Nagasaki news stories on Newser

Nagasaki Marks 65th Anniversary

Polly Davis Doig — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:50:20 CDT

Bells tolled today as Nagasaki marked 65 years since the last time a nuclear weapon was dropped on a civilian population, reports the BBC, an attack that killed 70,000, leveled an entire city, and ultimately ended the last world war within a week. Though the US ambassador to Japan...

Japan Should Apologize for Hiroshima

Kevin Spak — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:03:42 CDT

Japan will commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing today, and for the first time, the US ambassador to Japan will be present. The son of the man who dropped the first atomic bomb called that gesture “an unsaid apology” from the Obama administration. But it’s not the US...

Japanese Man, 93, Survived Both A-Bombs

Matt Cantor — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:18:38 CDT

At 93, a Japanese man has become the first certified survivor of both atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the AP reports. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business Aug. 6, 1945, when the US bombed the city; after a night there, he returned home to Nagasaki, bombed Aug. 9....

Nagasaki Mayor's Killer Confesses

Nick McMaster — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:54:19 CST

The Japanese man accused of killing the mayor of Nagasaki last April has admitted to the crime, the BBC reports. "I apologize to Mayor Iccho Ito and his family from the bottom of my heart," Tetsuya Shiroo said today on the first day of his trial. An alleged gangster, Shiroo...

Tree That Survived A-Bomb Sees 70th Christmas

Rob Quinn — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:10:00 CST

A Japanese soldier's Christmas tree has stayed with his family through dark times, and even survived the atomic bomb that killed his brother in Nagasaki. This year marks the 70th Christmas that Warren Nobuaki Iwatake has put up the fragile, three-foot tree, which he calls "a shining light, because it...

Hiroshima Bomb Pilot Dead at 92

Nick McMaster — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:19:25 CDT

The commander and pilot of the B-29 that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945—the first military use of nuclear weapons—died today, the Associated Press reports. Paul Tibbets was 92, and requested no funeral or headstone for fear that they might attract anti-nuclear protesters. Tibbets always...

Japanese Pol Resigns Over A-Bomb Gaffe

Sam Gale Rosen — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:08:46 CDT

Japan's defense minister has resigned in a storm of protest over remarks he made last weekend that the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified. Fumio Kyuma said he understood the US decision to drop the bombs, and that "it couldn't be helped." He also suggested that the abrupt...

Mobster Guns Down Nagasaki Mayor

Sam Gale Rosen — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:36:28 CDT

The mayor of Nagasaki was murdered yesterday by a gangster affiliated with Japan's largest organized-crime syndicate. The assassin, who shot Iccho Ito twice in the back, reportedly was steamed that the city refused to pay for damages to his car after he drove it into a hole at a construction...