Aug 9, 2014
The Boston, along with cruisers: Quincy, Chicago and St. Paul, split off from Task Group 38.4 at 0300 hours, and met up with battleships: Massachusetts, South Dakota and Alabama by 0500 hours and formed a formidable Bombardment Group. By 1200 (noon), they were within 20 miles of the Japanese mainland in Kamaishi Bay (northern Honshu) for a daylight bombardment of the industrial city (Kamaishi).
Meanwhile, some 800 miles south, Norm Bayley and his unwilling translator approached Kyushu in a commandeered Japanese Army truck. They were headed for Nagaski, knowing that another Atom Bomb was going to drop. As they crossed the Inland Sea bridge from Honshu to Kyushu, despite the fact that it was after 11:00 in the morning, the sky was pitch-black and the truck was being pelted by heavy clumps of mud. Not certain what was going on, they stopped on the side of the road. The mud was so thick, the windshield wipers could not keep up. Norm stuck his hand out, and was drenched in mud. He looked at it, smelled it, and in abject horror, realized that the city of Nagasaki, evaporated in the Hydrogen Bomb fireball, was raining down on him.