The Bombing of Nagasaki August 9, 1945: The Untold Story

The Bombing of Nagasaki August 9, 1945: The Untold Story

62 years ago, on August 9th, 1945, the second of the only two atomic bombs (a plutonium bomb) ever used as instruments of aggressive war (against essentially defenseless civilian populations) was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, by an all-Christian bomb crew. The well-trained American soldiers were only "doing their job," and they did it efficiently.

It had been only 3 days since the first bomb, a uranium bomb, had decimated Hiroshima on August 6, with chaos and confusion in Tokyo, where the fascist military government and the Emperor had been searching for months for a way to an honorable end of the war which had exhausted the Japanese to virtually moribund status. (The only obstacle to surrender had been the Truman administration’s insistence on unconditional surrender, which meant that the Emperor Hirohito, whom the Japanese regarded as a deity, would be removed from his figurehead position in Japan – an intolerable demand for the Japanese.)

The Russian army was advancing across Manchuria with the stated aim of entering the war against Japan on August 8, so there was an extra incentive to end the war quickly: the US military command did not want to divide any spoils or share power after Japan sued for peace.

The US bomber command had spared Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kokura from the conventional bombing that had burned to the ground 60+ other major Japanese cities during the first half of 1945. One of the reasons for targeting relatively undamaged cities with these new weapons of mass destruction was scientific: to see what would happen to intact buildings – and their living inhabitants – when atomic weapons were exploded overhead.

Early in the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress called Bock’s Car, took off from Tinian Island, with the prayers and blessings of its Lutheran and Catholic chaplains, and headed for Kokura, the primary target. (Its bomb was code-named "Fat Man," after Winston Churchill.)

The only field test of a nuclear weapon, blasphemously named "Trinity," had occurred just three weeks earlier, on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The molten lavarock that resulted, still found at the site today, is called trinitite.

With instructions to drop the bomb only on visual sighting, Bock’s Car arrived at Kokura, which was clouded over. So after circling three times, looking for a break in the clouds, and using up a tremendous amount of valuable fuel in the process, it headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki.

Nagasaki is famous in the history of Japanese Christianity. Not only was it the site of the largest Christian church in the Orient, St. Mary’s Cathedral, but it also had the largest concentration of baptized Christians in all of Japan. It was the city where the legendary Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, established a mission church in 1549, a Christian community which survived and prospered for several generations. However, soon after Xavier’s planting of Christianity in Japan, Portuguese and Spanish commercial interests began to be accurately perceived by the Japanese rulers as exploitive, and therefore the religion of the Europeans (Christianity) and their new Japanese converts became the target of brutal persecutions.

Within 60 years of the start of Xavier’s mission church, it was a capital crime to be a Christian. The Japanese Christians who refused to recant of their beliefs suffered ostracism, torture and even crucifixions similar to the Roman persecutions in the first three centuries of Christianity. After the reign of terror was over, it appeared to all observers that Japanese Christianity had been stamped out.

However, 250 years later, in the 1850s, after the coercive gunboat diplomacy of Commodore Perry forced open an offshore island for American trade purposes, it was discovered that there were thousands of baptized Christians in Nagasaki, living their faith in a catacomb existence, completely unknown to the government – which immediately started another purge. But because of international pressure, the persecutions were soon stopped, and Nagasaki Christianity came up from the underground. And by 1917, with no help from the government, the Japanese Christian community built the massive St. Mary’s Cathedral, in the Urakami River district of Nagasaki.

Now it turned out, in the mystery of good and evil, that St. Mary’s Cathedral was one of the landmarks that the Bock’s Car bombardier had been briefed on, and looking through his bomb site over Nagasaki that day, he identified the cathedral and ordered the drop.

At 11:02 am, Nagasaki Christianity was boiled, evaporated and carbonized in a scorching, radioactive fireball. The persecuted, vibrant, faithful, surviving center of Japanese Christianity had become ground zero.

