NagasakiMadej (1981)

Nagasaki (129.862E 32.758N) is a major port and industrial center on the island of Kyushu, with large coal deposits in the nearby hills. The population in 1940 was about 253,000 persons.  The coal mines of Kyushu produced 40% of Japan's domestic coal, something in the ballpark of 7.3 million tons in 1941. The Mitsubishi shipyard was the largest in Japan, employing 36,391 workers and capable of building all types of ships. The battleship Musashi was laid down here, and a number of cruisers were built. The Mitsubishi Ordnance Works were also located here, along with a couple of small aircraft factories. The port was protected by a heavy artillery fortress regiment

Nagasaki was a small village when it became the first Japanese port opened to foreign ships in the 16^th century.  Christian missionaries were active here and Nagasaki continued to have the largest Christian community in Japan up to the time of the war.

The Nuclear Attack on Nagasaki

National Archives. Via Wikimedia Commons

Nagasaki was destroyed on August, 8, 1945, by "Fat Man," the second and last nuclear bomb dropped on Japan during the war.  This mission went very poorly. The fuel pump for the reserve fuel tank of the attacking B-29 Superfortress, Bock's Car, was malfunctioning, but the mission was ordered to proceed anyway, lest it be delayed several days by an approaching storm front. Weather conditions were already deteriorating as Bock's Car approached Japan, and three passes over the primary target, Kokura, failed because of heavy ground haze obscuring the target. Bock's Car then turned towards Nagasaki with just enough fuel for a single pass before proceeding to Okinawa. Nagasaki was also obscured by poor weather, but the mission commander, Charles Sweeney, chose to violate strict orders not to bomb by radar rather than attempt a landing with "Fat Man" still on board or jettison "Fat Man" into the ocean. The bomb missed the intended aiming point over central Nagasaki by over a mile, exploding over the Urakami district and destroying both a Mitsubishi torpedo factory and the Urakami Catholic Cathedral. About half of the 14,000 Japanese Catholics in Nagasaki were killed in the blast.

Because of the hilly terrain and the poor aiming, damage was less than at Hiroshima in spite of the greater explosive yield of "Fat Man" (about 22 kilotons.) Immediate deaths numbered about 40,000 persons.

The Americans felt that the use of two nuclear weapons was required to convince the Japanese that more were available in their arsenal. In fact, Manhattan Project leaders estimated that seven more bombs would be ready by 31 October 1945. Tokyo was originally to be the next target, but intelligence reports of a massive Japanese buildup on Kyushu led Marshall to ask that the remaining bombs be reserved for tactical use in case an invasion of Japan was ordered.

Kyushu Hikoki K.K.  The production schedule of this small aircraft factory was approximately as follows:

Shipyards

Rail Connections

Isahaya

Climate Information:

Elevation: 436'

Temperatures: Jan 49/36, Apr 66/50, Jul 85/73, Oct 72/58, record 98/22

Rainfall: Jan 11/2.8, Apr 11/7.3, Jul 10/10.1, Oct 6/4.5 == 75.5" per annum

References

Evans and Peattie (1997)

Francillon (1979)
Frank (1999)

Madej (1981)

Parillo (1993)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2009, 2011, 2013 by Kent G. Budge.  Index

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