Although the skies above Nagasaki had been fairly clear earlier in the morning, a front was moving in. A break in the clouds allowed the bombardier to see his target. "Fat Man" detonated at about 11:02 a.m. Instead of exploding over the center of the industrial port city of Nagasaki, the bomb exploded 1,540 feet above the Urakami River Valley. Smoke rose 60,000 feet.

Like Hiroshima, Nagasaki was devastated. Ground photographs taken by Yosuke Yamahata document the gruesome scene.

President Truman’s White House statement (scroll to the last paragraph) told the American people:

We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.

Except for the moment, America’s supply of atomic bombs had already been used. Japan, of course, didn’t know that.