The Bombing of Nagasaki: 9 August 1945

Three days after "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima, a bomb, code-named "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Manhattan Project: The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, 9 August 1945

This was stolen shamelessly from myself, from a few years back. (The image is a replica of the Fat Man device from the U.S. Department of Defense by way of WikiMedia.) And I'm a day early because of reasons.

After problems with weather, a uranium implosion bomb (similar to the first atomic bomb, The Gadget, detonated on July 16th of that year) was dropped on the industrial city of Nagasaki. It was later determined that it was 21 kiloton equivalent explosion.

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 to the north.

Water line breaks hampered firefighting efforts, and the damage done to the two Mitsubishi plants was described as "spectacular." Though the bomb was 40 percent larger than the Hiroshima bomb, it did less destruction. But the destruction it caused was still extreme.

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 effects of radiation poisoning are truly hideous. A high enough exposure and you are dead – you are just waiting for the mechanics of dying to be complete. You can find descriptions of the gruesome details elsewhere. All I will say here is that I would not want to wait around for that end.

The day after Nagasaki was bombed, Japan surrendered - almost unconditionally.

One of the things that always amazes me is the fact that it was less than a month from the first detonation of an atomic bomb at Trinity on 16 July, to the two bombings of Japanese cities.

As I mentioned in my post on Hiroshima, I don't know if anyone will pay attention to this anniversary. It has been 80 years since the end of World War II, and the media seems to be incensed about Orange Man Bad more than anything else. I haven't even seen much on the War in Ukraine lately.