Atomic Blasts Ended Second World War
NAGASAKI – International – The images are iconic… a mushroom cloud erupts over the city of Nagasaki in 1945, in the world’s second wartime atomic bombing ever.
Some 150,000 people died in the attack and from the subsequent radiation sickness.
Sixty-nine years later, Japan is remembering the victims during a memorial service.
Visitors observed a moment of silence at 11:02 in the morning local time, the exact time the bomb was dropped.
After their surrender to Allied forces, Japan adopted a pacifist constitution. Recently though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted the country’s ban on aiding other countries under attack- the most significant change to country’s security policies in decades.
The ‘Fat Man’ bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a few days after ‘Little Boy’ had been dropped on Hiroshima Japan.
The United States dropped the two atomic weapons on Japan, seeking to end the war. Japan surrendered a few days later. The formal surrender was held aboard a United States warship in Tokyo Bay and was presided over by General Douglas MacArthur.
