August 9, 1945 - At 11:02am, a bright flash of light and burst of heat heralded the second atomic bombs detonation used in warfare over Nagasaki, Japan.

The United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress “Bockscar” of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group flown by the crew which normally manned another B-29 “The Great Artiste” and bearing Triangle-N tail markings of the 444th Bomb Group as a security measure, arrived over Nagasaki carrying “Fat Man” - the instrument of that city’s destruction.

Fat Man was the second and last nuclear weapon used in warfare and only the third nuclear detonation in history.  The bomb differed from the warhead dropped on Hiroshima.  “Little Boy” had been a gun-type Uranium-234 fission weapon while Fat Man was an implosion-type weapon with a plutonium core.

Nagasaki was chosen as a military target suitable for the atomic bomb because the city met the same criteria as Hiroshima and was a major center for Naval shipbuilding.

According to statistics given at the Nagasaki Peace Park, the immediate dead from the bomb totalled 73,884 with an additional 74,909 injured and several hundred thousand suffering or succumbing to rediation related disease in later years.

On August 12, as a result of the bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as continuing conventional military pressure including the declaration of war by the USSR, Emporer Hirohito decided that Japan would surrender to the Allies.  The official surrender was received on August 14, 1945 ending World War II.