Atom Bomb: Japan Surrenders

This photo was taken from one of the B-29 Superfortresses used in the attack on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The cloud of smoke rose almost 11 and a half miles (about 60,000 feet) into the air.
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

"I used to think in my head, just before I dropped (a bomb), if I wait two more seconds, who is it going to affect? Whose lives? This is what you think about."
—Edward Sellz, Omaha, NE

Named for pilot Paul Tibbets’ mother, the Enola Gay was the planethat dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima
Courtesy U.S. Military Forces

Truman gravely made the decision to drop the atomic bomb in Japan, first on Hiroshima on August 6th, and then on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Those are the only two events of an atom bomb being used in times of war. In an instant, the 20-thousand-ton atomic explosion killed 66,000 people and injured 69,000 in Hiroshima. Many more died later from initial injuries or radiation fallout.

Mission map for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6 & August 9, 1945. Kokura is included because it was original target for August 9. However, weather obscured visibility, so Nagasaki was chosen as backup.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Private First Class Wayne Winslow, 339th Signal Company Wing, born in Hebron, NE, later resident of Blair, NE. Winslow was a radio operator during the attack on Hiroshima.
Courtesy Durham Western Heritage Museum and NET Television

Wayne Winslow, a radio operator who conveyed messages to and from the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima), describes his Atomic Bomb Experience.
An NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial.
Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television

Battered religious figures stand watch on a hill above a tattered valley in Nagasaki, Japan; September 24, 1945, six weeks after the city was destroyed by the world’s second atomic bomb attack
Courtesy National Archives & Records Administration

Should the atom bombs have been dropped? People still disagree. Some Japanese consider it a war crime; some think it was necessary to end the war. Here is what two Nebraskans who lived through the war thought:

"Well, this part was beyond anyone’s imagination. When that happened, you just couldn’t possibly visualize that anything could be that devastating. Just anything though at that time to bring the war to a close was very elating, and yet it was a terrible catastrophe, I know. . . . Since then, there’s been a lot of speculation whether they should have done it or shouldn’t (have), but that’s the way it happened."
—William Chalupsky, National Guard, Comstock, NE
197^th Infantry in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska
"At that time, we corpsmen were given to understand that we were going to have a ninety percent casualty rate if we went into Japan. To say the least, we decided that when the atom bomb was dropped, that was the finest thing that ever happened to us."
—Keith Vail, Navy Hospitalman
First Class in Mediterranean Lincoln, NE

General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, on board USS Missouri (BB-63), September 2, 1945
Courtesy U.S. Naval Historical Center

A formation of U.S. Navy carrier aircraft fly over the formal surrender ceremonies in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945; Official U.S. Navy Photograph
Courtesy National Archives & Records Administration, NH62593

Several Nebraskans relate what it was like at the treaty signing After the Atomic Bomb
An NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial.
Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television

Whether dropping the bomb was necessary or not, it did definitely end the war. The United States accepted the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945. Later, a more official ceremony was performed on board the USS Missouri.

Atom Bomb: Japan Surrenders

Wayne Winslow, a radio operator who conveyed messages to and from the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima), describes his Atomic Bomb Experience.An NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial.Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television

Several Nebraskans relate what it was like at the treaty signing After the Atomic BombAn NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial.Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television

Wayne Winslow, a radio operator who conveyed messages to and from the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima), describes his Atomic Bomb Experience.
An NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial.
Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television

Several Nebraskans relate what it was like at the treaty signing After the Atomic Bomb
An NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial.
Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television