And what the Japanese Imperial government could not do in over 200 years of persecution, American Christians did in 9 seconds. The entire worshipping community of Nagasaki was wiped out.

The above true (and unwelcome) story should stimulate discussion among those who claim to be disciples of Jesus. The Catholic chaplain for the 509th Composite Group (the 1500-man Army Air Force group, whose only job was to successfully deliver the atomic bombs to their targets) was Father George Zabelka. Several decades after the war ended, he saw his grave theological error in religiously legitimating the mass slaughter that is modern land and air war. He finally recognized that the enemies of his nation were not the enemies of God, but rather children of God whom God loved, and whom the followers of Jesus are to also love. Father Zabelka’s conversion to Christian nonviolence led him to devote the remaining decades of his life speaking out against violence in all its forms, especially the violence of militarism. The Lutheran chaplain, William Downey, in his counseling of soldiers who had become troubled by their participation in making murder for the state, later denounced all killing, whether by a single bullet or by a weapon of mass destruction.......

by Gary G. Kohls[url=http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/kohls8.html]continue to read[/url]

Thank you for your courage in relating events unknown to many of us.

And what the Japanese Imperial government could not do in over 200 years of persecution, American Christians did in 9 seconds. The entire worshipping community of Nagasaki was wiped out.

"American Christians" dropped the bomb on Nagasaki? That's a loaded statement that misrepresents the terrible and complex history that led up to that event. Apparently whenever the United States is involved in something horrible, it must be those American Christians who are behind it.

Edit: Contrary to fashionable political caricatures, most Americans are not war mongers. Furthermore, American Christians are not the bitter people clinging to guns and religion as they have been portrayed.

We mourned for Nagasaki too. And why post this on 9-11?

Apparently whenever the United States is involved in something horrible, it must be those American Christians who are behind it.

In America, God and country was once synonymous - we were blessed of God and claimed His Name - therefore all that we do, is done in His Name, whether we believe it or not.

That we would name the bomb "Trinity" says much - and causes my heart great sorrow . . .

In America, God and country was once synonymous - we were blessed of God and claimed His Name - therefore all that we do, is done in His Name, whether we believe it or not.

Dear sister,

If I thought that was true, I would renounce America for the name and honor of our Lord. That would mean that anything the CIA does overseas without our knowledge, or some thug dictator running the courts in California without our consent represents the American Church?

America has and is becoming a completely secular state. This is an unproductive line of thought. Many of us are trying to repent, and distance ourselves from the sins of the state, but you guys keep dragging us back in.

I'm not sure exactly why.

MC

We must see our sin before we can repent.

We must see our sin before we can repent.

Fair enough. What is the special sin of the American Christian that other Christians seem to be impervious to. I'm serious, because that seems to be the implication.

It there is a war, then it's the American involvement alone that is singled out. It it's materialism, then it's the American Materialism.

Do not other nations sin?

I say this, because brothers, I've known repentance, mourning, and even shame. But it doesn't matter, because at the end of the day, to people like the author of this article, I am an American Christian. That is all my fellow Christians from other nations know or care to know about me.

Know our sins before we can repent indeed. Our sins are daily headlines, while the sins of others nations are dirty secrets. The truth of the matter is that Christians from other nation won't let me repent. I will never be able to repent of Nagasaki or even slavery or any other national sin, because my brothers and sisters from other nations won't let me. They need someone to be worse then them, so they don't have to deal with their own participation in the sins of their own nations. If not, then why this divisive singling out of only one nation among hundreds?

Paul did not campaign against Rome. Peter did not preach against Caesar. I am only called to be separate from the world, not an active agent for any nations ruin.

We are called to mourn the darkness of the world, not just one nation over and over again.

MC

This story once again proves how little we actually know about Japan.

I checked out the link you provided....I would encouraged all to read that....the writer makes some powerful points.

