuilding center, the very industry intended for destruction. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city.

The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000 (exact figures are impossible, the blast having obliterated bodies and disintegrated records). General Leslie R. Groves, the man responsible for organizing the Manhattan Project, which solved the problem of producing and delivering the nuclear explosion, estimated that another atom bomb would be ready to use against Japan by August 17 or 18—but it was not necessary. Even though the War Council still remained divided (“It is far too early to say that the war is lost,” opined the Minister of War), Emperor Hirohito, by request of two War Council members eager to end the war, met with the Council and declared that “continuing the war can only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people…” The Emperor of Japan gave his permission for unconditional surrender.

Related Videos 6 and 9 August 1945 Hiroshima / Nagasaki: CTBTO Preparatory Commission 6 and 9 August 1945 Hiroshima / Nagasaki The test site after detonation: a crater of fused soil, also known as “Trinite” radiates from ground zero. On 16 July 1945, U.S. scientists working on the Manhattan Project successfully detonated the first-ever nuclear explosion in the ‘ Trinity ’ test at Alamogordo, New Mexico. With World War II still dragging on in the Pacific, preparations moved forward to use nuclear bombs against Japan. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a reminder of what horrors nuclear weapons can inflict. CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo Pilot Paul Tibbets (centre) had named the aircraft after his mother. On 6 August 1945, at 08:15, the first bomb was dropped on the centre of Hiroshima. ‘Little Boy’ was a gun-type fission bomb, using a conventional explosive charge to fire one sub-critical mass of uranium into another. This kind of device had never been tested before, but the scientists were confident it would work.

And it did. The bomb had an explosive yield of around 13 kilotons . At the moment of detonation, a fireball was generated that raised temperatures to 4,000 degrees Celsius, turning Hiroshima – where many buildings were made of wood and paper - into an inferno. The blast created shock waves faster than the speed of sound. This and the radiation immediately killed everything within one kilometre of the hypocentre. A victim of the Hiroshima bomb (AP Photo/The Association of the Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima, Yotsugi Kawahara) After the blast, those who approached ground zero searching for the missing were exposed to radiation. Black rain, containing large amounts of radioactive fallout , caused widespread contamination. Estimates of casualties vary greatly. A more conservative estimate by the atomic archive lists 66,000 people killed immediately and a total death toll of 135,000, while the U.S.-Japanese Radiation Effects Research Foundation indicates a range of 90,000 to 166,000 deaths within the first four months.

Hiroshima’s many messages of peace and hope have educated the world about the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, inspiring a global campaign focused on the unacceptability of using these arms under international humanitarian and human rights law. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message for Hiroshima Day 2014 'Fat Man' yielded 21 kilotons. Three days later, on the morning of 9 August, a second U.S. aircraft rose from the airbase at Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean. The nuclear bomb it carried was code-named ‘Fat Man’. It was a more sophisticated plutonium-based implosion-type bomb which had been tested in the Trinity test. The primary target had been the city of Kokura. However due to a thick layer of clouds, the airplane’s crew reverted to the secondary target - Nagasaki. Nagasaki before and after The bomb detonated at an altitude of approximately 500 metres and had a yield of 21 kilotons. Casualty estimates by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation for immediate deaths range from 60,000 to 80,000.

In the weeks that followed the bombings and Japan’s surrender, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the object of intense studies by U.S. scientists. The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission was founded to study the effects of radioactive contamination on the victims. Its results, including the extensive film and photo material taken at the time, remained classified for decades. Boy carrying his injured brother a day after the Nagasaki bombing. The bombings were officially justified as a necessary evil to end the war and avoid an invasion of Japan, which proponents claimed would have led to a greater loss of life. Critics inside and outside of the United States, however, questioned the morality and necessity of the bombings, arguing that the main reason for Japan’s surrender was the Soviet Union entering the war on the side of the allies and that the diplomatic means were not exhausted. Also the possibility of bombing an unpopulated area as a demonstration has been pointed out. With nuclear testing, countries can develop even more powerful nuclear weapons. The CTBT bans all nuclear testing. At the CTBTO, we stand ready to implement this Treaty. CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo The 1951 U.S.

