When officials from the Manhattan Project
and the United States Army Air Forces were looking for a base for a planned atomic bomb
attack on Japan, they decided to look amongst the Mariana Island group. Eventually, they settled on Tinian, an island
in the Pacific coincidently shaped just like Manhattan. Tinian, once under the control of Spain and
Japan, was the place where the atomic bombs were assembled and from where the B-29 Superfortress
bombers departed towards Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The island was positioned strategically close
to mainland Japan, as the round trip was only 3,000 miles long. Thanks to the diligent work of the Navy’s
Seabees Construction Battalions, it also had multiple runways. It became the base of the 509th Composite
Group, responsible for delivering the atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man. 0 But before Tinian could be used as an atomic
staging area, the parts to assemble the devices had to get there first. The task was left to the USS Indianapolis,
a heavy-cruiser sent on a top-secret mission to deliver the enriched uranium and other
parts that would belong to Little Boy. It would be a mission fraught with peril,
as Japanese submarines still stalked the surrounding seas... The Miracle Island Tinian, located 1,500 miles from mainland
Japan, is one of the three main islands belonging to the Mariana Islands. Its history has been one of conflict since
its first sighting by famous explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Spain, the United States, and Germany controlled
the territory during different centuries until it was captured by Japan in 1918 as part of
the South Seas Mandate. In the following decades, Japan introduced
sugar plantations, a dried tuna processing plant, and other infrastructure development. The island was inhabited by 20,000 Japanese
and Korean natives, as well as by a few remaining ethnic Chamorros. During World War II, Tinian attracted little
attention until the United States realized it would prove strategically beneficial as
a base for its Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers. And so the U.S Navy came up with Operation
Granite II, which plotted the Allied invasion and occupation of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. The island was defended by the 50th Infantry
Regiment of the Japanese Army when, on July 16, 1944, the Allies began their operation. The Battle of Tinian, as it came to be known,
lasted until August 10. Over 4,000 Japanese inhabitants and 328 Marines
were lost in the combat. According to interviews by author Bruce Petty,
the people left on the island [QUOTE]: “Didn’t have to farm or do work of any kind for the
first two years because the military left entire warehouses full of everything imaginable
from food, brand new uniforms, and even ice cream makers. Anybody who wanted a vehicle could just go
pick one up and drive it until it fell apart, then go get another one.” Immediately after the island’s capture,
the United States turned the location into one of the largest air bases of the war. The construction was placed in the hands of
the SeaBees, a group of Navy volunteers responsible for paving roads and erecting buildings. The shape of the island reminded military
planners of another one, located in America. The SeaBees constructed a base built that
resemble the street patterns of Manhattan, New York, and shared the same street names. The island even had a Central Park, which
was a square that harbored the hospitals. In only two months, the SeaBees also created
six runways. The North Field of Tinian had three small
airstrips built by the Japanese, which were useless for bomber operations. To accommodate the 313th Bombardment Wing,
with its Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers, the North Field was given four new runways. Philip Morrison, one of the assemblers of
the atomic bomb, said of the island [QUOTE]: “Tinian is a miracle. Here, 6,000 miles from San Francisco, the
United States armed forces have built the largest airport in the world.” The Two Manhattans Thanks to its strategic location, Tinian became
one of the primary operational bases from which the U.S bombers took off to attack mainland
Japan, the Philippines, and Okinawa. The roundtrip to Japan was around 3,000 miles
and required the airplanes to take off with extra fuel. In December 1944, the United States Army Air
Forces chose the Mariana Islands as a base for the planned atomic attack on Japan. Commander Frederick Ashworth took a tour of
Tinian and was intrigued by the airfields and its convenient distance from Japan. In February of 1945, Tinian was selected as
the official base for the operation. Around 100 people were sent to the island,
including physicist Norman Ramsey, a scientific and technical deputy who was still wrapping
up the details on how the bomb would work. In preparation for the nuclear strike, the
United States Army Air Forces created the 509th Composite Group, whose squadrons operated
with Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers and transport aircraft. The composite was activated on December 17,
1944, at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah. In April of 1945, the composite started practicing
for the attack with a series of test drops using concrete dummy bombs over Utah. The trip to the island, in June of 1945, was
