Nagasaki was the Japanese city destroyed by the second atomic bomb, dropped on August 9, 1945.
The United States B-29 bomber Bockscar released the plutonium bomb known as Fat Man at 11:02 a.m. local time. Nagasaki was the second city attacked with a nuclear weapon, following Hiroshima three days earlier.
The intended target was Kokura, but cloud cover and smoke made the target difficult to identify. The aircraft diverted to Nagasaki, where a break in the weather allowed the bomb to be released. Hills surrounding the city affected the blast’s spread, but the destruction and loss of life were catastrophic.
The bombing occurred on the same day that Soviet forces began their invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria. These developments intensified the crisis facing Japan’s leaders, who ultimately accepted the Potsdam Declaration and announced surrender later in August.