I always found the most interesting part of those two nuclear bombings the fact that we experimented with uranium on Hiroshima and plutonium on Nagasaki. They were two differently fueled atom bombs (”Little Boy and “Fat Man”). One result I remember reading about in the ‘70s was that surviving citizens of Hiroshima had a far higher incidence of leukemia than the survivors in Nagasaki.
Japanese-Christian soldiers included stealthy acts of kindness towards Allied POWs. (A scarce commodity in WWII).
“I always found the most interesting part of those two nuclear bombings the fact that we experimented with uranium on Hiroshima and plutonium on Nagasaki. They were two differently fueled atom bombs (”Little Boy and “Fat Man”).”
Two types of atomic bombs were used simply as a matter of expediency. All other considerations were no more than opportunistic afterthoughts. When the Unitedd States embarked upon its development of a nuclear weapon, the decision was made to attempt the production of two different types of bomb grade fissionable nuclear material: uranium and plutonium. This decision was made in the hope that if one of the fissionable materials could not be made available and be fashioned into a working atomic bomb, then perhaps the other could be. In the end, both fissionable bombs were made a reality at virtually the same time, but there was one important difference. The bomb grade fissionable material was in much too little supply to fashion more than one or a few atomic bombs before the end of 1945 or the scheduled amphibious invasions of the japanese Home Islands in Spring 1946. The more of this uranium used to produce uranium bombs meant fewer plutonium bombs in the required time schedule. This resulted in the decision to use the prototype uranium bomb core on a Japanese target, while the first plutonium core was used to test the bomb design at Alamagordo, and the second plutonium core on the second Japanese target. A third plutonium core was readied for another attack upon a Japanese target later in August. Each of the remaining months in 1945 would have brought an increasing number of plutonium cores available for use until Japan either surrendered or the invasion of Japan ended the nuclear bombardment.
The plutonium bomb became the atomic bomb of choice because more of the plutonium cores could be produced at a faster rate. It also helped that the explosive yield was superior. It was only after some months and years had passed that the radiological studies discovered the radiation effects were considerably worse than had been anticipated. This wqas in the day and age when shoe stores and departments were using X-ray machines to X-ray customers’ feet to sell shoes to customers by showing how the feet looked inside the shoes being sold.
It should also be remembered how Japan also had two competing atomic bomb development programs, one for the Army and one for the Navy. Additonally, Japan had developed and considered using other eapons of mass destruction against the Continental United States. The largest submarines built before the advent of nuclear submarines about fifteen years later were constructed to carry weapons of mass destruction against American targets. Only the abrupt end of the war prevented them from reaching their intended targets.