August 9, three days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second bomb was slated to be dropped on the city of Kokura on the island of Kyushu. The main target was the Nippon Steel factory, a fulcrum of the Japanese war effort. Kokura had a large military presence, but there was a huge civilian population too. The factory was located by the sea at the head of the Onga River, hemmed in by mountains. The plane, the Bockscar, took off from Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands and flew towards Kyushu, accompanied by another B-29, The Great
