August 9, 1945
‘Fat Man’, a plutonium bomb carried by the U.S.A. B-29 bomber, Bock’s Car, was scheduled to be dropped on the Japanese city of Kokura. It was three days after the U.S. had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The weather made visibility poor, so the aircraft passed Kokura and chose its secondary target, Nagasaki. Fat Man destroyed over half of Nagasaki and killed more than 70,000 people. This was the end of World War II. Japan surrendered unconditionally the following day.
In Nagasaki, from an observation point at the air-raid lookout post on Kouyagi Island located about 8 kilometers south of the city, just after the flash it appeared that a huge fireball covered the city, as if it were suppressing the city from the sky. Around the fireball there was a doughnut-shaped ring from the midst of which black smoke and flames rose up to the sky in an instant. The ring of the flames did not initially reach the ground. When the fireball scattered with a flash, the city was covered with darkness. The smoke rising from the midst of the ring, glittering in colors of red, white and yellow, reached an altitude of 8,000 meters in only 3 or 4 seconds.
After reaching an altitude of 8,000 meters, the smoke ascended more slowly and took about 30 seconds to reach an altitude of 12,000 meters. Then, the mass of smoke gradually discolored and scattered in wads of white clouds.
Harry S. Truman, America's 33rd President, clearly intended to protect and preserve America at all costs. Further, he vowed to support "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." This became known as the Truman Doctrine.
War. Defending the homeland. Taking the fight to the enemy. Having an agenda to promote and support freedom of the oppressed. Any of that sound familiar? These are the types of things that enrage democrats today. There was a time though, when democrats believed in a strong America and were willing to defend her.
