Castelo de kokura
The tragic destination of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was forever recorded in the memory of humanity. A third city, Kokura, escaped the equal destination for a meteorology casuality – and fortunately was just a footnote in the history books.
The Industrial City of Recurrently integrated in Kitakyushu, northern Japan, owes its survival to an unlikely Salvador: the cloudy.
During World War II, the hidden weather prevented the city from being the target of the Second atomic bombwhich ended, on August 9, 1945.
Initially, Hiroshima had been chosen as the main target for the first atomic bomb Due to its importance Strategic, being the headquarters of the Japanese Imperial Army headquarters and a vital port.
The launch of the second bomb was scheduled for August 11, targeting the Archenal de Kokuraan important center of conventional and chemical weapons production. However, the forecast of storms led the military strategies to anticipate the mission for August 9.
On the morning of that day, when Bockscarthe B-52 Superfortaleza of the United States Air Force, which was carrying the bomb, arrived in Kokura, the target was Fully covered by clouds.
The meteorological recognition plane Inola gay had reported clean sky, but the conditions had been deterioratedpossibly due to the smoke resulting from the bombing of the previous night over Yahata, an important nearby steel center.
According to, some versions suggest that the steel workers have purposely burned out tarm to generate a thick black smoke, hiding the city of American bombers.
Fulfilling strict orders that required visual confirmation of the target, the bockscar crew Founded Kokura three timeswith the doors of the bombs compartment, waiting for a breach in the clouds.
With the scarcethen went to the secondary target: Nagasaki. Unlike Kokura, the cloud coverage over Nagasaki dissipated at the crucial moment and, At 10:58 am, the atomic bomb was dropped About the city.
Today, Kokura is a living monument by chance and circumstances. The Mojiko Bairro Retro displays the prosperity that the city had before the war, with its western buildings in the late nineteenth -century dated brick and currently converted in art galleries and cultural spaces.
The former Customs of Moji and the old Osaka Shosen building, with its distinct octagonal tower of 1919, represent the Historical wealth of the area.
The former Moji Mitsui club exemplifies European elegance of the 1920s and even hosted illustrious guests such as Albert Einstein and writer Fumiko Hayashi. The Dalian Friendship Memorial Building marks the old commercial routes between Porto and the Asian Continent.
O Casteloo de Kokura, Originally destroyed by samurai conflicts in 1866 and rebuilt in 1959, it stands close to the old arsenal site. Currently, Katsuyama Park occupies this space, housing a moving memorial: a bell recovered from the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, destroyed in the zero zone of the explosion.
Every year, on August 9, a memorial ceremony is held here, and in 2022 a Peace Museum was inaugurated.
And the Japanese expression Kokura no un ga aru (“The luck of kokura”) entered the vocabulary to describe a avoided tragedy without being aware of the imminent danger.
