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 >1 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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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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MSgt Dale Johnson
LTC Orlando Illi - I think you misunderstand my statement, both my Uncles hated the Japanese soldiers due to their cruelty both on the battlefield and off. However, upon their return they realized that Asian people who were here already had nothing to do with what went on in the Pacific they held no ill will for them. Many soldiers and the families that lost loved ones in the war even hated those Asians that had been born here in the US, their anger was misplaced.
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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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MSgt Dale Johnson
LTC Orlando Illi - Do you understand English? My comment was that my Uncles upon returning were able to get past their hatred of the Japanese.
Many GIs were not able to do that and hated the Japanese that lived in THIS country even though they had nothing to do with the war. They never went there, they didn't fight, and there were even Japanese Soldiers that served Valiantly in Italy for the US that were hated just for being Japanese.
I did not comment on why the Japanese fought, who they thought they were, etc only on the undue hatred of people that were US citizens living here in the US.
If you are still confused please read it again.
Many GIs were not able to do that and hated the Japanese that lived in THIS country even though they had nothing to do with the war. They never went there, they didn't fight, and there were even Japanese Soldiers that served Valiantly in Italy for the US that were hated just for being Japanese.
I did not comment on why the Japanese fought, who they thought they were, etc only on the undue hatred of people that were US citizens living here in the US.
If you are still confused please read it again.
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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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