'George' Test was already over 10 times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out after 1945 by different countries. They aided the proliferation of nuclear weapons and helped to develop weapons orders of magnitude more destructive than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Following decades of public campaigning and arduous multilateral negotiations, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was opened for signature in 1996. It bans all nuclear explosions. The Treaty has yet to enter into force . To commemorate the victims of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Vienna, a GENBAKU NO-HI celebration took place in the Rotunda of the Vienna International Centre on 6 August 2015 at 12:00.

External links: Nagasaki bombing - A look back: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Pictures - CBS News The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Next Hiroshima bombing More than seventy years ago, the world changed forever when an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy," over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, during World War II, on August 6, 1945. The bomb wiped out 90 percent of the city and instantly killed an estimated 80,000 people. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb, "Fat Boy," on Nagasaki killing an estimated 40,000 on August 9. Tens of thousands died later in both cities from the effects of the nuclear bombs. Their destructive power was unprecedented, incinerating buildings and people, and leaving lifelong scars on survivors, both physical and psychological, and on the cities themselves. Days later, World War II was over.

Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945, describing the devastating power of "a new and most cruel bomb." These two photographs show the Atomic mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and aim point. By CBSNews.com Senior Photo Editor Radhika Chalasani Credit: World War II Museum Boston Atomic bomb An atomic cloud billows 20,000 feet above Hiroshima following the explosion of the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare in Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945. A tall column of smoke billows 20,000 feet above Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb strike by American forces on Aug. 6, 1945. Credit: U.S. Army/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Enola Gay crew American bomber pilot Paul W. Tibbets Jr., center, stands with the ground crew of the bomber Enola Gay, which Tibbets flew in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945.

Ground crew includes, left to right, engine mechanic Private Harold Olsen, Corporal John Jackson, crew chief Staff Sergeant Walter McCaleb, Tibbets, engine mechanic Sergeant Leonard Markley, engine mechanic Sergeant Jean Cooper and engine mechanic Private John Lesnieski. Credit: AFP/Getty Images Operations order - Enola Gay The operations order was carried on the Enola Gay in the flight log of Jacob Beser, the radar and electronics specialist trained to intercept any Japanese radar impulses that could trigger the special radar-operated fusing switch built into the atomic bomb. Beser was the only crew member to fly both atomic-bomb missions. The document lists details such as timing for weather ships and meals. Credit: Museum of World War II Operations order - Enola Gay Bombs are listed as "special" on the operations order for the Enola Gay. Religious services for Catholics was at 2200 and for Protestants at 2230. Credit: Museum of World War II Hiroshima bombing Credit: Museum of World War II Hiroshima bombing An aerial leaflet in Japanese with photo of President Truman reassuring the Japanese people they would not be harmed if their country surrenders.

Credit: Museum of World War II Hiroshima bombing Translation of aerial leaflet: "PURPOSE: To inform the Japanese of our interpretation of surrender, and what it will mean for the Japanese. COMMENT: President Truman's statement is used to assure the Japanese people that if the military clique is taken from power and the nation surrenders, they will not be enslaved. FORMAT: A picture of President Truman appears on one side of the leaflet which is otherwise devoted completely to the President's statement..." Credit: Museum of World War II Hiroshima bombing - aerial leaflet Translation of aerial leaflet: "If your political and military leaders continue the war, our forces will overwhelm your's more and more, expanding our movements and increasing our attacks. The production of munitions which support Japanese operations, transportation, and manpower is obviously declining, and continuing the war not only increases the hardships of the people of Japan tremendously, but also is of no avail. Our forces demand unconditional surrender from your military; abandoning of hostilities; and laying down of weapons. This unconditional surrender includes Japanese civilians too. In short, it means the ending of the war. The power of the military group which has resulted in the present chaos will be destroyed.

Families who love their sons who are fighting uselessly in the front lines will see them return quickly to their old jobs. Present hardships and sickness will be stopped forever. There is no reason to fear that unconditional surrender means obliteration of the Japanese people or bondage." Credit: Museum of World War II Enola Gay B-29 Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress lands at Tinian Base in the Pacific after dropping the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought about Japan's unconditional surrender. The war ended officially when the papers of surrender were accepted aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri on September 2, 1945. Credit: AP Hiroshima bombing The New York Times front page for August 7, 1945, the day after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Credit: AP Hiroshima bombing A general panoramic view of Hiroshima showing the devastation after the bomb was dropped in 1945.

