The American invasion of the Marianas forced the Japanese out of hiding.The American and Japanese Navies fought in what became known as the "Battle of the Philippine Sea". The Americans shot down 402 planes, 26 American planes were downed. This became known as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot".
The Capture of Saipan and Tinian were not the end of the campaign in the Marianas. The battle for Guam continued. Guam was secured by August 10,1944.
Securing these Islands, in the Marianas, was strategic, in that it gave the US a base in the Pacific to land their B-29s.
Daily bombings devastated industrial and urban areas in Japan.
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| This is the staging and loading area of "Little boy" |
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| This is the loading and staging vault of the second atom bomb "Fatman" |
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| Replica of "Fatman" |
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| Replica of "Little Boy" |
The first bomb was nicknamed "little boy" it was assembled in an air conditioned hut on North Field (Tinian). It had a uranium heart. On August 1, 1945. Little boy was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th. The bomb destroyed 4.7 miles of Hiroshima. 71,347 people were dead or missing and 68,023 were injured.
President Truman asked the Japanese to surrender. 16 millions pamphlets were printed and dropped on Japan. This pamphlet warned the people that the US had more atom bombs and urged the people to plead with the Japanese government to surrender to avoid more devastation to Japan. Emperor Hirohito did not heed the warning.
The second atom bomb "Fatman" (which had a platonium heart) was dropped on Nagaski on August 9th. The bomb killed 35,000 people, 5000 were missing and 60,000 were injured. Japan surrendered on August 10, 1945. { Sidenote: Two more atom bombs had already been delivered to Tinian and were scheduled to be dropped August 13 & 15}
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| To the Americans arriving on Tinian, the islands was shaped similar to New York City's Manhattan Island. They engineered the streets and street names after those in Manhattan. |
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| A photo of Northfield from the air |
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| Northfield, Tinian |
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| Tinian had the world's largest airbase. With 6, 8500 foot runways. Four at Northfield and 2 at West field. *info for this post was taken from History of the Northern Mariana Island, by Don A. Ferrall |
This post made me cry! I knew that the atomic bombs were devastating, but it Hit me today how tens of thousands of lives were destroyed! It is beyond comprehension that they dropped a second bomb after seeing how much was destroyed after the first bomb hit! Also, how is it that the Japanese could have forgiven us for doing it? Mind boggling!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, the numbers are staggering.
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