Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
The atomic bomb was developed by scientists working under the Manhattan Project. The project was granted funding on December 6, 1941, with American leaders aiming for a new invention that would serve as a wartime weapon. The decision to drop an atomic bomb on Japan had been made by 1943, and a shortlist of candidate target cities was in place in 1945. At the time, it was argued that an atomic bombing would bring about a more rapid end to the war. Hiroshima, the first target, was selected to show the power of America's new weapon. The second bombing, of Nagasaki, was intended to demonstrate that the USA had a large arsenal. At 11:02 A.M. local time on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man as its code name by Robert Serber in the United States (after Sydney Greenstreet's character in "The Maltese Falcon") was dropped on Nagasaki, forever changing the city's landscape. A mushroom cloud rose to an altitude of 45,000 feet above the city.
Whale Whores
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are identified as the cause of Japanese whaling. The two Japanese cities were destroyed by atomic weapons during the final stages of World War II under orders by U.S. President Harry Truman, which killed about 220,000 people. In "Whale Whores", the Japanese are presented with a doctored picture of the "Enola Gay", the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The picture shows a dolphin and a whale piloting the plane to bomb the city. The Miami Dolphins, a National Football League professional football team, are killed along with real dolphins by the whalers in "Whale Whores". Near the end of the episode, Stan and the crew of the MY Steve Irwin encounter fishing ship captain Sig Hansen and his crew from the Discovery Channel reality series, "Deadliest Catch". The scene with Paul Watson's crew throwing "stinky butter" at the whalers refers to Watson and his crew's practice of throwing stink bombs containing butyric acid, an acid found in rancid butter and cheese, at Japanese whaling vessels, including the factory vessel, the "Nisshin Maru".