‘Fat Man’ in the war room

In what is considered the most tragic day during World War II, ‘Fat Man’ — a plutonium bomb — was dropped by US pilot Major Charles Fredrick C Bock on Nagasaki in Japan on August 9, 1945. The US objective was achieved at a tremendous price: 75,000 persons were killed, and the toll rose to 80,000 during the following days.

Within days, on August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. It was not the first time Japan had been nuked. Three day earlier, ‘Little Boy’ — a gun-type nuclear weapon using Uranium 235 as fissile material — was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6. It was the first-ever nuclear attack in the history of humankind.

According to records of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, Nagasaki was not the primary target, but weather conditions and clouds and smoke from nearby bombing raids had obscured the primary target of Kokura. The American fighter plane was unable to spot the core city arsenal target and the Japanese anti-aircraft fighters further compounded the problem.

Civilians at Kokura, who had taken shelter after the air raid warning alert, breathed a sigh of relief, as the US airplane ferrying ‘Fat Man’ headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki.

The US decision to use the atom bomb again, after the first explosion at Hiroshima, was based on apprehensions that Japan’s weather was variable and the appearance of a typhoon or any other major weather phenomenon would force the action to be postponed for a considerably long period.

Two bombings in quick succession was also a strategy to make the Japanese believe that Americans had plenty of atomic devices, thus convincing them to surrender unconditionally.

Nagasaki, a port city located about 160 km from Kokura, was larger, with an approximate population of 2,63,000. With some major military facilities, including two Mitsubishi military factories, this important city had not suffered much from conventional bombings.

August 9 comes as a reminder of World War II, which was fought by millions of people, the heavy costs of victory and defeat, and how it changed the course of future wars. There were several battles and military posts at even little-known places, like the Caribbean and Central America, Greenland, Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

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