In 1947, shortly after World War II, the British partitioned their colony of India into the new Hindu nation of India and the new Muslim nation of Pakistan. The largest migration in human history followed as Muslims moved west into Pakistan and Hindus moved east into India. Kashmir was controlled by India although the majority of their citizens were Muslim. Since the partition, India and Pakistan have argued over Kashmir and occasionally fought wars. India has also had strained relations with bordering China over some border areas.

           India was not an independent nation when the United Nations was created. The major international players at the time who were on the winning side were given seats on the Security Council. Eventually all of them developed nuclear weapons. Being such a huge nation, India felt that it should be given more respect in the international community and the United Nations. Eventually, leaders in India decided that having nuclear weapons would cause the international community to give India the respect that it deserved. In addition, given their persistent regional disputes and conflicts, it was not surprising that India began to pursue nuclear weapons development.

           Although India was a democratic nation, from the beginning, the Indian nuclear weapons development program was authorized and guided by a few powerful people in the Indian government. India established a nuclear research program before the end of World War II and before it achieved independence. The Indian Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1948, a year before independence. Although it was claimed that the Commission was to oversee the peaceful use of atomic energy, the possibility of weapons development was left open.

            In 1954, India began work on nuclear weapons at a new facility that grew rapidly between 1954 and 1959. The weapons program eventually consumed a third of India’s research and development budget and employed over a thousand people. India’s first nuclear reactor was constructed in 1955. The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada supplied reactor components, heavy water and uranium fuel for India to have a powerful sophisticated reactor. known as CIRUS. Although the intention of the international community was for the reactor to be used for the peaceful generation of electrical power, it was ideal for the production of plutonium. No regulations or inspections were imposed and India soon turned the reactor to the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. India proceeded to design and build her own reactor based on the CIRUS design. She also produced her own uranium fuel and created breeder reactors for fuel production. A plutonium extraction facility began operation in 1964.

           Tensions increased between India and China in the late 1950s and in October of 1962, China attacked India over a disputed border region. The Soviet Union had supported India in the past but sided with China this time. India appealed to the US but before the U.S. could deploy, China withdrew after easily defeating the Indian military.

           The conflict with China and the knowledge that China was working on nuclear weapons spurred India to accelerate her own nuclear weapons development. A plutonium extraction plant was built and started operations in 1964.China exploded its first atomic bomb in 1964 and Indian politicians called for India to quickly develop her own atomic bomb, claiming that it was only for “peaceful” purposes. There were serious conflicts between Indian political factions over nuclear weapons development. In the meantime, Pakistan became concerned with India’s nuclear research. In 1965, Pakistan attacked India. This led to a series of attacks and counter attacks mainly in the Kashmir region. The war ended in 1966. India was more resolved than ever to develop nuclear weapons. Work continued in the nuclear program but there were problems with the reactors and plutonium extraction facility. It took until 1969 for India to have enough plutonium for a bomb. Another war with Pakistan 1971 encouraged India to tested her first nuclear bomb and the test took place in 1974.

           Following the detonation of the first Indian bomb, support for India’s nuclear program in India and in the international community collapsed.  The Indian nuclear program slowed down as international sanctions impacted their reactors. During the next decade some progress was made but the program picked up steam again in the early 1980s with the start of a ballistic missile program for both short and long range missiles. The Indians also began working on the miniaturization necessary to put an atomic bomb in a warhead that would fit in a missile. In the 1990s, both India and Pakistan worked on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. India has missiles, bombers, surface ships which can deliver nuclear bombs and is working on submarines. India is estimated to have around one hundred nuclear warheads.

 

India Agni-II missile http://img.radiobras.gov.br/Aberto/index.php/Imagens.Principal.120.0.2004-01-31

 

          The Curie family carried out some of the original research on radioactive materials in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. By the time of World War II, French research into nuclear energy was well advanced. French scientists kept General de Gaulle informed of American nuclear research and the possibility of nuclear weapons. Following the atomic bombing of Japan and the end of the War, de Gaulle  started the French Atomic Energy Commissariat. In the aftermath of the War and the reconstruction of France following German occupation, the United States discourage nuclear weapons research and France fell behind other countries that were pursuing nuclear weapons.

