Nagasaki atomic bombing: The second nuclear strike of World War II

On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, three days after the attack on Hiroshima. The explosion caused immediate devastation, with temperatures reaching millions of degrees Celsius, leading to massive casualties and extreme physical trauma among survivors.

The decision to use nuclear weapons was driven by the goal to accelerate the end of World War II in the Pacific and avoid high American casualties expected from a land invasion of mainland Japan. The selection of targets was managed by the Target Committee and involved key figures like General Leslie Groves and physicist David M. Dennison. While Hiroshima was the primary target, Nagasaki became the site of the second strike after heavy cloud cover prevented the intended primary target, Kokura, from being clearly visible to the B-29 bomber crews.

The use of these weapons ultimately led to the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan on August 15, 1945, marking the end of the war.