The writer asks: "And what can we Christians do, starting now, to prevent the next war and the next epidemic of combat-induced post traumatic stress disorder?" To this I would have to say nothing apart from a transformed heart will accomplish this. Jesus promised there will be wars and rumors of wars until he returns. There are a segment of peace churches who feel they can usher in the millennium by their protests against military actions by a civil government. But it has been proven to not work and in fact it has gotten worse, if anything.

Thanks for the post, Christian.

ginnyrose

This is a sad story, but mark what Jesus saitd in

Luke 13 1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

I think it was Art Katz who said that the casualties of the nuclear bombs thrown on Japan were equal to the massacre in Nanking.

My own country Germany has been the instrument of the devil to kill 6 million Jews and millions of other people. The devil can do nothing without God's permission or God's withdrawal of protection.

We equally suffered the devastation of entire cities and and millions of our people died. In my wider family were both aggressors and victims. We were executors and receivers of judgement. I believe war is executed by satanic and angelic forces but still God is in complete control. War appears to be chaotic, but God knows every detail. His judgements are just, impartial, timed, precise, and proportionate. They are in proportion to man's sins or righteousness. God waits with his judgment until the sins of the people have piled up. The Israelites had to wait 430 years in their Egyptian slavery before they were commissioned to anihilate the Canaanites who practised the vilest forms of infanticide and perversion.

If WWII casualities and devastation is in proportion to the sins of the peoples and nation, what about us today?

Before WWII, abortion was not widely practised and it was illegal. Homosexuality, promiscuity, lewedness, frivolity, drug abuse was in outlawed and seen as a sin. In general, moral standards were higher than today in the affected nations.

If the depravity and sinfulness we saw at that time effected the death of 55 million people in the mid 20th century, then how about today? We did not have a war of such a scale for over 60 years.

Another factor that contributes to war is a church that lost its lampstand. She can no longer exercise a redemptive role in the world.
If she is not filled with the Spirit and does not convict the world, man have to die in their sins.

John 16:8
...Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Germany, who once was the breeding ground for the reformation had almost completely lost its witness. We even coined the higher bible criticism, an pseudo-theological school that tried to debunk God's truth. In 1911 the Holy Spirit was banned from churches in the "Berliner Declaration" signed by church leaders in an answer to the Asuza Street revival. WWI started 3 years later.

History should teach us a lesson. I am afraid that much greater judgement awaits us than that what our grandfathers or any generation has ever witnessed, it may be that soon we will see nothing less than the great tribulation. Counterfeit Christianity and false prophets pave the way for the antichrist. The end will come as perdicted and Christ will come back.

Let me end with a word of hope. Much has been given to us, much will be required of us.
Most of us can read. We can travel anywhere in the world and preach the gospel. We have all sorts of media at our disposal to evangelize.
Though few will find the way of truth, there is still a greeeaaat harvest to come in.
We have all the good books and testimonies to fire us on. We have wonderful resources here at SI. We can download some of the most excellent teachings spanning 2000 years of church history on the internet for free. The cloud of witnesses has never been as big as today.

Onwards Christian soldier, time is short

Ephesians 5:14
..."Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

narrowpath

Compton said:

What is the special sin of the American Christian that other Christians seem to be impervious to. . . . The truth of the matter is that Christians from other nation won't let me repent. . . . why this divisive singling out of only one nation among hundreds?

How can we be proud Americans, and at the same time be humble Christians? We continually speak as if we are the exception - that somehow we do not have to follow the rules. On one hand we claim that we are blessed while at the same time we trample upon the poor and innocent. We deserve the wrath that our Father is allowing to be poured upon this country.

Every time that we claim to be an American we embrace that which America does - better to claim that we are Christians and embrace all that He does.

I was in Nagasaki when the anniversary came by. At the morning of the anniversary, everything is quiet except for bells ringing at the exact time of the bombing. I'll never forget the experience. Nagasaki is a beautiful city with a unique scenery reminding me of San Francisco and Hong Kong combined. After the war, there was more interest in Christianity i was told. It was a place many catholic missionaries visited during the 1800's. There's a popular monument where a group of them were martyred.

