# Did the Japanese realise what hit Hiroshima + misc. questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142 "2015-08-06T09:25:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/21 "2015-08-06T20:21:48Z")
He’s right - though the type of parachute I was thinking of is pretty much only to orient the bomb, it wouldn’t appreciably slow it down. Here’s what I could finally find about it: > [@](#): > > No parachute, it was a barometric fuse. The parachute spotted by some survivors on the ground was a live telemetry sensor package dropped by the lead aircraft. The actual bomb itself Little Boy had a box shaped fin which acted like an air brake loosely termed the “California Parachute” but it was not a real parachute: rather an air brake to reduce terminal velocity. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/22 "2015-08-06T20:31:58Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb … It is an awful responsibility which has come to us … We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and **we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.** > —President Harry S. Truman, August 9, 1945 ‘And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O LORD, bless this Thy hand grenade that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy.’ ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/23 "2015-08-06T21:11:11Z")
> [@dr\_zippermeyer](#): > > If you get hit by a nuke that goes off let us say 100 meters away from you, do you have time to realise something is happening or is the death imminent? Your nerve endings and your brain’s ability to process the information they send you isn’t that fast. Your brain will have ceased to exist before your nerves can send information to it. Your nerve impulses are remarkably fast, but they aren’t THAT fast. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/24 "2015-08-06T21:55:38Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Your nerve endings and your brain’s ability to process the information they send you isn’t that fast. Your brain will have ceased to exist before your nerves can send information to it. > > Your nerve impulses are remarkably fast, but they aren’t THAT fast. A perhaps poor analogy would be a car air bag. I’ve been hit by one before - and you don’t have time to realize what happened. There is no fear or anything else. If the airbag was nuclear - and vaporized me - I think I wouldn’t have felt anything. The only reason I felt pain was cause I was still alive after it had already deployed (and deflated). Other people who’ve been hit by one tell a similar story. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/25 "2015-08-06T22:17:35Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I will also second “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” by Rhodes. It gives a very complete history of the entire run up and events. Third it. I just got finished reading it. It’s very comprehensive and detailed. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/26 "2015-08-06T22:54:16Z")
Tons of great nuke info here: [http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/](http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/) But I’m far too lazy to find and link to a specific article. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/27 "2015-08-06T23:02:44Z")
> [@dr\_zippermeyer](#): > > Oh and one more question. Americans did earlier Trinity test, the first atomic explosion in history. They allowed newspaper to report about it as a ammo storage accident. Newspaper also told how far away the explosion was seen, thus giving a hint of its yield. Did Japanese intelligence has access to American newspapers? Could they in theory have made a right conclusion? Not that it would have changed anything… _109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos_, by Jennet Conant is a detailed account of the everyday lives of people there. She says that a sufficient number of people understood what was about to happen that they sat out all night on high ridges around Los Alamos to catch a glimpse, which they did despite the poor conditions. The papers reported the government’s press releases about the “storage” accident. It’s pretty clear that what was handed out wouldn’t have been enough to guess it if you hadn’t been an insider insider. Nobody in Santa Fe seemed to have guessed and they had to have seen the activity build over two years. The amount of secrecy around the project was phenomenal and worked completely. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/28 "2015-08-06T23:08:58Z")
How far was the Trinity test site from Los Alamos? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/29 "2015-08-06T23:29:14Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > How far was the Trinity test site from Los Alamos? 220 miles, by highway. Maybe 180 straight-line. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/30 "2015-08-06T23:35:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The amount of secrecy around the project was phenomenal and worked completely. Except that Klaus Fuchs was spying for the Russians. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/31 "2015-08-06T23:40:25Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > If this [_Cracked.com_ article](http://www.cracked.com/article_22714_5-true-wwii-stories-too-insane-history-books_p2.html) is to be believed, some of the uranium we used on the Japanese was captured from a German U-boat on its way to Japan, to be used to make dirty bombs launched from Japanese subs… [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com)’s article isn’t that well researched. There was no Nazi “Arctic Plutonium Factory”. It probably was referencing the Norsk Hydro plant in Norway (maker’s of Europe’s finest heavy water in WWII). AFAIK, the Nazi scientist never isolated nor identified the element plutonium, much less make a enough to use as a dirty weapon. The only parachutes deployed during the atomic bombings of Japan were the instrument packages which were dropped approximately at the same time as the weapons. They were used to relay (by radio) the measured blast pressures (and indirectly the amount of energy released by the weapons). Per **thirdname** ’s response to **Exapno Mapcase** : [Theodore Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Hall) was the second known Soviet spy working at Los Alamos ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/32 "2015-08-06T23:45:42Z")
