nuclear-news

While from a military strategic perspective, bombing the Mitsubishi works in Nagasaki made sense, it seems clear that use of a Nuclear bomb was unnecessary. General Eisenhower, later US President, called it unnecessary: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower Firebombings of cities were also terrible, but lacked the long-lived nature of the atomic bombs: Radioactive “black rain” from the Nagasaki bomb fell into the Nishiyama reservoir near the city and plutonium still remains.

“Ground view of Nagasaki before and after the bombing; 1,000 foot circles are shown. (Photo from U.S. National Archives, RG 77-MDH)” http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/

“Nagasaki was an industrial center and major port on the western coast of Kyushu… A small conventional raid on Nagasaki on August 1st had resulted in a partial evacuation of the city, especially of school children. There were still almost 200,000 people in the city below the bomb when it exploded. The hurriedly-targeted weapon ended up detonating…