The problem is our American pride.

What's the word to speak to those who have American shame. Can they also be Christians, or do they have to keep hearing about sins of their nations that are 100, 200 years old.

I ache in my heart for the darkness that surrounds not only Americans but the whole world. On the surface, I smile and make jokes because people can't handle someone who is mournful all the time. Brothers, you have no idea what you are talking about. If only you could live in my wretched heart for a week. Is there pride...I stink of it and am ashamed! But is there wanton boasting in "My country" without sorrow?

You should stop listening to the news and get to know real flesh and blood Christians in this country. Let me introduce you to just one...myself. I risk you looking down your noses, but I do it for the hope of fellowship.

Some exerpts from my morning journal during the past few days...

"9-1 -08 The American Isaiah 10.
How long do we have?
What will you do on the day of visitation?
When the desolation will come from afar?
To who will you turn to help then?
Your heathen countrymen?
Your hated dollar?
Your human wisdom?
Where will you leave your pride?
Where has your glory gone to?"

"8-3-08
Sorrow Hymn

Grant me repentence O Righteous Judge
Flow thou your river of tears into my barrenness.
Help me to rend not just my garment!
Speak to my heart, 'Arise, Repent!"
Grant me repentence, O Righteous Judge.

Give me the Sorrow that leads to life
Let thy word divide bone and marrow as a knife.
Bring thy flame to affections false.
Prove a faith as silver free from dross.
Grant me the sorrow that leads to life.

Grant me a pure heart that sees your face.
For there is none so lovely among Adam's race
You are Heaven's dearest son, the Promised seed.
Yet for my sin have did you willingly bleed
Grant me a pure heart that sees your face.

Grant me a robe of thy righteousness
And to worship the Lamb that made it spotless.
To despise the false humily that defiles
with false grace for sins wantonly piled
Grant me a robe of Christ's Righteousness.

Grant me a dread of Hell's reality.
And to know that sinners are damned with just certainty.
To spit out the sugary self love so vile,
that allows sinners to pass by as I smile.
Grant me a dread of Hell's certainty.

Grant me a death that honors your name.
When this clay crumbles, let nothing in me defame.
If by sickness, or violence cruel and cold
or if in the happy embrace of a loving household.
Grant me a death that honors your name.

Grant me life when I walk death's waters
For I would sink down without your hand O savior.
Speak to my fears as I look out and see,
The Alpha and Omega coming for such as me.
Grant me life when I walk death's waters."

8-5-08 The Fellowship of Mourners

Where is the fellowship of those in holy mourning?
Of those that wait on God trembling at his warnings?

Where true repentance is a gift most precious
the heart kept soft by the oil of God's presence
Who wait by the altar without life's hurry,
Their hearts not haughty or filled with worry

Cast from the world into a wilderness
Yet everywhere bearing fruits of Holiness
In this world they must suffer the darkness
Yet in the light of the Son they find their rest.

They recall their former ways,
hateful passions as cruel chains
But they are no longer sin's slaves,
the government of Christ reigns.

They recall their former shame
but are not cast away,
Their eyes fixed on the Appointed Lamb
With hope they remain pure for the day
Whe proud men fall, but the sons of grace will stand.

Oh soul, if you ever find a family so true
do not become proud in your conceit
For it was for their benefit God chose to pursue
Me to come as a servant to wash their feet.

and this very morning,

Job 42 song

I've heard that you can do whatever
the counsel of your heart conceives.
I've heard that you are without measure
I heard but I did not believe.

Yet now I see you.
Yes now I see you.
You are too wonderful for me to understand
Now that I see you.

I lay in the dust,
I lay in the dust
Dare I question one who is so just?
No, I am but dust.

