The world believes that the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II. The world is wrong. Join Jim B. Smith, author of "The Last Mission," as he recounts his journey aboard The Boomerang, a B-29 Superfortress on the last and longest mission that really ended the war. Smith was aboard this last mission, which destroyed a precision target 270 miles northwest of Tokyo nine days after Hiroshima and six days after Nagasaki.
On August 14,1945, en route to Japan's last oil refinery, B-29s from the 315th Bomb Wing flew over Tokyo, causing a blackout. On the ground, a desperate Major Kenji Hatanaka and a group of rebellious Japanese military officers began a coup d'etat, and tried to find and destroy a recording slated to broadcast the next day--Emperor Hirohito announcing surrender. Their objectives were to kidnap Emperor Hirohito, and then order the armies to continue the war. Any extension of the war by the Japanese after their official acceptance of peace on August 14, 1945 would have brought unthinkable consequences.
See how the air strike unwittingly collapsed the coup, saved Tokyo from nuclear strike, and ended WWII. As a stream of American B-29B bombers approached Tokyo, Japanese air defenses, fearing the approaching planes signaled the threat of a third atomic bomb, ordered a total blackout in Tokyo and the Imperial Palace, completely disrupting the rebels' plans. Smith and his fellow crewmembers completed the mission, and a few hours later, the Emperor announced the surrender over Japan's airwaves, dictating the end of the war.
