The Destruction of Nagasaki, For What?

The ruins of Nagasaki Medical College, Japan, 1945
Credit: National Library of Medicine

Sixty-Nine years ago this week a 9,000 pound atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan.  The resulting explosion killed 74,000 people.

The death and destruction caused by the bomb is roughly equal to one 9/11 style attack...occurring every day for 25 days.

Destruction of Shiroyama elementary school,
Nagasaki

Photograph by Eiichi Matsumoto

There are a handful of theories as to why the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki.  I can't say which is most valid or who exactly had the final say in launching this second nuke over Japan.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay was commanding bombing raids in the Pacific late in World War II.  Five months before the dropping of the atomic weapons LeMay ordered the firebombing of Tokyo.  This brief campaign resulted in the killing of 100,000 human beings.

Adding to the confusion surrounding the reasons behind the dropping of the nuclear bombs is this passage from LeMay's New York Times obituary:

Years after relaying the orders from President Harry S. Truman to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General LeMay said the actions were not necessary.

'Truman Told Me to Do It'

''We felt that our incendiary bombings had been so successful that Japan would collapse before we invaded,'' he said in a 1985 interview with the Omaha World Herald.