Posted on 08/09/2008 3:50:28 AM PDT by abb
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.
ping
Thus ended WWII and alleviating the need to invade the island of Japan which would have cost hundreds of thousands of American lives.
GOOD JOB
And if they didn’t surrender after Nagasaki... it meant that Olympic and Coronet were the next on the docket. The loss of life in an invasion of Japan, at that time, is mind-boggling.
I’ve not gotten to this one yet. Any reviews from FReepers?
http://www.warbirdforum.com/downfall.htm
I've seen numerous interviews of men who were readying to invade the main island and they were overjoyed at the news. Prior to that, they ALL considered themselves as "dead men walking".
My grandfather was on the Bunker Hill when it got kamikazee’d during Okinawa. Never had to do much to convince him the bomb was a good thing.
LLS
“Another great day in United States military history.”
Absolutely true, but that “Happy Nagasaki day” jibe in the headline is childish.
“Another great day in United States military history.”
Indeed. A good day to remember that our nuclear forces are essential and in need of modernization.
Nothing in history has been a force for peace to equal the nuclear weapon.
Thanks again to the makers of the bomb .My dad was in California training for the invasion of mainland Japan when the bomb was dropped. Good chance I probably wouldn’t be writing this if it hadn’t happened !
“ Made in America, Tested in Japan !”
My late father, at that time a Marine private who helped to take Okinawa, was one such man. He lived to the age of 77 instead of being killed in the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
Oh dear, The Lord must have been watching over my Mother - She was an Eleven Year old young child, her hometown was Fukuoka, Japan. She remembers, still vividly and Sixty-Three Years later the flash of bright sunlight one morning, it was the second Atomic Bomb dropping of Nagasaki. Fate, brought her many years later to my Late Father, an American, who served proudly in the United States Army. My Mother still says to this day that the bomb saved alot of lives and that the Japanese would have never surrendered but to describe this event as Happy? I think the word: Happy would be appropriate when the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur./Just Asking - seoul62.......
My father considered every day of his life after d-day (Sept. 20?) as a gift from heaven. There turned out to be 60 years worth of days to be grateful for. He had done that beachhead thing three times and was already a fugitive from the law of averages. Also he was in an independent tank battalion, and they always got the dirty end of the stick.
Not really. It's quite on point - the day should be celebrated at least as prominently as Dec. 7. It caused WWII to come to an end.
And of course, this is what the anti American- anti nuke crowd will be wailing over during all the tearful candlelight vigils held tonight.
What they can't seem to get through their heads is that had the war continued, 10 times that number would have been killed by the Japanese imperial army alone in their occupied zones.
My dad had recovered from burns suffered in a crash in the CBI Campaign. He was sure that his number would be called again.
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