Nagasaki was hit by the second atomic bomb before Japan surrendered in 1945.
A U.S. B-29 bomber dropped the plutonium bomb over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. Nagasaki lies on the western coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island.
The original primary target for the mission was Kokura, but cloud cover and smoke obscured the aiming point. The aircraft therefore proceeded to its secondary target, Nagasaki, where the bomb was released at about 11:02 a.m. local time.
The bombing occurred on the same day that the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria. Historians continue to debate the relative importance of the atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war, and Japan’s internal political crisis in producing surrender.