Nagasaki Day 2023: Must-Know Facts About US Atomic Bombing

Every year on August 9th, Nagasaki Day is solemnly observed to remember the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. This occasion serves as a poignant reminder of the immense destructiveness of nuclear weapons and promotes the ideals of peace, the elimination of nuclear arms, and the avoidance of nuclear conflict.

The atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (on August 6 and 9, 1945) were given the names "Little Boy" and "Fat Man." The bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki with the 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb resulted in profound human suffering and devastation.

"Bock's Car" is the designated name of the B-29 bomber from the United States Army Air Forces that released the "Fat Man" nuclear weapon above the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

The B-29 Bock's Car on August 9, 1945.

According to the National WWII Museum, everything within a mile of ground zero was annihilated. Fourteen thousand homes burst into flames. People close to the blast were vaporized; those unlucky enough to be just outside that radius received horrific burns and, there and further out, radiation poisoning that would eventually kill them. 

The picture depicts the aftermath of the bomb explosion, showcasing the devastation in Nagasaki.

Although estimates vary, perhaps 40,000 people were killed by the initial detonation. By the beginning of 1946, 30,000 more people were dead. And within the next five years, well over 100,000 deaths were directly attributable to the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

According to the Department of Energy's history of the Manhattan Project, "The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold."

Why the bombings?

During World War II, Japan deployed kamikaze tactics and pilots were undertaking suicide missions to destroy US warships directly. To prevent further damage to the Allied forces, American President Harry Truman authorised the use of the most devastating weapon of war-fighting ever developed. Japan did not surrender after the Hiroshima bombing, but it did after Nagasaki. The formal agreement of its surrender was signed on September 2.

How were the bombs developed?

Fuelled by fears that Nazi Germany could overtake it in developing nuclear weapons, the US was working quietly on one of its own under a programme called the Manhattan Project. On July 16, 1945, the American scientists working on the project successfully detonated the first-ever nuclear explosion in New Mexico. Fresh from the success, the US decided to use the bombs to end the war swiftly.