I think it was one of my old history profs who said known Japanese agents who thought they were being sneaky viewed the Alamagordo test from afar, but the US authorities knew about it. Supposedly the authorities were hoping said agents would inform the Japanese government about the test, and the Japanese government would then roll over. But I’ve never heard of this since. Anyone else ever hear of this? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/33 "2015-08-07T00:50:00Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Except that Klaus Fuchs was spying for the Russians. > [@user\_hostile](#): > > [Theodore Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Hall) was the second known Soviet spy working at Los Alamos I’d say both of them qualify as insider insiders. They are qualitatively different from learning about the bomb from the outside. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/34 "2015-08-07T01:28:44Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I think it was one of my old history profs who said known Japanese agents who thought they were being sneaky viewed the Alamagordo test from afar, but the US authorities knew about it. Supposedly the authorities were hoping said agents would inform the Japanese government about the test, and the Japanese government would then roll over. But I’ve never heard of this since. Anyone else ever hear of this? I’ve not heard of it. My cite is lacking but I recall the crews trained out of Wendover, Utah as part of the 509th Composite Group before heading out to the Pacific. AFAIK, Japanese intelligence never did figure out what the purpose of the 509th was up to, and by inference suggests to me that the Trinity Shot would have been seen just as an ammo explosion ([a damn big one](https://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Wellerstein-Trinity1-690.jpg)). I can’t answer your question definitively, but I can’t recall the Japanese were even aware of our nuclear weapons program until Hiroshima. Outside of the British, only the Soviets really had any real, if illicit obtained, understanding of what the US was attempting to do. And when the first bomb was dropped, it still surprised (and depressed for a night or so) Stalin who recovered and ordered his forces to ramp up the attack of the Japanese Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/35 "2015-08-07T03:04:12Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I think it was one of my old history profs who said known Japanese agents who thought they were being sneaky viewed the Alamagordo test from afar, but the US authorities knew about it. Supposedly the authorities were hoping said agents would inform the Japanese government about the test, and the Japanese government would then roll over. But I’ve never heard of this since. Anyone else ever hear of this? > [@user\_hostile](#): > > I’ve not heard of it. My cite is lacking but I recall the crews trained out of Wendover, Utah as part of the 509th Composite Group before heading out to the Pacific. AFAIK, Japanese intelligence never did figure out what the purpose of the 509th was up to, and by inference suggests to me that the Trinity Shot would have been seen just as an ammo explosion ([a damn big one](https://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Wellerstein-Trinity1-690.jpg)). > > I can’t answer your question definitively, but I can’t recall the Japanese were even aware of our nuclear weapons program until Hiroshima. Outside of the British, only the Soviets really had any real, if illicit obtained, understanding of what the US was attempting to do. And when the first bomb was dropped, it still surprised (and depressed for a night or so) Stalin who recovered and ordered his forces to ramp up the attack of the Japanese Empire. I’m highly doubtful it’s true, but it’s one of those things that have stuck with me over the years. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/36 "2015-08-08T22:51:04Z")
Bockscar is in the AF museum in Dayton, and a member of my club was the regular co-pilot on the Nagasaki run. We got a full tour. It was cramped and just a normal B-29–it had no ghosts nor a memory of its role in History. I mean, that’s expected, but it was a bit anti-climactic. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/37 "2015-08-09T00:38:03Z")
Years ago I read a Playboy interview with then president and co-founder of Sony, Akio Morita. During WWII he was assigned to R&D for advanced weapons for the military. Among many projects he & his team investigated were nuclear weapons, but they knew they didn’t have the resources to build one for at least a decade. A lot of his research went into trying to develop a ‘death ray’ to shoot down aircraft. Anyway, he said that when Hiroshima happened they quickly knew that it was an atomic bomb, they were simply shocked that the Americans had been able to build one so quickly. Even in the speech that the Japanese emperor recorded announcing the war’s end to his people he made mention that the enemy had begun using a _‘terrible new weapon’_… ---
**Author:** ![dr\_zippermeyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dr\_zippermeyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dr_zippermeyer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/38 "2015-08-09T13:44:51Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > I imagine a parachute would entail too much drift. That´s a fair point. Probably that´s why they didn´t use parachutes. Bombers still had enough time to escape but just barely. I remember reading Bockscar only narrowly missed a mushroom cloud and Enola Gay was hit so hard by shockwave that both pilots instinctively shouted “flak!”. ---
**Author:** ![dr\_zippermeyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dr\_zippermeyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dr_zippermeyer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/39 "2015-08-09T13:50:44Z")
> [@campp](#): > > My uncle was a young boy in New Mexico during the Trinity blast, and says he saw the flash and a later boom while out delivering papers. He went home and told his dad he thought a gas station must have blown up somewhere out there. He was one of the few witnessing the dawn of a completely new era then. I wonder who happened to be closest to the explosion by accident. Maybe some farmer or hunter? Must have been scary sight, even though they couldn´t have been really close. ---
**Author:** ![dr\_zippermeyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dr\_zippermeyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dr_zippermeyer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142/40 "2015-08-09T13:53:31Z")
And thank you for other answers as well. I still would really like to know what happened to the recorder and how other crews experienced the mission. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-japanese-realise-what-hit-hiroshima-misc-questions/727142.md?page=3)