Nagasaki's Turn

THU 9 AUG 1945
Pacific
USAAF B-29 "Bock's Car" (509th Composite Group) drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Kyushu; USN Commander Frederick W. Ashworth is the weaponeer on this mission. In the nuclear devastation unleashed upon that Japanese port city, merchant tanker Tsuruoka Maru is damaged.

USN carrier-based aircraft from TF 38 carriers (Admiral William F. Halsey Jr.) pound Japanese shipping and airfields, ranging from northern Honshu and Hokkaido to the coast of Korea, sinking auxiliary submarine chasers Shintohoku Maru and 2 Kongo Maru and 6 Takunan Maru, minesweepers W.1 and W.33, and fleet tanker Juko Maru, and merchant cargo ship No.36 Banshu Maru off Hamada, 39°30'N, 142°04'E. USN (TF 38) and British carrier aircraft (TF 37) sink escort vessels Amakusa and Inagi off Onagawa.

Off Honshu, retaliatory air strikes by Japanese planes result in friendly fire damage to destroyer John W. Weeks (DD-701), 35°00'N, 143°00'E; kamikaze damages destroyer Borie (DD-704) at 37°21'N, 143°45'E.

TU 12.5.6--battleship New Jersey (BB-62), light cruiser Biloxi (CL-80) and four destroyers--bombards Wake Island while en route from Pearl Harbor to Eniwetok.

TU 34.8.1, battleships and cruisers (Rear Admiral John F. Shafroth) shells industrial targets at Kamaishi, Honshu. Two British light cruisers participate in the bombardment as well.

Soviet forces enter Korea. Russian planes sink Japanese Coast Defense Vessel No.82 north of Joshin, Korea, 41°21'N, 131°12'E, and merchant vessels Kasado Maru and No.2 Ryuho Maru off Kamchatka, Sea of Okhotsk.

Submarine Hawkbill (SS-366) shells Tambelan Island 230 miles east of Singapore, destroying Japanese radio station.

Destroyer escort Johnnie Hutchins (DE-360), carrying out an antisubmarine sweep on the convoy route between Leyte and Okinawa, sinks what may have been kaitens launched by I 58, known to have been in the area at that time.

USAAF B-25s on antishipping sweeps against Japanese shipping traffic off the coast of Korea sink auxiliary submarine chaser No.63 Hino Maru west of Koje-do, merchant cargo ship No.7 Yamabishi Maru off Tsushima, 35°09'N, 129°30'E, and army cargo ship Daito Maru, 15 miles off Chongjin, Korea.

Japanese merchant cargo ship Izu Maru is sunk by aircraft, Shiogama harbor.

Japanese merchant cargo ship No.7 Yamanami Maru is sunk by U.S. aircraft, 25°15'N, 138°44'E.

Japanese merchant cargo ship Kagoshima Maru and [type unspecified] Toyoshima Maru are sunk by aircraft off Pusan, Korea.

Japanese merchant cargo ship Senko Maru is sunk by aircraft off Chongjin, Korea, Tensho Maru is damaged.

Japanese merchant cargo ship No.2 Ryuho Maru is sunk by aircraft off Utka.

Japanese merchant cargo ships Edamitsu Maru and Sotsu Go, tanker Empo Maru are sunk by aircraft off Najin, Korea. Japanese merchant cargo ship Rakusan Maru is damaged by aircraft.

Japanese merchant cargo ship No.6 Banshu Maru is damaged by aircraft off Hamada, Japan.

Japanese destroyer Yanagi and minelayer Tokiwa are damaged by aircraft, Ominato, Japan.

Japanese escort vessel Yashiro and Coast Defense Vessel No.87, and army cargo ship Ryuwa Maru, and merchant cargo ship Meiyu Maru are damaged by aircraft off Unggi, Korea.

USAAF B-25s (5th Air Force) damage Japanese fast transport T.21 off Tsuwa Jima, 33°59'N, 132°31'E. Although T.21 is run aground to permit salvage, she never returns to active service (see 10 August).

Japanese transport Choun Maru is damaged by aircraft, location unspecified.

Mines damage Japanese merchant cargo ships Enoshima Maru in Oguchi channel, Nanao; Genyo Maru, 35°51'N, 131°15'E; Shinri Go, 34°06'N, 131°19'E; and damage merchant vessel Okita Maru near Sumoto.