          The first French nuclear reactor went achieved a critical reaction in 1948 and small amounts of plutonium were extracted in 1949. In the early 1950s, a plan for the development of nuclear energy was drafted for the French government. The plan included the creation of one hundred and ten pounds of plutonium per year which would be enough for seven bombs per year. A secret committee was created to liason between the Commissariat and the military. In 1956, one program was set up to create delivery vehicles for nuclear bombs and another was set up to create strategic nuclear bombs. In 1958, de Gaulle set the date for the first French nuclear test and accelerated the French nuclear program. The French developed their delivery systems starting with strategic bombers and moving on to missiles and, eventually, missile firing submarines.

          The first French atomic bomb test took place in 1960 at the Reganne Oasis in the Algerian Sahara desert and were atmospheric. After a few more tests at that location, testing moved underground to another Algerian site called In Ecker. During the Algerian tests, soldiers were told to advance on foot and in vehicles to within a few hundred meters of the epicenter of one of the blasts less than an hour after the bomb was detonated in order to test the effect of radiation on the troops. A survey in 2008 found that one third of the survivors of the radiation test had some form of cancer and one fifth were infertile. The environment suffered from the direct effects of the blasts and the radioactive fallout.

The the French nuclear tests moved to French Polynesian atolls in the South Pacific where their first thermonuclear atmospheric test was detonated in 1968. They continued both atmospheric and underground testing at the atolls until the mid 1990s. Environmental surveys show elevated levels of radiation with plutonium from the tests in the sediment around the atolls and high levels of tritium which leaked from underground tests.

In 1996, all of the French land-based missile silos were deactivated and dismantled. They still maintain a squadron of nuclear bombers. They have aircraft carriers which can carry planes that can deliver nuclear bombs. With a fleet of four nuclear armed submarines, the French keep at least two of the submarines at sea at all times. The French arsenal of nuclear warheads is estimated to be about three hundred.

            In 2009, the French Senate passed a bill that admitted the adverse impacts that its nuclear testing program had had on the natural environment and the people near the test sites. They provided a compensation scheme for civilian and military veterans.

French nuclear submarine:

           During World War II, two exiled German physicists wrote a paper about the possibility of constructing a “radioactive super-bomb” which was sent to appropriate agencies of the United Kingdom government. A committee was set up to explore building such a bomb and a research program was begun. Eventually, the U.K. entered into partnership with the United States and Canada in the Manhattan Project. The Project was successful and two of the new atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, ending World War II in the Pacific in 1945.

           Following the war, the British continued with their own research on nuclear weapons. The first order of business was to secure plutonium for bomb production. In 1946, two reactors were built at an old ordinance factory at Sellafield in northwest England. The reactors were fueled with uranium, moderated with graphite rods and air-cooled. Facilities were built to extract plutonium from the spent fuel removed from the reactors. Reactor 1 was started in 1950 and reactor 2 was started in 1951. By 1952, sufficient plutonium was available to build a bomb. The United Kingdom exploded their first atomic bomb in October of 1952 on an island off the coast of Western Australia.  They continued research and testing and in 1957 began a series of test of hydrogen bombs on islands in the Central Pacific.

           In 1958, the United States and the United Kingdom signed the Mutual Defense Agreement. Part of the Agreement covered the sharing of information and mutual assistance in the further development of nuclear weapons as well as cooperation on all nuclear security matters.

            In 1960, the U.K. cancelled its last nuclear weapon delivery system project and has collaborated with the U.S. on weapon delivery systems ever since. Lockheed Martin designs and manufactures delivery systems and then they are fitted with nuclear warhead designed and built in the U.K.

            The U.K. has not carried out the number of tests of other nuclear powers such as the U.S., the Soviet Union and Red China. However, because of their special relationship to the U.S. and access to classified U.S. nuclear weapons research, they have been able to develop sophisticated nuclear warhead with much less effort than the other nuclear powers.

             There has been political turbulence in the United Kingdom over the manufacture of nuclear weapons and policies for their uses. For a long time, the actual costs and risks of the weapons programs were kept secret from the citizens of the United Kingdom.

             The U.K. has constantly kept at least one ballistic-missile submarine on patrol since 1969. They purchased Polaris missiles from the U.S. to arm the submarines. Eventually, the Polaris missiles were replaced by U.S. Trident missiles in the mid 1990s.They currently have four Vanguard submarines that provide their deterrence against a pre-emptive first strike attack by an enemy. Their stockpile of warheads is estimated to be around one hundred and fifty.