Look brethren, I feel silly for sharing all of this. But I risk bearing myself, so that you realize I am not the headlines of your newspapers and blogs. We are flesh and blood saints just like you. Please stop labeling me as an American, and reminding me of Nagasaki and slavery. I am just a brother like many who is glad that the engine light in his little car didn't mean he had to miss work today. I can only repent of my own sins, live as circumspectly as I know how, and then leave the world to it's darkness. I cannot repent for the whole world, the wars, the Walmarts, the oil business, the housing business, the abortion mills, the liberal courts. When you put that burden on me it wounds deeper then you could possibly comprehend, because if those things were in my control I would repent by God's grace.

Am I ashamed of America? What a poor question. I ashamed of everything I am without Christ.

I am ashamed of how I must live. I ache everytime I push into a traffic lane going to work, pushing and shoving to catch an exit. I am ashamed that it takes so much money to live when most have nothing. I am ashamed that I didn't live holier in my youth, ashamed of the sins I did, and the ones my country men did. I am ashamed that my shame is useless to the problem of evil. Where is the end of this shame?

Am I alone in my tiny little raft tossing upon the world's ocean of vileness, seasick with it's sinful turbulence? Apparently I am.. for there is few who want to be honest about these things. Certainly the Christians from Europe seem to walk upon solid ground without shame themselves. They cannot imagine what shame is, since they don't live in America. Shame is our unique national calling. If my European brothers could know what shame is themselves, then we could have fellowship as ones who love not the world...but they seem to only share the world's indignation.

Well, I apologize for this indulgence. We can now return to our regularly sheduled program where I make light jokes about France, and you guys post articles reviewing over and over our catalogue of historic sins that I can do nothing about.

MC

Every time that we claim to be an American we embrace that which America does - better to claim that we are Christians and embrace all that He does.

This may not be the best excerpt to launch from but ...

I must concur with MC here and share his bewilderment. The statements are far too broad. In a word, "[i]We[/i]" is quite impossible to apply to what happened then or what an "American Christian" is, believes, practices now ... In the former it is impossible that is could be applied broadly and the later ...

For the sake of narrowing it to just those for instance that travel these corridors, collectively - the outcry is [i]against[/i] that general perception. What might it be to an onlooker in this hour? Abuse and ridicule- Fanciful constructs based on prosperity - The wildness of the recently departed, so called revival still smoldering behind us - "Your Best Life Now". I could be well into a thousand related posts faster than I could link to them.

To make any of this 'representative' is fallacious at best and dishonest at worst.

It is a redundant mention but I will go ahead anyway. It was right here these now 7 years removed that I found myself truly disgusted, repulsed and broken over the state of matters. It was within days of what happened on 9-11 that I attended a ... 'service' to mourn and pray over the events of that incredible day. And I did mourn, profoundly for awhile, that is until they decided that "The Lord" told them they should now go on with the regularly scheduled programming to put it purposefully and decidedly sarcastic. That was to pick up where they left off; "Teaching" how to speak in tongues, with a gathering of babblers instructed to 'let yourself go' and so they did, with no interpretation even suggested nor offered and so it went on, a half hour of mourning and the rest ... I cannot finish it. It was the turning point and I never returned again to that church and pretty well left the 'church' for good not shortly there after.

I am not so upset at this proposition as it is stated and certainly not at anyone here, but there is a sense of injustice, a sense of stereotyping that I cannot fathom. It could be rightly pointed out that by categorizing "American Christianity" in the terms I have used is one and the same thing, but even it is not equally representative, what might be said of us, collectively from all the various nations we are from? We do not term anyone as "German Christians" or "Ethiopian Christians" and tie their nations activities to them. If we use them at all it might denote demographically but beyond that ...

This is far too multifaceted to tie down. We have idiots and I cannot think of a better word to use, that can speak for themselves and twist the scriptures to their own destruction as they always have and always will. That can never speak for everyone or for any nation even [i]For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel[/i] Rom 9:6

I see no need to even broach the subject matter of such a horrific thing and I also cannot fathom having to repent for that which I had no collective or even abstract part of. That doesn't make anyone proud, I am more inclined to use the word "[i]we[/i]" as Daniel did for those things that he mourned and repented of in that mighty prayer in chapter 9. There is something different collectively about sin and that depravity that invades [i]all[/i] men and that which is put upon from the outside, by mere men making accessories to a crime that they cannot be held accountable for.

