A-BOMB

  • JAPAN TARGETED FOR STARVATION

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Tinian, Mariana Islands · March 27, 1945 An island nation, Japan was vul­ner­able to a block­ade of essen­tial food and stra­tegic mate­rials. On this date in 1945 the U.S. Army Air Forces and the U.S. Navy, hoping to put the final nail in the enemy’s cof­fin, kicked off Oper­a­tion Star­va­tion, the aerial mining of Japa­nese…

  • JAPANESE CAPITAL FIREBOMBED

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Tokyo, Japan · February 24, 1945 The first appearance over Japan in June 1944 of the massive four-engine B‑29 bomber—with its service ceiling of 33,000 ft, an operational range of over 3,200 nau­tical miles, and a maxi­mum take­off weight of 133,500 lb—meant that the enemy’s home islands were squarely in the cross­hairs of the war’s dead­liest delivery sys­tem….