Photo of Sellafield from the air – www.visitcumbria.com:

            After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a race to develop nuclear weapons. By the mid 50s, both nations had developed powerful hydrogen bombs. Constant ongoing research, development and testing resulted in the creation of tens of thousands of hydrogen bombs by both sides.

             Intercontinental ballistic missiles were created that could carry multi-megaton warhead to anywhere on earth. In the United States, silos were dug to house the missiles and their support personnel. In the Soviet Union, missiles were placed on trucks and constantly moved around to conceal their locations. The Interstate Highway System that was build during the 50s in the United States was originally conceived as a system of roads for shuffling around U.S. missiles.

            Squadrons of bombers were built and maintained to carry the hydrogen bombs. Airbases were constructed to house and maintain the bombers. At times, groups of bombers were rotated so there would always some in the air at any moment in case of a surprise attack.

             Fleets of submarines were created and equipped with nuclear missiles. Naval bases were built to construct and service the subs. Nuclear engines were developed so the subs could patrol for extended periods of time with the need to return to base for refueling.

             Advanced radar systems were deployed to detect missile launches by either country. With the speed of the missiles, there would only be minutes warn of incoming missiles. The world teetered on the brink of almost instant annihilation for decades. There were a number of close calls as false alarms were triggered.

            The United States and the Soviet Union were capable of destroying each other in hours with all these nuclear weapons so they found themselves in a stalemate situation. This was called “mutually assured destruction” or MAD. Drills were carried out in schools and businesses during the 50s and everyone lived with the fear of a devastating nuclear war.

            Since the U.S. and Soviet Union could not attack each other directly, they worked through proxies all over the world, fomenting rebellions in and wars between client governments. The term the evolved for this was the “Cold War”. We had allies in Europe and Asia and the Soviet Union had Communist Cuba in the Caribbean.

            In 1963, the Soviet Union began constructing bases for nuclear missiles in Cuba. They decided that if the United States could have nuclear weapons stationed in Europe, then they could station missiles near our borders. U.S. President Kennedy decided otherwise and told them that we would go to war if they brought the missiles to Cuba. Soviet ships carrying the missiles were heading for Cuba. The U.S. Navy set up a blockade. One of the Soviet ships strayed over the red line that the U.S. had told them not to cross. The captain of the nearby U.S. Naval vessel had to decide whether or not to take the world to a war that both sides could lose. He thought that the Soviet vessel might have had navigation problems so he waited and eventually the Soviet vessel turned around and left the prohibited zone. The fate of the entire human race rested on the shoulders of that one man who later said that he just could not bring himself to trigger World War III.

            When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the Cold War ended. The long nightmare of a nuclear third world war was over and the world could move out of the shadow of destruction. One positive benefit of the Cold War was the creation of a computer network by the U.S. military that was decentralized and could withstand the devastation of a nuclear war. This network was turned over to civilian control and became the Internet.

Soviet R-12 nuclear ballistic missile:

            At the end of World War II, the victorious Allied powers divided the Korean peninsula at the 38^th parallel. The southern portion of Korea was occupied by the United States which established a democratic government. The northern portion of Korea was occupied by Soviet troops and they established a communist government. As the Cold War took hold, hostility grew between the north and the south Korean governments.

           In 1949, the communists led by Mao Tse Tung in China toppled the government of Chang Kai Shek and installed a communist government in China. Red China became an uneasy ally to the Soviet Union and the other countries that had been occupied by the Soviet Union after World War II and set up with communist regimes, this included North Korea.

           In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. Two weeks into the war, General MacArthur sent a request to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that they consider whether or not atomic weapons should be made available to the forces fighting on the side of South Korea. At first, the JCS considered giving him 10 to 20 bombs. Then MacArthur started talking about destroying Chinese access to the peninsula and dealing with the Red China and the Soviet Union reaction. The JCS did not want the war to expand and there were not really good targets for atomic bombs in North Korea. They felt that massive firebombing was sufficient to deal with North Korean targets.

           The North Koreans drove the South Koreans and their U.N. allies far to the south of the 38^th parallel. A U.N. counter offensive drove the North Koreans back beyond the 38^th parallel towards the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Red China.  Red China then entered the war against the Korean and U.N. forces in the south and forced them back behind the 38^th parallel. The Soviet Union was not directly involved but did supply war materials to North Korea and China. The war ended in 1953 with the 38^th parallel as the boundary between the two Koreas.

