This Day in American History: The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki
- For America
- Aug 9
- 2 min read
On this day in 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, three days after the first, bringing World War II to its final, devastating close within the week.
The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 had not produced the immediate Japanese surrender American leaders hoped for. With a second bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," already prepared, a B-29 bomber called Bockscar took off from Tinian Island before dawn on August 9, 1945, piloted by Maj. Charles W. Sweeney. The primary target was the city of Kokura, but thick haze and smoke obscured the aim point after three passes, and with fuel running low, Sweeney diverted to the secondary target: the port city of Nagasaki.
Nagasaki was also covered in cloud when Bockscar arrived, but a brief gap opened over the city and bombardier Capt. Kermit Beahan released the bomb. It detonated at 11:02 a.m. local time at an altitude of roughly 1,800 feet, with a force equivalent to about 21,000 tons of TNT. The blast and firestorm killed an estimated 40,000 people immediately and destroyed roughly 44 percent of the city; tens of thousands more died in the following months from injuries and radiation exposure.
The following day, Japan signaled its willingness to surrender, and on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender to the Japanese people, with the formal signing taking place aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, ending World War II. Nagasaki remains, alongside Hiroshima, one of only two cities ever struck by a nuclear weapon in wartime -- a fact that has shaped nuclear policy and global anxiety about atomic warfare for eight decades since. Bockscar itself survived the war and is preserved today at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Also on this day:
1854 -- Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden," his reflection on simple living based on two years spent at Walden Pond.
1936 -- Jesse Owens's 4x100-meter relay team sets a world record, completing his sweep of four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.
1974 -- Gerald Ford is sworn in as president following Richard Nixon's resignation.
Six days after Nagasaki, the deadliest war in human history came to an end. The weight of that week is still being reckoned with, eighty years later.
Source: National WWII Museum, Britannica, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
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