Nagasaki 75 Years -- August 9, 2020

Three days after destroying the city of Hiroshima with the Little Boy bomb, the United States dropped the Fat Man bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The Japanese had made no response to the Hiroshima bombing, so on 09-August-1945, 75 years ago today, B-29 Bokscar, piloted by Major Charles W Sweeney delivered the atomic bomb. Visibility was poor at the primary target; Nagasaki was the secondary target. 35,000 to 40,000 people died on the ground and many more were injured. 

I have been involved in many discussions, in school and with friends, about the righteousness of the decision to drop the bomb. Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, would have killed as many Allied troops as had been killed throughout the war up to that point. Millions of Japanese people, civilian and military, would have died from starvation, injuries or suicide. I think we had to do it. I am sorry we had to do it. 

After the bomb destroyed Nagasaki, the Japanese leaders who wanted to surrender came to prevail.