           Following the war, the Red Chinese government pursued the development of nuclear weapons after the crisis of the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954. Uranium and plutonium production facilities were up and running by 1960. The Soviet Union provided advisors and even promised to provide the Chinese with a prototype bomb. However, ideological disputes soured relations between the two communist giants and they finally parted ways in 1961 over their respective interpretations of Marxist doctrine. All Soviet assistance stopped at that point.  

           The first Red Chinese atomic test took place in 1964 and their first hydrogen bomb test took place in 1967. They have also developed intercontinental ballistic missiles and miniaturized their bombs to create warheads. Their arsenal of a few hundred nuclear bombs is very small compared to nuclear arsenals of the United States and other current nuclear powers.

Chinese nuclear bomb:

          In 1942, during the U.S. Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb, physicist Edward Teller promoted the idea of using an atomic blast to trigger a thermonuclear reaction that would result in a much bigger explosion. The Project team decided to focus on atomic bombs and not to explore his idea during the war. After the war, there was resistance from some scientists about technical difficulties with Teller’s ideas and other people were reluctant to create such a devastating super bomb that could only be used against large populations of civilians. Teller and his supporters said that it was inevitable that such bombs would be created and the U.S. would be at a strategic disadvantage if we did not have them.

        In 1949, when the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb much earlier of the U.S. expected, U.S. President Harry Truman made the decision to proceed with research on the creation of such a thermonuclear or hydrogen fusion bomb. The exact way to trigger such a fusion reaction had not yet been determined when the project began.

        In 1951, a feasibility test for a fusion bomb was conducted in the new U.S. Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshal Islands.  A fission bomb in the shape of a donut was exploded with a small amount of liquid heavy hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) in the middle of the donut. The hydrogen fused and created a burst of fast neutrons which caused the U-238 in the bomb to undergo fission. The fusion reaction generated little energy but did prove the principle.

       In 1952, a full test of a fusion bomb was conducted at the Pacific Proving Ground. The device was not a deployable bomb. It was a twenty feet tall and weighed over sixty four tons. The explosive yield was equivalent to ten million tons of TNT. The island of Elugelab was destroyed in the blast leaving a crater over a mile wide in the ocean floor. In 1952, less than a year later, the Soviet Union exploded a thermonuclear bomb. It was a relatively small device but it was a deliverable bomb and a powerful propaganda tool.

         By 1954, the U.S. had managed to create an actual thermonuclear bomb that could be a deliverable weapon. When it was tested at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the fifteen megaton yield was three times bigger than expected. Poor weather conditions caused a cloud of radioactive fallout to spread over inhabited areas of the Marshall Islands. The affected areas were evacuated and are still uninhabitable. The exposed natives sustained high levels of cancer and birth defects over the following years.

          Hydrogen bombs had been advertised as being cleaner than fission bombs because the fusion reaction did not produce the radioactive materials that were produced by a fission bomb. However, the publicity was misleading because a powerful fission reaction was used to trigger the fusion in a hydrogen bomb and that fission reaction did produce large amounts of radioactive fallout. Hydrogen bombs were so powerful that, in addition to the destruction of civilian areas around military targets, huge clouds of fallout could threaten cities and even other countries that were miles away from the blast. Concerns for the welfare of the whole world began to be expressed if the superpowers with thermonuclear bombs went to war with the new weapons.

First United States Thermonuclear Device Test:

 

              Soviet scientists contributed much to the development of nuclear physics during the first decades of the Twentieth Century. When nuclear fission was discovered in the late 1930s, Soviet scientists understood that theoretically, enormous amounts of energy could be released from the fission of uranium.  Work on fission research in the Soviet Union began in 1940. Stalin started a nuclear weapons program after getting a letter from a Russia physicist working on fission warning him that the U.S and its allies were working on nuclear weapons but he did not assign many resources because of the demands of the war with Germany.

           Although the Soviet Union was our ally in the fight against the Axis powers in World War II, the U. S. government did not trust Stalin. The British were informed about our Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons during the war but we did not inform the Soviet Union. Our mistrust of the Soviet Union was justified in as much as they had penetrated our Manhattan Project with spies. Stalin was aware of our work on an atomic bomb and was not particularly surprised or interested when Truman mentioned a powerful new weapon at the Potsdam Conference in late July of 1945. The Soviet spies were not actually trained agents but were rather private citizens who, for their own reasons, leaked information on our nuclear weapons research to the Soviets.

