Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Year: 1945

Month Day: August 09

On August 9, 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 “Bockscar,” after its usual commander, Frederick Bock, took off from Tinian Island under the command of Maj. Charles W. Sweeney.

The crew of the Boeing B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, which made the flight over Hiroshima to drop the first atomic bomb. Left to right kneeling; Staff Sergeant George R. Caron; Sergeant Joe Stiborik; Staff Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury; Private first class Richard H. Nelson; Sergeant Robert H. Shurard. Left to right standing; Major Thomas W. Ferebee, Group Bombardier; Major Theodore Van Kirk, Navigator; Colonel Paul W. Tibbetts, 509th Group Commander and Pilot; Captain Robert A. Lewis, Airplane Commander. 

” data-full-height=”775″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTU3ODc4NjAwODI5OTcwMTQz/image-placeholder-title.jpg” data-full-width=”1024″ data-image-id=”ci0230e5c1d05926df” data-image-slug=”Image placeholder title” data-public-id=”MTU3ODc4NjAwODI5OTcwMTQz” data-source-name=”Bettmann/Getty Images” data-title=”Crew of the Enola Gay”>Hiroshima in ruins after the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. The circle indicates the target of the bomb. The bomb directly killed an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought the total number of deaths to between 90,000 and 166,000. 

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” data-full-height=”1470″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTYwNjczNzMxOTkwMDcwODMw/hiroshima-gettyimages-78964772.jpg” data-full-width=”2000″ data-image-id=”ci023ad3e89000262e” data-image-slug=”Hiroshima-GettyImages-78964772″ data-public-id=”MTYwNjczNzMxOTkwMDcwODMw” data-source-name=”Popperfoto/Getty Images” data-title=”Utter Destruction in Hiroshima”>Survivors hospitalized in Hiroshima show their bodies covered with keloids caused by the atomic bomb.

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The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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.

READ MORE ABOUT THE BOMBINGS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI:

The Inside Story of Harry Truman and Hiroshima
Hiroshima, Then Nagasaki: Why the US Deployed the Second A-Bomb
The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs

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