the bombing of Nagasaki

This dramatic, somber photograph shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in August 9, 1945. This was the second and last atomic bomb used in war.

“After the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, workers on Tinian island labored intensely to put the finishing touches on the Fat Man bomb and prepare it for use. This was a plutonium implosion device of far greater complexity than the Little Boy bomb used at Hiroshima, which used uranium-235 in a fairly conventional explosive mechanism. The scientists and ordnance experts at Los Alamos had agonized for years over how to use plutonium in an atomic weapon, and Fat Man was the result … Perhaps 40,000 people were killed by the initial detonation. By the beginning of 1946, 30,000 more people were dead. And within the next five years, well over 100,000 deaths were directly attributable to the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945” (National World War Two Museum).

The use of the devastating new weapon twice in quick succession helped to bring about the end of the war. The following day Emperor Hirohito authorized Japan’s surrender. The announcement was made on August 15, and the formal surrender took place on September 2.

The U.S. Army Signal Corps was tasked with recording the bombing and its aftermath. “These Signal Corps photo teams, carrying what was then state-of-the-art equipment, would go out into combat operations, often by themselves, and cover the events where civilian journalists either wouldn’t go, or couldn’t go. The results … captured on film through their lenses, were some of the most iconic pictures of World War II” (Lee Reynolds, with the U.S. Army Center of Military History).

The large format prints resulting from this mission are rarely seen in the market.

$2,350