Credit: AP The most terrifying engine of destruction Teletype of first news flash stating: "The most terrifying engine of destruction ever devised by man -- an atomic bomb carrying the explosive force of more than 20,000 tons of TNT -- was turned loose against Japan sunday as American Airmen opened a "surrender or else--" assault agains the enemy homeland. President Truman, revealing the biggest and best kept military secretary [secret] of the war --the long dreamed-of release of atomic energy--said today that the awesome weapon was America's answer to Japanese rejection of the Potsdam surrender ultimatum. In wat amounted to a new ultimatum, he warned: If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on earth." Credit: Museum of World War II Hiroshima bombing Teletype of first news flash "So mighty is this super bomb, he said in a special statement, that is packs 2000 times more wallop than the 22,000-pound British 'Grand Slam' blockbuster, heretofore the most destructive weapon known to mankind.

The first of the bombs went smashing down on Hiroshima, highly important Japanese army base on the home island of Honshu. The devastation wrought is not yet known but military men said the bomb's potentialities stagger the imagination. Details of the weapon must remain a military secret but the War Department disclosed that one of its chief components is radio-active uranium, a rare element in the chromium group found in a combination of pitchblende and certain other rare minerals..." Credit: Museum of World War II President Truman President Harry S. Truman smiles over a battery of microphones in Washington, D.C., August 9, 1945, following his nationwide radio report on the Potsdam conference and the war in the Pacific. President Truman warned the Hiroshima attack was only the beginning of things to come unless the Japanese surrendered. Credit: AP The devastated city of Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. The bombing of Nagasaki happened three days after the first bomb was released on Hiroshima. Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images Hiroshima bombing Two brothers who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima four days earlier, August 10, 1945. The U.S.

atomic attacks killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima and more than 70,000 in Nagasaki, either instantly or later through the horrific effects of burns from the white-hot nuclear blast and radiation sickness. Credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images Hiroshima bombing The devastated city of Hiroshima days after the first atomic bomb was dropped by a U.S. Air Force B-29 in 1945. Though Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945, the official surrender to Allied forces did not happen till September 2, 1945, putting an end to a devastating second world war. Credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images "Fat Man" atomic bomb The plutonium"Fat Man" atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. It was more powerful than the unleashed on Hiroshima, weighing nearly 10,000 pounds and built to create a 22-kiloton blast. Credit: AP Nagasaki atomic bomb A mushroom cloud rises 20,000 feet over Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, moments after the atomic bomb was dropped by U.S. forces.

The topography of Nagasaki, nestled between mountains, shielded the city to a large extent, limiting the damage to 2.6 square miles. Within those 2.6 square miles there were devastating consequences. Credit: AP Nagasaki bombing A Japanese woman and child in traditional clothing, survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, are seen here, August 9, 1945. Their faces are marked with burns by the heat of the explosion. Scanty food rations were given out to the suffering public. Credit: AP Nagasaki bombing Some of the tunnel shelters very close to ground zero in Nagasaki are visible. The few people who were able to get to the shelters survived the atomic blast and thermonuclear radiation. Credit: AP Nagasaki atomic bomb This photo from the U.S. Signal Corps shows the devastation after an atom bomb exploded over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Credit: AP Site of Hiroshima Peace Memorial The gutted Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall is seen after the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Nov. 1945.

The building was later preserved as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (known as the Atomic Bomb Dome or Genbaku Dome). Credit: U.S. Army/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Hiroshima bombing victim A victim of the first A-bomb ever used in warfare is seen in September 1945, at the Ujina Branch of the First Army Hospital in Hiroshima. The thermal rays emitted by the explosion burned the pattern of this woman's kimono upon her back. Credit: AP Hiroshima bombing An allied correspondent stands in a sea of rubble in front of the shell of a building that once was a movie theater in Hiroshima on September 8, 1945. The world's first atomic bomb instantly destroyed almost all of the houses and buildings in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Credit: AP Hiroshima bombing People walk over Aioi Bridge as the gutted Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (L), currently known as Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome, is seen in the background after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Credit: Shigeo Hayashi/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Handout via Reuters Hiroshima bombing The landscape of Hiroshima shows widespread rubble and debris in an aerial view September 5, 1945, one month after the atomic bomb was dropped. Credit: AP Victims of Hiroshima bombing Victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 are seen at an emergency relief station in the Otagawa River embankment in Hiroshima on August 9, 1945. Credit: Yotsugi Kawahara/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Victim of Hiroshima bombing A 21-year-old soldier, who was exposed to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and has purple subcutaneous hemorrhage spots on his body, is treated at the Ujina Branch of the Hiroshima First Army Hospital in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan on September 3, 1945. Credit: Gonichi Kimura/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Handout via Reuters Nagasaki A-bomb An arrow marks the spot where the A-bomb struck Nagasaki.

