Nagasaki was the Japanese city attacked after Hiroshima in the 1945 atomic bombings.
The United States dropped the plutonium implosion bomb Fat Man on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, three days after the Hiroshima attack. The weapon detonated at about 11:02 a.m. local time over the city’s industrial valley. Hills around Nagasaki limited the blast’s reach compared with what might have occurred across flatter terrain.
Kokura was the planned primary target for the second mission. Poor visibility and cloud cover prevented the crew from making the required visual bombing run, so the aircraft diverted to Nagasaki, the secondary target. This is why accounts of the mission often mention both cities.
Nagasaki’s destruction did not produce an immediate public Japanese surrender announcement by itself. The Soviet Union also entered the war against Japan, and Japanese leaders debated the terms before Emperor Hirohito announced acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration on August 15.