            After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II in the Pacific, the United States released a report on the Manhattan project. There was an intense international debate over nuclear weapons with the United States working to keep a monopoly. The Soviet Union lobbied for general bans on the use of nuclear weapons but were busy working on the creation of their own nuclear weapons. They used the Manhattan Project report as a guide to developing the industrial facilities necessary to an atomic bomb project. Enormous resources were expended and whole secret cities were created.

           The scientific director of the Soviet program was nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov. The administrative head of the Soviet effort was Lavrenty Beria, previous head of the Soviet public and secret police. Paranoid by nature, he did not trust his scientists or the information sent from the U.S. nuclear program. He assigned seams of scientists to work in different laboratories on duplicate projects. Their findings were compared and cross checked against the intelligence gained from the spies in the United States. The information from the United States nuclear research allowed the Soviet Union to advance more quickly than the U.S. had in the development of an atomic bomb. in August of 1949, the Soviet Union detonated a Fat Man style implosion plutonium bomb in Kazakhstan. The explosion of a Soviet bomb came much earlier than the U.S. expected.

            With the United States monopoly on nuclear weapons ended, the Cold War nuclear arms race had begun.

The first Soviet atomic bomb test:

           In 1945, The United States was pouring resources into the Manhattan Project to create an atomic bomb. Part of the reason that the Manhattan Project was started in the first place was the knowledge that Germany was working on their own atomic bomb project. Werner Heisenberg was heading a team  to develop a nuclear weapon for Germany but the German government failed to invest enough resources for the project to make much progress. In March of 1945, Kurt Diebner was assigned the task of making a prototype German atomic bomb in Ohrdruf, Thuringia. Research was carried out at an experimental nuclear reactor at Haigerloch.  

            Following Germany’s surrender in May of 1945, Project Alsos was initiated by the United States. A team of scientists followed the Allied troops into Germany to investigate the German nuclear weapons program and prevent the Russian army coming in from the east from collecting any information, equipment or personnel that might help them create their own nuclear weapons program. Project Alsos reported that although the Germans did have a nuclear weapons program, they were not even close to creating an atomic bomb by the time the war ended.

            The horrendous damage done by the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima shocked the world. The world had entered a dangerous new age of nuclear weapons of tremendous destructive power. A intense international debate raged over the question of who should control nuclear weapons. Many of the scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project lobbied international control of such weapons. They suggested that either an international agency be formed for the purpose of controlling nuclear weapons or that the information on how to build such weapons be distributed to all the major powers. It was not surprising that the United States, the only world power which had possession of nuclear weapons, was not enthusiastic about giving away such a strategic advantage over all other nations. The deep distrust that the U.S. had for the Soviet Union following the war encouraged the U.S. to work to maintain a monopoly on nuclear weapons.

           The idea of using a fission bomb to ignite a much more powerful fusion bomb had been proposed in 1942 by Edward Teller but rejected by the Manhattan project in favor of fission bombs. While Teller lobbied for the fusion bomb and worked on the design with a few others, worked continued on refining the design of fission based nuclear weapons. The U.S. scientists and engineers working on the fission bombs were concerned about the feasibility of such weapons and were also reluctant to create a bomb that was thousands of times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan.  From a strategic perspective, it was felt that it would be more useful to have a lot of powerful nuclear bombs than to have relatively few super powerful bombs.

          The situation suddenly changed when the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in August of 1945. The United States was no longer the only nation with a nuclear weapon and the nuclear arms race had begun.

German experimental reactor at Haigerloch:

           By 1945, the Japanese had been losing the war in the Pacific for two years. They had been driven off the Philippines and other islands that they had occupied.  With the defeat of Germany in the European theater, the Russians deployed major portions of their armies to the Russian Far East. The Japanese merchant fleet which was critical for supplying war materials and fuel to the resource poor Japanese home islands had been destroyed. With their major factories destroyed by Allied bombing raids and their remaining battle fleet low on fuel, their situation was desperate. The Japanese tried to negotiate with the American government for a resolution to the war but found the American demands unacceptable. The Japanese prepared for a suicidal defense of the Japanese home islands against the coming American invasion.          

            In July of 1945, the United States, Britain and Russia convened in Potsdam in occupied Germany to discuss the punishment of Germany and other post war issues. During the conference, Truman was notified about the successful Trinity test of a plutonium bomb during the conference. He hinted to the Russians that the United States had a powerful new weapon but provided no details. Unknown to Truman, the Russians had penetrated the security surrounding the Manhattan project but Stalin was not impressed with what he had been told about nuclear weapons.