Much of the bombed is desolate, the trees on the hills in the background remained charred and dwarfed from the blast and there's little reconstruction, except for wooden shacks as homes. Credit: AP Hiroshima bombing People walk past the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital after the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing of the city, November, 1945. Credit: U.S. Army/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Handout via Reuters Nagasaki A-bomb victim In Nagasaki, a victim of the second atomic bomb ever used in warfare is seen lying sick on a mat in late 1945. Tens of thousands died after the release of the bombs from effects of the radioactive fallout. Credit: AP Nagasaki A-bomb A sacred Torii Gate stands erect over the completely destroyed area of a Shinto shrine in Nagasaki on October 1945, after the second atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped by the U.S. over the Japanese industrial center. Due to its structure, the blast of the explosion could go around it, therefore leaving the arch intact.

Credit: AP Nagarekawa Protestant Church Church services continued in the Nagarekawa Protestant Church in 1945, after the atomic bomb destroyed the church in Hiroshima. Credit: AP Hiroshima bombing The devastated city of Hiroshima in 1948, three years after the the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images After effects of atomic bomb Children wear masks to protect themselves from radiation in the devastated city of Hiroshima in 1948, nearly three years after the U.S. August 6, 1945 bombing of the city. All told, around 200,000 died as a result of the two bombings. It's likely the estimates of the death toll are conservative since official records were minimal. Japan's formal surrender was signed September 2, 1945 aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, ending World War II.

Credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images 9 August 1945: Nagasaki – the second atomic bomb Nagasaki – the second atomic bomb Atomic cloud over Nagasaki from Koyagi-jima by Hiromichi Matsuda At Potsdam on the 26th July the Allies had issued a declaration calling on the Japanese to surrender or face: the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland After the Hiroshima bomb on the 6th August the United States had widely publicised the nature of the new bomb and its destructive power, its awesome potential was immediately recognised by people around the world. At the same time President Truman had re-inforced the Potsdam declaration with a more explicit message about what would happen if Japan did not surrender: We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war. It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum.

If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth… The Japanese government met on 7th August but were still not prepared to accept the Allied surrender terms. With no sign of any surrender forthcoming from Japan, the military team responsible for the Atomic bombing programme were still under orders (at this time) to continue the bombing, using the bombs as they became available. They had the ‘Fat Man’ available and knew that a third bomb would become available later in August. Because of impending bad weather over Japan the decision to use ‘Fat Man’ was brought forward from 11th to the 9th August. The original target for the second atomic bomb was the city of Kokura but this was obscured by smoke from a conventional American bombing raid on nearby Yahata the previous day. The B-29 ‘Bockscar’ piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney therefore diverted to the secondary target, the city of Nagasaki. In Urakami Hospital, Nagasaki, Dr Tatsuichiro Akizuki was just returning to his ward round which had been delayed by an earlier air raid warning.

The two high flying planes seen approaching Nagasaki just before 11am had been assumed to be reconnaissance planes, and no air raid warning had been given: I heard a low droning sound, like that of distant aeroplane engines. “What’s that?” I said. “The all-clear has gone, hasn’t it?” At the same time the sound of the plane’s engines, growing louder and louder, seemed to swoop down over the hospital. I shouted: “It’s an enemy plane! Look out – take cover!” . As I said so, I pulled the needle out of the patient and threw myself beside thebed. ‘ There was a blinding white flash of light, and the next moment — Bang! Crack! A huge impact like a gigantic blow smote down upon our bodies, our heads and our hospital. I lay flat — I didn’t know whether or not of my own volition. Then down came piles of debris, slamming into my back. The hospital has been hit, I thought. I grew dizzy, and my ears sang. Some minutes or so must have passed before I staggered to my feet and looked around. The air was heavy with yellow smoke; white flakes of powder drifted about; it was strangely dark.

