Our Visit to Nagasaki, Japan, The Atomic Bomb

On August 9, 1945, at 11:02AM the American B-29 bomber BOCKSCAR dropped a plutonium bomb called Fatboy on Nagasaki. It is ironic that Nagasaki was not the intended target when BOCKSCAR took off from Tinien Air Base that morning, but clouds covered the original target Kokura and so they proceeded to the secondary target of Nagasaki. Clouds also covered much of Nagasaki, but a small break in the cloud cover allowed them to drop the bomb. It exploded 500 meters above the surface, hence the designation of Ground Zero as a "hypocenter" as opposed to an epicenter. The bomb exploded with the force of 21,000 tons of TNT.

There seems to be no agreement on exactly how many died that day and how many died as a result of the bomb. Some literature says 40,000 died that day, our guide says 75,000 and we also saw a statistic of 59,000. Most agree that about 150,000 died by the end of 1945 from some effect of the bomb.

Our first stop on our tour was at the Peace Memorial Park. The beautiful Peace Statue was complete in 1955, 10 years after the bombing. The statue's right hand points to the sky to signify where the bomb came from while the left hand is outstretched in a gesture of peace. The right leg is bent under and the eyes are closed to symbolize tranquility and meditation while the statues left leg is planted ready for action to assist humanity. It is quite beautiful The park is lined with statures donated by various sister-cities of Nagasaki and countries of the world.

From the Peace Memorial Park we drove to the Atomic Bomb Museum. You will find not interior pictures because camera's were not allowed. It is quite moving, but it is about what you expect, a tribute to the horror of the bombing through many photographs and twisted or scorched artifacts. There is a decided emphasis on the suffering of mothers and children, but when one realized that the men were off fighting a war, this is not too surprising. The museum makes much of the fact that many scientists and politicians advised the US not to drop the bomb and I did not see mention of the fact that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. The day we were there, there were hundreds of Senior High School Students there and our guide told us it was part of the countries Senior High School curriculum. It did make for extremely crowded conditions.

From the museum it is a short, but steep walk across the road and down a flight of steps to the "Hypocenter" or ground zero. which is marked with a black obelisk. There is a beautiful statue in the area which was placed there to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the bomb. It depicts a mother holding a stricken child in her arms. One group of the Senior High School students had a ceremony to honor the victims at ground zero while we were there. They sang some songs and then placed paper cranes in memorial for the victims. It was interesting to see.

Here are the pictures from these venues:


The Peace Statue.	The plaza in front of the Peace Statue	The Plaza


Plaques were informative.	The remains of the Urakami Prison that was close to the hyp0center.	About the Urakami Prison


One of the statues donated.	More of the Statues	This one was charming



The Peace fountain.	The Peace Fountain	Another statue.


More information		View from the Peace Park


The red represents hope, the haphazard blocks represent the chaos after the bomb hit	Another statue.	.View from Peace Park


A water slide in Nagasaki from the peace park	Very interesting statue.. needed no explanation


		These poor guys were trying to hand load a palette of bricks.


	Isn't this one beautiful.





		Peace Statue from the distance.


Another view of the Urakami Prison remains.	We bid farewell to the peace statue.	On the way to the Museum we pass the small house of an American Doctor that survived the blast but not he after effects. He wrote a book "I Have to Leave my Two Children" which is quite famous in Nagasaki.


At the Atomic Bomb Museum	More outside the Museum	The High School Seniors pouring into the Museum from a conference center


The Entry to the Museum	Outside the museum .. these students were everywhere	The bridge to the Hypocenter


These guys were sweeping and raking the river. Thirst was huge after the blast but people had no idea that they should not drink the water and it was fatal to them also.	Couldn't resist this picture of the "Lucky Taxi" in Nagasaki.	A view from the museum.


The plaza surrounding the hypocenter.	The 50 year commemorative statue.	Another view of the 50 year commemorative statue.


Ground zero.	A picture of the original obelisk erected in 1945 at ground zero.	Ground Zero


Ground Zero	Bill at Ground Zero	Kathy at Ground Zero


Bill & Kathy at ground zero.	Beyond the tourists you can see the Sr High School Choir.	A remnant of the Catholic Church which was near ground zero


Ground level information At ground level at the time.		Strata's of the earth from ground level at the time of the bomb


Close up of the ground level	It was lower than it is now.	A turtle wandering along the river at the ground zero park


Did I mention the stairs were steep .. did I mention there was an elevator .	View from the Museum	The exterior of the Museum


More Exterior of the Museum.		.

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