This day in History 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

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.

You neglected to mention training to repel invaders with bamboo pikes and satchel charges. When I was in Japan I had some very sobering discussions with a guy who was 12 when the war ended. He credited Harry S with saving his life.

I'm fortunate that I live within an easy drive of the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, where Enola Gay rests as one of the star attractions.

This was the first year since she went on display in late 2003 that I missed being there on 8/6. I think everyone on this thread will be pleased to know that in the previous two years that I was there the number of "counter-protesters" (more accurately described as those there to keep a VERY vigilant watch over the protesters) outnumbered the anti-nuke nutters by about a 10-1 ratio.

One of NASM's many great Docents is a retired USAF Col. named Scott Willey. Col. Willey is, iirc, the resident expert on the PTO in WWII ... he even had an article written about him in an edition of Air & Space Magazine. He's also the one who, on 8/6 takes over the museum tour when it reaches Enola Gay ... since the protesters like to heckle and jeer whichever Docent is leading the group. His smack-down of them is really a thing of beauty -- nothing like watching as 200 people get a kick out of an extremely well-informed retired USAF Col. verbally kicking the living cr*p out of 20 or so ignorants whose knowledge of events doesn't go much further than their well-practiced chants.

Last year I grabbed Col. Willey after he finished his lecture to ask him a question about the Seiran that's on display under the Enola Gay's starboard wing. The Seiran is the sole survivor of the type, a float-plane bomber which was designed to collapse down and be carried on specially built submarine aircraft carriers.

Col. Willey told me a great story about how, when the Seiran was being restored, the former Japanse CO of the WWII Seiran unit came by NASM's Garber restoration facility in MD. The museum kept in contact with him and when the Dulles Center opened invited him out to see, and sit in, the restored aircraft on display.

Someone asked the Japanese veteran what he thought of one of "his" planes sitting under the wing of the Enola Gay. He responded by saying that at the time of the atomic bombs and resultant surrender his unit was aboard the submarines heading towards a suicide/kamikaze attack against the US carrier anchorage at Ulithi Atoll, and they were called back once Japan threw in the towel. According to Col. Willey, he pointed up to the Enola Gay and said "That plane not only saved my life ... it saved my country".

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