MC, I posted this response before seeing you had ... I just caught a glimpse that we both used the same terminology of "regularly scheduled programming" ... A strange irony, but had to mention it.

MC,

If I may abuse the term, I thank God you are my American Christian brother. It would be the same thing if you were my Pakistani brother ...

No you are not alone at all brother. I have probably used a variety of terms over the years here and crying on the inside is the closest thing I can give to an expression, that it is like an undercurrent that never stops flowing, it's always in motion. But I also must break off somehow into some levity at times and recognize that we can take ourselves far too seriously - It doesn't change anything one iota ...

Just as well I have this continual observation that the world, the worlds reality has a great gloss over it- This morning it was 'masked', it means the same thing. Still I cannot break off from this incredible dichotomy of leaving the prayer closet in the morning getting into my truck (and praying the starter will crank one more time before I get a chance to replace it) and head out into this ... fog. I go about my day as if I was an entirely different person then the one screaming to get out from the inside. I ponder and wonder at the seeming hypocrisy of it all, of myself. Am I just a hypocrite? By the time the day rolls on to completion it seems it is full of regrets and shame just over the thought life, the things that didn't even get past the lips, just that I thought of them and maybe put or pushed into the right circumstances ... would I? I think to myself 'If I was just in some kind of full time ministry - If I could just go back to the days of pumping endless sermons through a Walkman while I worked' (Blessed days they were!). I am finding this life tortuous to live in this present world, it is of it's own distraction, God is not in it's thoughts, it's ways or of it's remotest considerations. It just goes on as if the day of death is always someone else's problem and consideration, always far removed from the business at hand. What is stranger still is, at least in my circumstances the people are not overtly 'heathen' if I could define that loosely. They and I are for the most part plugging away at a living, they are cordial and kind, no vulgar language (Short of some meetings) - Just a common lot. It's enjoyable on that level, challenging things we all face, most are hardworking.

But I am not of this world. It's not something said as it is [i]felt[/i], I do not belong to it because I "shouldn't" but because I am constituted against it, I hate every false way and not any more than I hate that false way that is [i]my way[/i]. It's an unending battle and I have settled that but it gets weary still.

Most nights it's difficult to come to the Lord and bemoan the same things - I have failed - I will trust you Lord- I will ask for wisdom and I know You will give it - Then the morning starts again, I head out the same way and ... Distracted. Busy. Responsibilities. Things to fix and things to take care of, setup, mitigate, figure out, plan for.

Problems at home. Problems here. Care for the Brethren ... everywhere, there is no end of things to pray for, so much so that it can be overwhelming. I watched a very interesting bit on the old idiot box last night; Did you know they have a "Homeless World Cup?" It was incredible, I wish I had caught it from the beginning. Homeless men from practically every nation competing in a street style soccer competition (football to our European friends)- Drug addicts from Ireland - The USA had a representation - They did spot stories on different teams from different nations and I found myself drawn and pulling for the Russians. If I got it right they have 5 million homeless, a staggering number. The gentleman they were speaking with talked of how for them, they had to win it all. They had to win to get any kind of recognition for their plight. Homelessness there is taboo. It was in his speech and his demeanor what this all meant and was really struck by his answer to a simple question; "Who is the best player on your team?" To which he answered; "The best player on our team is the team." They went on to win it all going undefeated and I praised God for it, yet for all this ... Do they yet know the Lord?

And the undercurrent comes rising up a few more levels.

God bless you MC, for all that you shared of yourself. Christian you are beloved indeed and I am assured of your heart, certainly the benefit of whatever doubt for the posting of this, (and that is neither here nor there) look forward to your response dear brother.