Nagasaki was an industrialized city with a natural harbor in Western Kyushu, Japan.

General Groves had always felt the United States should drop two bombs on Japan to show that they had the capabilities to make more than one bomb. After the successful bombing of Hiroshima, President Truman approved the use of a second bomb as soon as it was ready, unless the Japanese surrendered. The bombing was scheduled for August 11th, but on August 7th weather experts advised that Japan would be covered by clouds from the 10th to the 15th. Groves did not want to wait until the weather cleared.

Bombing

The primary target for the second nuclear bombing was Kokura. After several flybys of the city it was abandoned due to fog and smoke obscuring the target. The crew moved on for an attempt at Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m. the crew dropped the "Fat Man" bomb, which exploded at 1,800 feet above the city to cause maximum damage. The explosion of the bomb was roughly equivalent to the power of 40 million pounds of TNT. Temperatures rose tens of millions of degrees, accompanied by a blast of light ten times the brightness of the sun due to the explosion.

Damage

The blast was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima although the effects in terms of destruction and casualties were less. This was due to the geography of Nagasaki and also because the bomb was dropped two miles off target. (What about geography?) Photographs taken the next day showed that around 44% of the city had been destroyed. Reinforced concrete buildings and metal structures had been completely demolished. Between 35,000 were killed in the explosion and another 65,000 wounded. Most of the deaths were from flash burns caused by the primary heat waves. Other deaths and injuries were caused by flying debris and secondary fires. Unknown to the planners of the bombing, there was a prisoner of war camp near Nagasaki. The men kept there, two of whom were Americans, were the only Allied victims of the atomic bomb.

Aftermath

The explosion released a large amount of gamma rays as well as and alpha and beta particles. This radiation can remain deadly for years or centuries after release. Thousands died from radiation sickness caused by the gamma rays. radiation sickness affects the blood, organs, bone marrow, spleen and lymph nodes. With severe radiation, the tissue of the bodies organs begin to die within a few days and death follows soon after. Every person within one kilometer of the blast suffered from severe radiation injury. People who were one to tow kilometers away suffered moderate to severe injury. Those that were two to four kilometers suffered slight radiation effects. Including the number of people who suffered or died from radiation sickness the casualty numbers of the Nagasaki bombing rise to 74,000 killed and 75,000 injured. At the time of the blast the population of the city was 286,000 people.

Survivors

In October of 1950, a national survey found there to be 124,167 survivors of Nagasaki. The number was comprised of people who were directly exposed, fetuses exposed while in their mother's womb, and people indirectly affected by residual radiation because they were early entrants in the city or fallout victims in areas where "black rain" fell.

A larger number of children, many of whom were sent to the countryside during the war, were orphaned, having lost their parents in the bombing. They were known as the "A-bomb orphans." Due to the scarcity of records it is hard to estimate the amount of children left orphaned. The Roman Catholic church worked to care for these orphans. While many adjusted, it was not uncommon for them to get physically ill, fall into a life of crime, or commit suicide. Besides children, thousands of the "elderly orphans" were left alone with no one to depend on. Many lacked a source of income and were suffering from illness or disability. This number increased over time and by 1960 5.8% of the survivors of Nagasaki were over the age of 70.

References

http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/final_design.htm http://atomicbombmuseum.org/4_survivors.shtml http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/twocities/nagasaki/page1.shtml http://www.idealist.ws/atomicclock.php http://www.atomicarchive.com/Movies/Movie3.shtml http://books.google.com/books?id=2-zsny77v5kC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=Nishiyama+black+rain&source=bl&ots=A1ZoFKMPnT&sig=noIF49RzXb-vn0WQCaxwZ1bU_oU&hl=en&ei=KUiyS-_yJ6LgtAPkvYjMBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Nishiyama%20black%20rain&f=false