What's worse than the story of Hiroshima is the story of the "forgotten bomb" - Nagasaki. The mission was a fuckup from takeoff to touchdown. Shortly after takeoff they found they couldn't access a fuel tank, cutting the fuel by 25%. Once over Japan, all the targets were cloud-covered. They made their run three times and were finally so short of fuel they had the choice of dropping the most expensive weapon in history in the ocean and explaining that later, or violating the ROE of the mission of visual-bombing-only.
The bombardier was operating on radar, but claimed later that a "hole" opened in the clouds long enough to drop the bomb. What did they hit?
Instead of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries war factory, they dropped the bomb on the Urakami Catholic Church, the largest Christian church in Asia. Built entirely by donations of the parishioners, after the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1880 during the Meiji Restoration.
The B-29 then diverted to Okinawa, where they made what Jimmy Doolittle called the craziest landing he ever saw, running out of gas on the runway. The Air Force did none of the publicity they did for Enola Gay three days earlier and "Bockscar" only ended up in the Air Force Museum in the late 70s.
That Nagasaki was a target at all is proof of the moron ignorance of Americans. Nagasaki was the most anti-imperial city in Japan. It was the most pro-western city since it was created in the 15th century as the port the Spanish and Portuguese were allowed to trade in, and was the capitol of the anti-Shogun resistance in the 17th century that led to the Kyushu Rebellion that saw 250,000 Christians killed and the religion outlawed. But for the next 200 years Christianity was practiced there as an underground act of resistance. The city was where Puccini wrote "Madame Butterfly."
After the war, the people of Nagasaki determined that such an event should never happen again, and that the only way to do that was to practice and promote International Brotherhood. Proving they are better Christians than most Americans are, they dedicated the city to International Brotherhood, and to this day if you are a stranger there (I personally experienced this when I visited in 1964 while in the Navy), someone will come up to you and ask if they can help, offer to buy a meal, and even do the very un-Japanese thing of inviting a gaijin into their home.
The above is why Nagasaki is to this day little-mentioned in Official American Mythology (the accurate term for "Official History").
Not only that, the bombs did not end the war. The day Nagasaki was bombed, there was no mention of the event in the records of the Supreme War Council (which I have read). The sole topic of discussion was the USSR's entry into the war that morning. There was no defense in Manchuria, because the best units of the Kwantung Army had been transferred to Kyushu to face the coming US invasion. The Japanese expected the Soviets to take all of Manchuria and Sakhalin Island by the end of the month. They expected the Soviets to invade Hokkaido in September. There were no defenses in northern Japan at all - everything was in Kyushu. Tokyo would have been taken by late October, and perhaps all of Honshu before Operation Olympic happened. The Japanese were well aware of what the Soviets had done in Germany, and given a century of bad blood between the two countries they expected worse than that. And that is why Hirohito was prevailed upon by the "peace faction" to take an active role and end the war.
The Japanese told us the bomb ended the war, and we have been ignorant enough to base US foreign policy on a threat that can never be made good ever since. And they have been let off for all their war crimes by being The Official Victims of the war.
If you'd like to read the whole account, it's in my book "Tidal Wave."
Yes, good account. I spent a week in Nagasaki in 1984 and wrote lengthy articles afterwards, and for years, with titles like "Forgotten Bomb. Forgotten City," and then in books. I always make the point that many historians who support use of bomb against Hiroshima call Nagasaki wrong or even (as I agree) a "war crime."
Thank you for this first hand and very moving reminder of the horrors that nuclear weapons have wrought. This awful reality will forever be hanging over the world. They must be eliminated and these truths are part of that process.
What's worse than the story of Hiroshima is the story of the "forgotten bomb" - Nagasaki. The mission was a fuckup from takeoff to touchdown. Shortly after takeoff they found they couldn't access a fuel tank, cutting the fuel by 25%. Once over Japan, all the targets were cloud-covered. They made their run three times and were finally so short of fuel they had the choice of dropping the most expensive weapon in history in the ocean and explaining that later, or violating the ROE of the mission of visual-bombing-only.
The bombardier was operating on radar, but claimed later that a "hole" opened in the clouds long enough to drop the bomb. What did they hit?
Instead of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries war factory, they dropped the bomb on the Urakami Catholic Church, the largest Christian church in Asia. Built entirely by donations of the parishioners, after the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1880 during the Meiji Restoration.
The B-29 then diverted to Okinawa, where they made what Jimmy Doolittle called the craziest landing he ever saw, running out of gas on the runway. The Air Force did none of the publicity they did for Enola Gay three days earlier and "Bockscar" only ended up in the Air Force Museum in the late 70s.
That Nagasaki was a target at all is proof of the moron ignorance of Americans. Nagasaki was the most anti-imperial city in Japan. It was the most pro-western city since it was created in the 15th century as the port the Spanish and Portuguese were allowed to trade in, and was the capitol of the anti-Shogun resistance in the 17th century that led to the Kyushu Rebellion that saw 250,000 Christians killed and the religion outlawed. But for the next 200 years Christianity was practiced there as an underground act of resistance. The city was where Puccini wrote "Madame Butterfly."
After the war, the people of Nagasaki determined that such an event should never happen again, and that the only way to do that was to practice and promote International Brotherhood. Proving they are better Christians than most Americans are, they dedicated the city to International Brotherhood, and to this day if you are a stranger there (I personally experienced this when I visited in 1964 while in the Navy), someone will come up to you and ask if they can help, offer to buy a meal, and even do the very un-Japanese thing of inviting a gaijin into their home.
The above is why Nagasaki is to this day little-mentioned in Official American Mythology (the accurate term for "Official History").
Not only that, the bombs did not end the war. The day Nagasaki was bombed, there was no mention of the event in the records of the Supreme War Council (which I have read). The sole topic of discussion was the USSR's entry into the war that morning. There was no defense in Manchuria, because the best units of the Kwantung Army had been transferred to Kyushu to face the coming US invasion. The Japanese expected the Soviets to take all of Manchuria and Sakhalin Island by the end of the month. They expected the Soviets to invade Hokkaido in September. There were no defenses in northern Japan at all - everything was in Kyushu. Tokyo would have been taken by late October, and perhaps all of Honshu before Operation Olympic happened. The Japanese were well aware of what the Soviets had done in Germany, and given a century of bad blood between the two countries they expected worse than that. And that is why Hirohito was prevailed upon by the "peace faction" to take an active role and end the war.
The Japanese told us the bomb ended the war, and we have been ignorant enough to base US foreign policy on a threat that can never be made good ever since. And they have been let off for all their war crimes by being The Official Victims of the war.
If you'd like to read the whole account, it's in my book "Tidal Wave."
Yes, good account. I spent a week in Nagasaki in 1984 and wrote lengthy articles afterwards, and for years, with titles like "Forgotten Bomb. Forgotten City," and then in books. I always make the point that many historians who support use of bomb against Hiroshima call Nagasaki wrong or even (as I agree) a "war crime."
Definitely a war crime.
Thank you for this first hand and very moving reminder of the horrors that nuclear weapons have wrought. This awful reality will forever be hanging over the world. They must be eliminated and these truths are part of that process.
Thank you so much for these articles...So important to speak this truth. To remember it, even if you weren't alive then, so that it is never repeated.
Thank you for these tragic details. I cried. What awful 'leaders' there are.
J,
Found myself doing the same, so much evil is allowed to happen? How do they sleep?