Explore [Nagasaki, Japan]

Read About a Photograph of a Mushroom Cloud

On August 9, 1945, the United States detonated an atomic bomb on the Japanese seaport of Nagasaki, Japan. The mission was sent to destroy the arsenal at Kokura, Japan, but due to heavy cloud cover, it moved to the secondary target of Nagasaki. At the time, Nagasaki was a major port city and naval shipyard.

At 11:02 a.m., the B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed “Bockscar,” dropped a plutonium bomb code-named “Fat Man.” When the bomb exploded some 1,500 feet over Nagasaki, it did so with a force equal to roughly 20,000 tons of dynamite.

A New York Times newspaper reporter who witnessed the explosion described it as follows:

Awestruck, we watched it shoot upward like a meteor coming from the earth instead of from outer space, becoming ever more alive as it climbed skyward through the white clouds. It was no longer smoke, or dust, or even a cloud of fire. It was a living thing, a new species of being, born right before our incredulous eyes.

Though the death toll estimates differ, the initial blast killed around 40,000 people. An estimated 30,000 more died due to the effects of radiation in the aftermath of the explosion, with some deaths occurring many years later.

It is not known exactly who took this photograph of the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki. It is assumed that a U.S. Army Air Force serviceman on the mission made it to document the mission.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• What does the mushroom cloud’s appearance tell you about the power of the atomic bomb, and why do you think the photographer documented this moment from a distance?
• What do you think is meant in the quote from the New York Times reporter in which he described the bomb as “a living thing, a new species of being, born right before our incredulous eyes”?
• Why do you think it was important for the U.S. military to photograph the atomic bomb explosion, and how might this image have been used after World War II ended?