Thank God, I thought — I’m not hurt! But what about the patients? As it became brighter, little by little our situation grew clearer. Miss Murai, who had been assisting me with the pneumo-thorax, struggled to her feet beside me. She didn’t seem to have been seriously injured, though she was completely covered with white dust. “Hey, cheer up!” I said. “We’re not hurt, thank God!” … [ Akizuki struggled to make sense of what had happened because he realised that if they had received a direct hit then they would have suffered much more structural damage to the hospital.] … If the bomb had actually hit the hospital, I thought, they would have been far more badly injured. “What’s happened to the second and third floors?” I cried. But all they answered was “Help me! Help!” One of them said: “Mr Yamaguchi has been buried under the debris. Help him.” No one knew what had happened. A huge force had been released above our heads. What it was, nobody knew. Had it been several tons of bombs, or the suicidal destruction of a plane carrying a heavy bomb-load?

Dazed, I retreated into the consulting room, in which the only upright object on the rubbish-strewn floor was my desk. I went and sat on it and looked out of the window at the yard and the outside world. There was not a single pane of glass in the window, not even a frame — all had been completely blown away. Out in the yard dun-coloured smoke or dust cleared little by little. I saw figures running. Then, looking to the south-west, I was stunned. The sky was as dark as pitch, covered with dense clouds of smoke; under that blackness, over the earth, hung a yellow-brown fog. Gradually the veiled ground became visible, and the view beyond rooted me to the spot with horror. All the buildings I could see were on fire: large ones and small ones and those with straw-thatched roofs. Further off along the valley, Urakami Church, the largest Catholic church in the east, was ablaze. The technical school, a large two-storeyed wooden building, was on fire, as were many houses and the distant ordnance factory. Electricity poles were wrapped in flame like so many pieces of kindling.

Trees on the nearby hills were smoking, as were the leaves of sweet potatoes in the fields. To say that everything burned is not enough. It seemed as if the earth itself emitted fire and smoke, flames that writhed up and erupted from underground. The sky was dark, the ground was scarlet, and in between hung clouds of yellowish smoke. Three kinds of colour -— black, yellow and scarlet — loomed ominously over the people, who ran about like so many ants seeking to escape. What had happened? Urakami Hospital had not been bombed — I understood that much. But that ocean of fire, that sky of smoke! It seemed like the end of the world. I ran out into the garden. Patients who were only slightly hurt came up to me, pleading for aid. I shouted at them: “For heaven’s sake! You’re not seriously wounded!” One patient said: “Kawaguchi and Matsuo are trapped in their rooms! They can’t move. You must help them!” I said to myself: Yes, we must first of all rescue those seriously ill tubercular patients who’ve been buried under the ruins.

I looked southwards again, and the sight of Nagasaki city in a sea of flames as far as the eye could reach made me think that such destruction could only have been caused by thousands of bombers, carpet-bombing. But not a plane was to be seen or heard, although even the leaves of potatoes and carrots at my feet were scorched and smouldering. The electricity cables must have exploded underground, I thought. And then at last I identified the destroyer— “That’s it!” I cried. “It was the new bomb — the one used on Hiroshima!” Nagasaki, Japan, before and after the atomic bombing of August 9, 1945. { 8 comments… read them below or add one } Tim Evans September 23, 2016 at 7:35 pm These are all interesting debating points and have, as everyone knows, been gone over countless times in the last seventy years. World war two, the most violent and destructive in human history, was followed by a so-called cold war between the communist east and capitalist west. No battlefields, no invasions and conquests and above all no use of the enormous stockpile of nuclear armaments.

The decision makers shrank just far enough from that brink to ensure the continuation of the human race. Nevertheless, the stocks and the consequent waste have mounted year on year. The superpowers provoked and supported proxy conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan and the middle east. Many nations now possess nuclear WMDs and doubtless others aspire to possession. Yes, the US and the Japanese were spared enormous losses. Later, mutual assured destruction by the Bomb held the world in check. However, the questions now are much wider and deeper. Threats to tolerable human survival beyond, let’s say, the next three or four generations centre on man-made environmental changes, depletion of scarce natural resources, and the rise of untreatable epidemics. Vast areas of the planet may become uninhabitable prompting unprecedented population shifts. The continuation of territorial and ideological conflicts in the light of such challenges poses the question again and again, “What has the human race learned from the devastation of the twentieth century wars?” The emerging global economy and communication networks demand totally new global awareness and a global responsibility. I believe this can only come from the peoples of the world in countless small initiatives. It will come from small-scale action and local initiatives.

