Bombing of Nagasaki
After the bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. had three potential targets designated for the second bomb, a uranium bomb. These three possible targets were Kokura, Kyoto, and Niigata. The Kyoto option was withdrawn; it was spared for its religious importance and associations. Niigata was later withdrawn due to distance, and Nagasaki was added to the list of potential targets.
Nagasaki was not actually considered a desirable target. The city had already undergone heavy bombing, making it harder to assess the impact of the bomb. In addition, the city was quite spread out, and had many waterways.
While the bombing of Hiroshima had gone as planned, that was not true for the second bombing of Japan. The plane, Bockscar, had a failing fuel pump that morning; one of the fuel tanks could not be used. Bockscar carried “Fat Man,” a uranium-based implosion bomb.
The plane flew to Kokura, but there was heavy, impenetrable cloud cover. According to his orders, the pilot had to drop the bomb with visual targeting, rather than radar. The pilot could not drop “Fat Man” on Kokura. There was only enough fuel to make it to Nagasaki and land in Okinawa. He initially could not find a break in the cloud cover, but finally did, and dropped “Fat Man.”
On August 9, 1945, the air raid sirens began to sound in Nagasaki. There were many bomb shelters in the city and there would have been adequate space for many of the residents. In addition, there were deep tunnels in the hills surrounding the city. There had, however, been so many false alarms that the people of Nagasaki ignored the air raid sirens.
The bomb was effective; however, it did less damage in Nagasaki than “Little Boy” had in Hiroshima. The waterways through the city prevented widespread fires. In total, an area 2.3 miles by 1.9 miles was destroyed by “Fat Man.” Had there not been orders target the bomb visually or had the weather been clear over Kokura, Nagasaki’s history might well have been very different.