 The Hiroshima mission was followed by another atomic strike . Originally scheduled for 11 August , it was brought forward by two days to 9 August owing to bad weather . This time , a Fat Man nuclear weapon was carried by B @-@ 29 Bockscar , piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney . Enola Gay , flown by Captain George Marquardt 's Crew B @-@ 10 , was the weather reconnaissance aircraft for Kokura , the primary target . Enola Gay reported clear skies over Kokura , but by the time Bockscar arrived , the city was obscured by smoke from fires from the conventional bombing of Yawata by 224 B @-@ 29s the day before . After three unsuccessful passes , Bockscar diverted to its secondary target , Nagasaki , where it dropped its bomb . In contrast to the Hiroshima mission , the Nagasaki mission has been described as tactically botched , although the mission did meet its objectives . The crew encountered a number of problems in execution , and had very little fuel by the time they landed at the emergency backup landing site Yontan Airfield on Okinawa . 