Those at the top – “them”- are quite unable to lead the way with restricted national visions. They are as blinkered as the Japanese generals in 1945, wilfully denying the obvious catastrophe. John G. August 12, 2015 at 6:47 pm Higher casualties by invading the mainland of Japan was a known fact. How many is open to specualtion. Based on the Battle of Okinawa, military planners dreaded the invasion. The initial estimates were up to 220K US casualties for Operation Olympic (first phase of taking the Japanese Main islands). Total Allied estimates to take japan were 1.7 to 4 million and Japanese 5- 10 million casualties. Japanese civilians were being taught it was their duty to fight. “They” understood that the bomb was a terrible weapon, never before seen. “They” also knew it would have consequences not yet understood. John G. August 12, 2015 at 6:37 pm Gerald is correct. One only needs to look at the Battle of Okinawa, which had a heavy mix of civilian casualties and almost complete destruction of Japanese military forces on the island.

Japanese civilians of all ages were being taught that it was their duty to resist American forces with any means available. Operation Olympic (initial invasion) estimates were between 130,000 and 220,000 U.S. casualties, of which U.S. dead would be in the range from 25,000 to 46,000 (wikipedia/other sources). I would also say that “they” understood it would be a terrible weapon, but maybe not to the extent it was or the “third order” magnitude of the after-effects . What seems to be missed (or at least not mentioned) by Sam is that the enemy was also working on such a weapon. The US got to it first. Sam Brasel August 11, 2015 at 3:34 pm Gerald, your second assertion is not known to be a fact. But even if it is a fact, for the U.S. to use this type of weapon, against which the U.S. would itself have no feasible defense, was the height of folly. They built it but they failed to understand it.

Manhattan Project: The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF NAGASAKI (Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945) The Manhattan Project and the Second World War, 1939-1945 The next break in the weather over Japan was due to appear just three days after the attack on Hiroshima, to be followed by at least five more days of prohibitive weather. The plutonium implosion bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," was rushed into readiness to take advantage of this window. No further orders were required for the attack. Truman's order of July 25th had authorized the dropping of additional bombs as soon as they were ready. At 3:47 a.m. on August 9, 1945, a B-29 named Bock's Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura. From this point on, few things went according to plan. The aircraft commander, Major Charles W.

Sweeney, ordered the arming of the bomb only ten minutes after take-off so that the aircraft could be pressurized and climb above the lightning and squalls that menaced the flight all the way to Japan. (A journalist, William L. Laurence of the New York Times, on an escorting aircraft saw some "St. Elmo's fire" glowing on the edges of the aircraft and worried that the static electricity might detonate the bomb.) Sweeney then discovered that due to a minor malfunction he would not be able to access his reserve fuel. The aircraft next had to orbit over Yaku-shima off the south coast of Japan for almost an hour in order to rendezvous with its two escort B-29s, one of which never did arrive. The weather had been reported satisfactory earlier in the day over Kokura Arsenal, but by the time the B-29 finally arrived there, the target was obscured by smoke and haze. Two more passes over the target still produced no sightings of the aiming point.

As an aircraft crewman, Jacob Beser, later recalled, Japanese fighters and bursts of antiaircraft fire were by this time starting to make things "a little hairy." Kokura no longer appeared to be an option, and there was only enough fuel on board to return to the secondary airfield on Okinawa, making one hurried pass as they went over their secondary target, the city of Nagasaki. As Beser later put it, "there was no sense dragging the bomb home or dropping it in the ocean." As it turned out, cloud cover obscured Nagasaki as well. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach on the target. At the last moment the bombardier, Captain Kermit K. Beahan, caught a brief glimpse of the city's stadium through the clouds and dropped the bomb. At 11:02 a.m., at an altitude of 1,650 feet, Fat Man (right) exploded over Nagasaki. The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 21 kilotons, 40 percent greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb. Nagasaki was an industrial center and major port on the western coast of Kyushu.

As had happened at Hiroshima, the "all-clear" from an early morning air raid alert had long been given by the time the B-29 had begun its bombing run. A small conventional raid on Nagasaki on August 1st had resulted in a partial evacuation of the city, especially of school children. There were still almost 200,000 people in the city below the bomb when it exploded. The hurriedly-targeted weapon ended up detonating almost exactly between two of the principal targets in the city, the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works to the south, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Torpedo Works (left) to the north. Had the bomb exploded farther south the residential and commercial heart of the city would have suffered much greater damage. In general, though Fat Man exploded with greater force than Little Boy, the damage at Nagasaki was not as great as it had been at Hiroshima. The hills of Nagasaki, its geographic layout, and the bomb's detonation over an industrial area all helped shield portions of the city from the weapon's blast, heat, and radiation effects. The explosion affected a total area of approximately 43 square miles.

About 8.5 of those square miles were water, and 33 more square miles were only partially settled. Many roads and rail lines escaped major damage. In some areas electricity was not knocked out, and fire breaks created over the last several months helped to prevent the spread of fires to the south. Although the destruction at Nagasaki has generally received less worldwide attention than that at Hiroshima, it was extensive nonetheless. Almost everything up to half a mile from ground zero was completely destroyed, including even the earthquake-hardened concrete structures that had sometimes survived at comparable distances at Hiroshima. According to a Nagasaki Prefectural report "men and animals died almost instantly" within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of the point of detonation. Almost all homes within a mile and a half were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly burst into flames as far away as 10,000 feet from ground zero. Of the 52,000 homes in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and 5,400 more seriously damaged. Only 12 percent of the homes escaped unscathed.

The official Manhattan Engineer District report on the attack termed the damage to the two Mitsubishi plants "spectacular." Despite the absence of a firestorm, numerous secondary fires erupted throughout the city. Fire-fighting efforts were hampered by water line breaks, and six weeks later the city was still suffering from a shortage of water. A U.S. Navy officer who visited the city in mid-September reported that, even over a month after the attack, "a smell of death and corruption pervades the place." As at Hiroshima, the psychological effects of the attack were undoubtedly considerable. As with the estimates of deaths at Hiroshima, it will never be known for certain how many people died as a result of the atomic attack on Nagasaki. The best estimate is 40,000 people died initially, with 60,000 more injured. By January 1946, the number of deaths probably approached 70,000, with perhaps ultimately twice that number dead total within five years. For those areas of Nagasaki affected by the explosion, the death rate was comparable to that at Hiroshima.

The day after the attack on Nagasaki, the emperor of Japan overruled the military leaders of Japan and forced them to offer to surrender (almost) unconditionally. Sources and notes for this page . Portions of the text for this page were adapted from, and portions were taken directly from the Office of History and Heritage Resources publication: F. G. Gosling, The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb (DOE/MA-0001; Washington: History Division, Department of Energy, January 1999) , 53-54. Also used was the report on "The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" in the official Manhattan District History, produced by the War Department in 1947 at the direction of Leslie Groves, especially pages 1-19; the "Atomic Bombings" document is available in the University Publications of America (UPA) microfilm collection, Manhattan Project: Official History and Documents (Washington: 1977), reel #1/12; the report itself is a government document. For an account of the mission, see the "Eye Witness Account: Atomic Bomb Mission Over Nagasaki" press release, written by William L.

Laurence of the New York Times and released on September 9, 1945; this is also available on reel #1/12 of the UPA Manhattan Project microfilm collection. Summaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki casualty rates and damage estimates appear in Leslie R. Groves, Now It Can Be Told (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 319, 329-330, 346, and Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, United States Army in World War II (Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), 545-548. For a description of Kokura Arsenal and interesting reflections on its postwar fate, see "Chapter 4: Kokura" of Paul Saffo's essay "The Road from Trinity: Reflections on the Atom Bomb"; this is available on Paul Saffo's web site at . The map showing the flight paths for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions is reproduced from Gosling, Making the Atomic Bomb, 52. The photographs of Fat Man and of the general devastation at Nagasaki are courtesy the U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers (via the National Archives (NARA) ). The photograph of the destruction at the Mitsubishi facility north of ground zero is courtesy the Los Alamos National Laboratory ; the photograph was taken by Robert Serber and is reprinted in Rachel Fermi and Esther Samra, Picturing the Bomb: Photographs from the Secret World of the Manhattan Project (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995), 190. The photograph of the mother and child is courtesy the Department of Energy (via NARA). The photograph of the bodies in the trench is reprinted from Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, United States Army in World War II (Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), 548.

Question: Which bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945
Answer: Fat Man