            On July 26, 1945 the United States, Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of Japan to end World War II. The Declaration called for the removal of the Japanese government and military command, the occupation of Japan, lost of all territories conquered by Japan, total disarmament and prosecution of war criminal. The Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War and the Emperor refused the demand and issued their own terms for surrender including allowing the existing Japanese government to remain in control of the Japanese homeland, carry out the disarmament, and prosecute the war criminals. They were also seeking confirmation of Russia’s neutrality according to a treaty they had signed.

            On August 9, 1945, the United States became the first nation on earth to use an atomic bomb on an enemy by dropping a uranium gun-type bomb called Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan. The Russians declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, and invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo on the Asian mainland. A plutonium bomb named Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. The devastation caused by the nuclear two bombs was terrible with casualties in the tens of thousands.

           In light of these new developments in the Pacific War, the Emperor convened the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War. A captured U.S. B-29 pilot had lied to his interrogators and told them that the U.S. had one hundred atomic bombs and would start dropping them on Tokyo and Kyoto in the next few days. The Emperor told the members of his war council that they should accept the Allies terms for unconditional surrender. On August 12, the Japanese sent a telegram to the U.S. government accepting all of the Potsdam Declaration except for demanding that the Emperor retain his power and status. The Allies responded that their occupational force would be the ultimate authority in Japan after the war. The Japanese argued about how to respond and the Allies waited until August 14 and then staged the biggest bombing raid of the war with hundreds of B-29 bombers raining destruction down on Japan. In the meantime, a group within the Japanese military attempted to stage a coup to seize control of the government to prevent surrender. On August 15, a recorded speech from the Emperor was broadcast to the Japanese people telling them that Japan was surrendering.

Japanese foreign minister signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender for World War II:

           After the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, the Japanese still would not surrender according to the Potsdam Declaration. Kokura had been selected as the primary target with Nagasaki as a backup target for the plutonium based Fat Man bomb. Nagasaki was a major Japanese port and was very important to the Japanese war effort due to the production of ammunition, ships, military equipment and other war supplies. Nagasaki was primarily constructed of wooden buildings and, due to a lack of decent building codes, allowed buildings to be crowded together. Some of the inhabitants of Nagasaki had been evacuated before August 1945 because a few conventional bombs had been dropped on the city.

          The bombing schedule was moved up from August 11, 1945, to August 9, 1945, because of a bad weather. On the morning of August 9, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress bomber Bockscar piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney took off carrying the Fat Man bomb. After the Enola Gay and another B-29 flew over Kokura and reported cloud cover that would make bombing difficult, Nagasaki was chosen as the target for Fat Man and the Bockscar and its two escorts flew on to Nagasaki. If Nagasaki was also cloudy, Bockscar was going to divert to Okinawa and drop the bomb in the ocean to dispose of it.

          When two B-29 Superfortresses were sighted in Nagasaki around 11 AM, no alarm was given because it was assumed that they represented a reconnaissance mission and no bombing threat. There were clouds but a break in the cloud cover allowed the bombardier to sight the target. The Fat Man bomb with about fourteen pounds of plutonium was dropped and exploded about fifteen hundred feet above the industrial district of Nagasaki. The bomb was about two miles off target. The explosion was equivalent to twenty one tons of TNT. Most of the destruction was confined to Urakami valley. Hills inside the city protected some of the other areas. Immediate casualties were around sixty thousand and ultimately over eighty thousand died by the end of 1945. The radius of total destruction was about one mile with fires and damage spreading out another mile.

          Plans were made to manufacture and drop more atomic bombs on Japan if they did not surrender. There was a debate about whether each bomb should be dropped as soon as it was ready or whether they should be stocked piled and then dropped together in a short period. Several more Fat Man bomb assemblies were readied and plutonium cores were to be shipped to Tinian in the Marianas on August 12, 1945, three days after the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki.

          On August 9, 1945, the Japanese war council met and received the instruction from the Emperor to contacted the Allies and accept their terms for surrender. Part of the reason for the quick capitulation was the fact that the Russians had just declared war on Japan and had begun mobilizing for an invasion. One condition the Emperor requested was that his status as Supreme ruler not be challenged and this was apparently accepted by the allies. The Japanese officially surrendered to the Allies on August 10, 1945.  

Nagasaki after bombing from nuclearfiles.org: