Did Nagasaki bomber ‘miss’ on purpose to save lives?

 

On August 9, 1945, Captain Kermit Beahan, bombardier of the B-29 carrying the plutonium bomb “Fat Man,” was tasked with ending one of the cruellest wars in history. Yet the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki did not fall in the city’s heart. Instead, it detonated 2.18 miles north, in the suburb of Urakami, near tennis courts owned by Mitsubishi’s managing director and close to Japan’s largest Roman Catholic cathedral. The surrounding hills absorbed much of the blast, sparing countless lives. A direct hit on central Nagasaki could have claimed 100,000 lives, but six months later, the death toll stood at around 38,000.

 

 

Nagasaki had not been the intended target. The mission’s primary objective was Kokura, an industrial hub whose bombing was expected to cause an estimated 300,000 casualties. President Truman had ordered that the bomb must be dropped only if the target was visible. Weather planes reported clear skies over Kokura, but when Beahan reached his bomb sight, he refused to release the weapon. “Goddam to hell, no drop, no drop! I can’t see the goddam target!” he shouted over the intercom. Three times the B-29 made its run, and three times Beahan declined. With fuel running low and Japanese fighters approaching, the crew turned to the secondary target: Nagasaki.

 

 

Even then, debate erupted on board about abandoning Truman’s visual-only order and dropping by radar. In the end, Commander Frederick Ashworth agreed to a radar drop, but as the plane neared the city, Beahan spotted a break in the clouds over Urakami. “I’ve got it. Believe it or not, I’ve got it. The stadium. There’s a hole in the clouds, I can see a target,” he said, laughing. Moments later, he released Fat Man manually, due to a technical fault, and the bomb exploded far from Nagasaki’s most densely populated areas. “Holy mother of Jesus,” he murmured, followed by a quiet vow: “Never again. Never, ever again.” It was his 27th birthday.

 

 

 

The question has lingered for decades — did Beahan deliberately spare Kokura and intentionally shift the aim at Nagasaki? His son, Kermit Jr., insists his father followed orders: “Whatever Dad did, he did because a senior officer told him.” Yet evidence from weather archives and mission records casts doubt on claims of cloud cover at Kokura. President Truman, disturbed by the devastation in Hiroshima days earlier, may have used back channels to influence the mission, bypassing hardline commanders like General Curtis LeMay, who was angered by what he saw as Nagasaki’s “limited” destruction.

 

 

We may never know whether Beahan’s decision was an act of quiet defiance or the result of unseen orders. But one fact is certain — Kokura was spared, and by dropping short of central Nagasaki, Beahan’s actions, intentional or not, saved hundreds of thousands of lives while still ending the war’s final chapter.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from Source The Times  2025-08-05

 

 

"One person can make a difference."

 

 

What utter BS! Even Wikipedia states 70,000 civilian deaths.

 

When I worked in Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Hospital in 1968, the place was full of radiation victims 23 years later. Most of them are dead now.

 

I dated a girl who had keloid scars on her neck. She was in her pram.

 

These fliers and those who gave the orders were nothing short of mass murderers. 

11 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I dated a girl who had keloid scars on her neck. She was in her pram.

A bit young for dating isn't it?

1 hour ago, unblocktheplanet said:

What utter BS! Even Wikipedia states 70,000 civilian deaths.

 

When I worked in Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Hospital in 1968, the place was full of radiation victims 23 years later. Most of them are dead now.

 

I dated a girl who had keloid scars on her neck. She was in her pram.

 

These fliers and those who gave the orders were nothing short of mass murderers. 

No they weren't. They were taking a sad but necessary step to end an unimaginably brutal war.

 

Japan had been given myriad chances to surrender, and refused. Truman warned them explicitly after the Potsdam Conference about what was to come, and was ignored.  

 

The only viable options other than the a-bombs were blockade/starvation, and land invasion. Both would have resulted in millions more casualties on both sides.  I should know- my wife is Japanese and we talked to her grandparents about their war experiences. Grandpa was a navigator on a Betty bomber. His plane was practicing very low level flight, in preparation to join the kamikaze. Grandma was 17 years old and worked in a factory that made military uniforms. She was doing daily drills with a bamboo spear in preparation for defending her town against the Allies.

 

Either way, far worse. 

Incidentally, I just read today there are still 100,000 Hiroshima hibakusha still suffering radiation effects.

2 hours ago, WorriedNoodle said:

A bit young for dating isn't it?

18, she was five years older.

4 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Incidentally, I just read today there are still 100,000 Hiroshima hibakusha still suffering radiation effects.

Yes, and it is a terrible thing. 

 

Even more terrible would be the estimated 10 MILLION Japanese deaths that would have resulted from an amphibious invasion of the Japanese home islands by the allies.  Just look up the casualty estimates for Operation Downfall, the planned attack in late 1945.  And from 1.5 to 4 million American casualties.   No President could allow that to happen if there was any way to avoid it.