The atomic bombing of Nagasaki
Ellen Bradbury and Sandra Blakeslee, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: The harrowing story of the Nagasaki bombing mission
Seventy years ago, on August 9, at approximately 3:47 a.m. local time on the island of Tinian, a massive B-29 Superfortress aircraft roared down a tropical airport runway, carrying 13 men and what was then the world’s most destructive weapon—an atomic bomb called Fat Man. It was the second atomic bomb in existence (not counting the test in the Nevada desert about 3 weeks earlier). And it was far more powerful than the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare, which was called "Little Boy" and had been dropped on Hiroshima just three days earlier.
For nearly eight hours, the crew of the plane carrying Fat Man sped toward mainland Japan, each man hunkered in a cramped workspace with no access to external radio communication. Outside, monsoon winds, rain, and lightning lashed at them. Inside, they experienced moments of terror, such as when the bomb began to arm itself—a red light blinking with increasing rapidity—midway to their destination. One of them, bearing the newly minted title “weaponeer,” grabbed the Bomb’s blueprints and raced to figure out what was wrong.
WNU Editor: A fascinating and captivating account on the Nagasaki atomic bomb mission.