then completed with extreme security measures. No one outside the 509th was allowed to inspect
the aircraft or materials sent to Tinian. Some stories claim that, on two occasions,
personnel of the composite actually drew their guns against commander generals who tried
to inspect a B-29 and a plutonium core being shipped to the island. Practically all of the composite’s 225 officers
and 1,542 enlisted men were sent to Tinian. The group flew 51 combat missions in Japan
to drop pumpkin bombs against 14 targets. These were ballistic simulators closely resembling
the Fat Man nuclear bomb, but that contained conventional explosives. The pumpkins bombs were designed for the group
to practice nuclear strikes over Japan. USS Indianapolis The USS Indianapolis had operated as President
Franklin Roosevelt’s ship of state, and as the flagship for the commander of Scouting
Force 1 and Admiral Raymond Spruance. The decorated ship had even participated in
the Battle of Tinian. On March 31, 1945, a Japanese single-engine
plane dropped a bomb before trying to crash into the ship. The Indianapolis survived the kamikaze attack
but had to undergo repairs in San Francisco after the bomb exploded under it. In mid-July, the Portland class heavy cruiser
was assigned a new secret mission: a high-speed delivery to Tinian. The Navy personnel abroad didn’t know that,
inside the wooden crate located in the hangar of the Indianapolis, was enriched uranium
and part of the nuclear bomb “Little Boy.” The warship left for the island on July 16
and arrived 10 days later, setting a speed record in the process. After the delivery, it stopped in Guam to
receive instructions for its next missions. Captain Charles B. McVay III, commander of
the Indianapolis, was worried. Half of the crew was new after the attack
in Okinawa, and hadn’t undergone the planned training because of the haste to get to Tinian. Once they reached Leyte, in the Philippines,
the crew was supposed to restart the training. However, on its way to its destination, the
warship crossed the path of Japanese submarine I-58. The Indianapolis was traveling at night, unescorted
and with poor visibility. Meanwhile, the submarine had managed to stay
undetected and was only about a mile away off of the ship’s starboard side. With a clear view of the Indianapolis in its
periscope, the submarine fired six torpedoes in a matter of 18 minutes. Two managed to hit the target, severely damaging
the ship, which started to heavily list. For the first few minutes, Captain McVay avoided
issuing an “abandon ship” order since it was only listing three degrees and had
survived similar damage during the kamikaze attack at Okinawa. In the next 12 minutes, though, the warship
listed 90 degrees. It rolled over, its stern rose in the air,
and it sank. Few survivors managed to escape in rafts,
and a distress signal never left the Indianapolis. Eight hundred seamen were left adrift, some
without life jackets. In the following days, they were left to face
starvation, hypothermia, shark attacks, and exposure to the elements. By chance, other American ships came across
survivors two days later. Only 316 seamen survived the attack, turning
it into the Navy’s worst tragedy at sea. Little Boy and Fat Man As part of Project Alberta, the assembly of
the atomic bombs took place in Tinian. The Little Boy nuclear bomb was scheduled
to be ready by August 1, 1945, while Fat Man had to be ready soon after. Four prototype assemblies of Little Boy were
dropped during test bombings. The last one, L-6, was used in rehearsals
at Iwo Jima and dropped near Tinian by the B-29 Enola Gay. This assembly was chosen to be used for the
Hiroshima bomb. On July 25, General Thomas T. Handy, the acting
Chief of Staff of the United States Army, issued the orders for the attack. Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki were
established as targets, to be attacked as soon as the weather allied after August 3. Before the bombing, it was considered to evacuate
Tinian in case one of the bombers crashed on the runway, as it had already happened
to four B-29’s in the space of a week. Instead, it was decided that the bombs would
be armed in flight. At 2:45 am on August 6, 1945, Enola Gay took
off from the runway at the North Field of Tinian. Crew members experienced a tense takeoff roll
inside the bomber, which had to accelerate longer than usual and use all of the runway
due to its heavy load. The B-29 was accompanied by the instrumentation
plane The Great Artiste. At 8:15, Enola Gay dropped the first atomic
bomb over Hiroshima. Fat Man was supposed to be ready by August
11, but concerns over poor weather sped up the process. On August 9, the B-29 Bockscar took off from
Tinian, joined by The Great Artiste and the observation plane Big Stink. Although the original target was the city
of Yakushima, cloud cover was over 70%. The group diverted to Nagasaki, and the bomb
was dropped two hours behind schedule. Japan surrendered six days after the bombing
of Nagasaki. After the war, Tinian continued to be controlled
by the American military as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Up to the early 80s, two of the island’s
airstrips were being used by the U.S Marine Corps. Nowadays, tourists can visit the historic
wartime sites, which played a pivotal role during the final months of World War II.
