Nagasaki was a major port and industrial city in western Japan, housing the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordinance (Torpedo) Works. These two were the principle targets of Nagasaki, lying north and south of the city, respectively (Nagasaki).

At 11:00AM, the Fat Man was dropped over the city of Nagasaki. Cloud cover disrupted the visuals, so the bomb was dropped slightly off target into the industrial valley where it caused less damage than it was supposed to (Marx 202). About one-third of the city was destroyed, and though the Fat Man had caused an explosion equivalent to 22,000 tons of TNT as opposed to the 13,000 from Little Boy, Nagasaki’s mountainous topography saved it from a complete wipeout like that of Hiroshima (The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki). While the damage to the city was not quite as extensive, the devastation in lives was just as brutal. The bomb killed 39,000 people instantly and fatally injured 25,000. The death toll would climb to 75,000 in the years to follow due to radiation (Zelier 185).

Whether the second atomic bombing of Japan at Nagasaki was justified or not is still a controversy among scholars and historians alike. The destruction and carnage at Hiroshima seemed to have delivered a clear enough message and Japanese leaders were already discussing the surrender before the second bomb was dropped just three days later. (Zeiler 185)

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SOURCES:

“The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki.” The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki. 2005. Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies & Nagasaki College of Foreign Languages. 14 Jul. 2005. <http://www.nagasaki-gagigo.ac.jp/nagasaki/10.html>

Marx, Joseph L. Seven Hours to Zero. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967.

" Nagasaki." The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki : Chapter 7 - The Attacks . 2003. Yale Law School. 24 Jul. 2005 <http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/abomb/mp07.htm#n>.

Zeiler, Thomas W. Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the end of World War II. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc, 2004.