Ah, Nagasaki.
Dateline August 9th, 1945. BBC report [1]:
Atom bomb hits Nagasaki. American forces have dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki - the second such attack on Japan in three days. The bomb was dropped by parachute from an American B29 Bomber at 1102 local time. It exploded about 1,625 ft (500m) above the ground and is believed to have completely destroyed the city, which is situated on the western side of the Japanese island of Kyushu.
Such a dry, matter-of-fact report combining war and geography, missing only weather, which, except for a single cloud mushrooming over the city, was CAVU, the U. S. Army Air Forces acronym for clear and visibility unlimited.
Report continues:
In a statement issued from Guam, General Carl A Spaatz, Commander of the US Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, said, “The second use of the atomic bomb occurred at noon, August 9, at Nagasaki. Crew members report good results. No further details will be available until the mission returns.”
The bomb was named Fat Man, referring either to Winston Churchill, a character in England, or to Kasper Gutman, a character in The Maltese Falcon.
Ah, Hiroshima.
Although the Man was fatter by about five kilotons, Hiroshima always gets top billing, perhaps because, though slighter in stature, the Boy had more “good results” than the Man, the former tallying 90,000 to 166,000, with the latter trailing far behind, tallying a mere 60,000 to 80,000 [2].
Also, the first city with good weather seemed to have more press; indeed, the New Yorker devoted the full August 31, 1945, issue to the event, the text of which became John Hersey’s book Hiroshima [3].
Ah, Kyoto.
Ah, Kyoto.
Good results for them, but bad results for the Air Force, because Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War, had honeymooned there, had fond memories of the city, and successfully persuaded the Target Committee to remove Kyoto from the list.
Apparently no member of that Committee, including Robert Oppenheimer, had fond memories of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
So it goes.
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