Do you believe that the lessons of Nagasaki and Hiroshima have been learnt?

Nagasaki

An American B-29 bomber called Bockscar took off from the tiny island of Tinian in the Northern Marianas group in the west Pacific Island and dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. At least 70,000 people died as a result, and the death toll is now believed to be 140,000. It was the second atomic bomb; the first having been dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier. Japan surrendered on 15 August. The rationale for the bombing is that Japan had not surrendered unconditionally after the Hiroshima bombing. Some believe it was because the USA wanted to try out the first plutonium bomb. Nagasaki was particularly unfortunate as it was not the intended target, which was Kokura, but clouds forced a change of plan.

The Nagasaki bomb was called "Fat Man". The uranium that was used to make the bomb came from the Shinkolobwe mine in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was converted to plutonium in the nuclear reactors at Hanford, Washington. About 8 kilograms of plutonium-239 was used. The bomb exploded at a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) above the city with a force of about 20 to 25 kilotons. The hilly nature of the city reduced the amount of damage. Because the bomb exploded quite high up in the air, material from the ground did not get taken up only to return to the ground as radioactive fallout. Nagasaki is not radioactive now as a result of the blast.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in Nagasaki the official commemoration of the 60th anniversary. Survivors continue to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons, which Nagasaki mayor Iccho Ito also called for.

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