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Hiroshima Insight

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

A death toll of more than 70,000

Three days after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the city of Nagasaki was attacked with a second atomic bomb on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m.

The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was originally intended for another target, the city of Kokura in northern Kyushu. However, because of poor visibility above Kokura--mainly caused by smoke from an air raid on August 8, the day before the attack--the B-29 bomber carrying the atomic bomb changed course and flew on to the secondary target, Nagasaki.

The target within the city was a point between the Nigiwai Bridge and the Tokiwa Bridge, which cross the Nakajima River as it flows through downtown Nagasaki. Although clouds above the city made the target hard to spot, when the chimney of a factory was glimpsed through a momentary break in the clouds, the atomic bomb was dropped.

The bomb exploded at a height of about 500 meters about the Matsuyama town, roughly 3 kilometers to the northeast of the target. According to the Nagasaki Peace Museum, by the end of 1945 the death toll was 73,884.

As of the end of February 2012, the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims indicates that, among a total of 133,045 A-bomb accounts, 306 of these accounts are concerned with suffering exposure to the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.