Posted on Sep 19, 2021
Hiroshima, Then Nagasaki: Why the US Deployed the Second A-Bomb
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Ever since America dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, the question has persisted: Was that magnitude of death and destruction really needed to end World War II?
American leadership apparently thought so. A few days earlier, just 16 hours after the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay shocked the world by dropping the first A-bomb known as “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the White House issued a statement from President Harry S. Truman.
In addition to introducing the world to the previously top-secret atomic research program known as the Manhattan Project, Truman doubled down on the threat that nuclear weapons posed to Japan, America’s only remaining adversary in the war. If the Japanese did not accept the terms of unconditional surrender drafted by Allied leaders in the Potsdam Declaration, Truman wrote, “they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”
But even as Truman issued his statement, a second atomic attack was already in the works. According to an order drafted in late July by Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, director of the Manhattan Project, the president had authorized the dropping of additional bombs on the Japanese cities of Kokura (present-day Kitakyushu), Niigata and Nagasaki as soon as the weather permitted.
Nagasaki Wasn't the Original Target
Early on the morning of August 9, 1945, the B-29 known as Bockscar took off from Tinian Island in the western Pacific Ocean, carrying the nearly 10,000-pound plutonium-based bomb known as “Fat Man” toward Kokura, home to a large Japanese arsenal. Finding Kokura obscured by cloud cover, the Bockscar’s crew decided to head to their secondary target, Nagasaki.
“Fat Man,” which detonated at 11:02 local time at an altitude of 1,650 feet, killed about half as many people in Nagasaki as the uranium-based “Little Boy” had in Hiroshima three days earlier—despite a force estimated at 21 kilotons, or 40 percent greater. Still, the effect was devastating: close to 40,000 people were killed instantly, and a third of the city was destroyed.
“This second demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb apparently threw Tokyo into a panic, for the next morning brought the first indication that the Japanese Empire was ready to surrender,” Truman later wrote in his memoirs. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender, bringing World War II to a close.
American leadership apparently thought so. A few days earlier, just 16 hours after the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay shocked the world by dropping the first A-bomb known as “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the White House issued a statement from President Harry S. Truman.
In addition to introducing the world to the previously top-secret atomic research program known as the Manhattan Project, Truman doubled down on the threat that nuclear weapons posed to Japan, America’s only remaining adversary in the war. If the Japanese did not accept the terms of unconditional surrender drafted by Allied leaders in the Potsdam Declaration, Truman wrote, “they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”
But even as Truman issued his statement, a second atomic attack was already in the works. According to an order drafted in late July by Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, director of the Manhattan Project, the president had authorized the dropping of additional bombs on the Japanese cities of Kokura (present-day Kitakyushu), Niigata and Nagasaki as soon as the weather permitted.
Nagasaki Wasn't the Original Target
Early on the morning of August 9, 1945, the B-29 known as Bockscar took off from Tinian Island in the western Pacific Ocean, carrying the nearly 10,000-pound plutonium-based bomb known as “Fat Man” toward Kokura, home to a large Japanese arsenal. Finding Kokura obscured by cloud cover, the Bockscar’s crew decided to head to their secondary target, Nagasaki.
“Fat Man,” which detonated at 11:02 local time at an altitude of 1,650 feet, killed about half as many people in Nagasaki as the uranium-based “Little Boy” had in Hiroshima three days earlier—despite a force estimated at 21 kilotons, or 40 percent greater. Still, the effect was devastating: close to 40,000 people were killed instantly, and a third of the city was destroyed.
“This second demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb apparently threw Tokyo into a panic, for the next morning brought the first indication that the Japanese Empire was ready to surrender,” Truman later wrote in his memoirs. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender, bringing World War II to a close.
Hiroshima, Then Nagasaki: Why the US Deployed the Second A-Bomb
Posted from history.com
Nuclear
Japan
WWII World War Two
Death
World History
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 11
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Good morning. I think Mr. Truman made the right decision. My viewpoint is that the first bomb woke the Japanese Imperial Staff, especially Tojo Hideki, to the untenable situation. The second one forced them to go to the emperor and request a formal end to war. All the rest is great for debate but the bottom line is that it ended WW2 with an emphatic declaration.
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My Uncle's and my Dad were scheduled for Operation Olympic. My Dadon a Gearing Class Destroyer and my two Uncle's as assault troops. So - in my case I am glad that they used the Second Atomic Bomb. Tojo called the game and we beat him. Nothing personal - just business. One of my Uncle's (who was scheduled for Operation Olympic) helped free American POW in the Philippines. Until the day he died - he never forgave the Japanese for their abject cruelty and disregard for human life.
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LTC Stephen C.
LTC Orlando Illi, my father was the engineering officer on USS LST-78, and he told me that they were also preparing for Operation Downfall (I don’t know if they were part of Olympic or Coronet). He told me had the invasion occurred, my birth would have been unlikely; he would’ve died.
Ask any serviceman in the Pacific Theater during WWII if they regret the United States’ decision to drop the atomic bombs. I doubt you’ll find many with regrets. My father didn’t regret it in the least.
LTC David Brown Lt Col Charlie Brown MSgt Dale Johnson SSG Samuel Kermon
Ask any serviceman in the Pacific Theater during WWII if they regret the United States’ decision to drop the atomic bombs. I doubt you’ll find many with regrets. My father didn’t regret it in the least.
LTC David Brown Lt Col Charlie Brown MSgt Dale Johnson SSG Samuel Kermon
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LTC Orlando Illi
LTC Stephen C. Operation Downfall was both Operation Coronet and Olympic and I agree with you
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Sgt Jim Belanus
my father in law was on a ship going around Okinawa when they announced the bombing and war ending, he said there was a big celebration knowning they we not going to be cannon fouder
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LTC Orlando Illi
MSgt Dale Johnson This has NOTHING to do with people of Asian Descent living in America. Have you studied the Japanese Culture at all? Do you realize that they considered themselves the superior race in Asia and that they considered Chinese, Koreans and all Caucasians inferior? Do you understand what the Japanese meant by their Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and which culture would be dominant? Like I said - they initiated armed conflict. They justified it due to their belief that they were the superior race in Asia and as such had an inalienable right to all the wealth in the region. It was inevitable that they would lose in an industrial, economic and Military contest with the West. So once again - they wanted a war and they got one.
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I get disgusted by this stuff. Any papers, documents, etc to show this historical theory f sending a message to the soviets s true? There was probably less suffering in the two nuclear bombings than would have occurred in conventional war. Japanese soldiers were brutal and fanatics. Some of them didn’t surrender until decades after the war ended.
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Lt Col Charlie Brown
I do not disagree. The Japanese left us no option...if we had continued to use conventional weapons, far more people would have died.
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