WWII, Nagasaki, Aftermath of Atomic Bomb, 1945

Fat Man was the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was built by scientists and engineers at Los Alamos Laboratory using plutonium from the Hanford Site and dropped from the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney. 53 seconds after its release, the bomb exploded at 11:02 a.m. at an approximate altitude of 1, 800 feet. Less than a second after the detonation, the north of the city was destroyed and 35, 000 people were killed. Among the deaths were 6, 200 out of the 7, 500 employees of the Mitsubishi Munitions plant, and 24, 000 others who worked in other war plants and factories in the city, as well as 150 Japanese soldiers. The industrial damage in Nagasaki was high, leaving 68-80% of the non-dock industrial production destroyed. It was the second and, to date, the last use of a nuclear weapon in combat, and also the second detonation of a plutonium bomb. The Fat Man bomb was somewhat more powerful than the one dropped over Hiroshima, but because of Nagasaki's more uneven terrain, there was less damage. Photographed for the DOE, November 27, 1945

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