Room #56 and a..fluke
Big ideas from the book Fluke
Well, some of the world’s biggest stories weren’t the result of careful planning - but were a fluke.
Did you know that one couple's honeymoon vacation changed the course of the twentieth century? 👇🏼👇🏼
Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Stimson arrived in Kyoto, Japan, in October 1926. They stayed at the Miyako Hotel (Room number 56) and fell in love with the city's beautiful fall colors. The leaves had turned bright red and yellow, and they enjoyed exploring Kyoto's lovely gardens.
After six days, they left Kyoto.
[Sharing part 1 of big ideas from the recently launched book, Fluke.
PS: Indian subscribers can pay for subscription using this link]
19 years later, (May 10, 1945), a group of American scientists and soldiers were trying to figure out which cities should be the ones to be destroyed - to test their new ‘Gadget’, the atom bomb.
13 men were asked to join the Target Committee, an elite group that would decide how to introduce the Gadget to the world.
Mr. H. (Henry) L. Stimson was among them - he had become America’s secretary of war, the top civilian overseeing wartime operation. List of cities included:
Kyoto: the #1 target as it was home to wartime factories, churning out 400 aircraft engines per month.
Tokyo (rejected as it was already devastated)
Kokura
Nigata
Hiroshima (backup target)
Nagasaki (late addition to the list/backup target)
Everybody agreed one name: Kyoto. A detailed plan was laid out and the location of the bomb was decided to be Kyoto’s railway yards, “was only half a mile away” from the Miyako Hotel, where Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Stimson had stayed earlier.
I don’t want Kyoto bombed.
There was “one city that they must not bomb without my permission and that was Kyoto.”: Stimson insisted,
An internal debate started, and Stimson went to President Truman (twice) to ensure Kyoto is out of the list!
The first bomb was eventually dropped on Hiroshima instead.
What about Kokura?
The second bomb was supposed to hit the city of Kokura. However, when the bomber arrived, thick clouds made it impossible to see the target. This was surprising since the army's weather experts had forecast clear skies. The pilot circled for a while, waiting for a break in the clouds.
With no change in the weather, they decided to switch to a backup target to avoid wasting the bomb. As they got closer to Nagasaki (their backup city), it was also covered in clouds. They were running low on fuel, so they made one last attempt. Luckily, the clouds cleared just in time.
The bomb fell on Nagasaki at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945.
The city's people were unlucky (twice).
Nagasaki wasn't the original target, and it was only bombed because of the bad weather over the first city.
So that’s the story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
You see - who survives, who died - there was no logic to it. It was a fluke.
So are a lot of decisions and events in our lives.
More big ideas from this book, next week ! Till then, think of all the important events in your life (career, friends, relationships)..and let me know whether they were really ‘strategically planned’ or..just fluke!