Hiroshima/Nagasaki Air Defense in 1945
When the Imperial military of Japan surrendered to the US forces in August 1945, there were 5,000 Japanese military planes prepared for final battles on mainland Japan.
The Imperial Army and Navy kept 5,000 military planes in safe bases and facilities. They did not fully use those war planes for defense of Japanese cities under sever air raids by US B29 bombers and other attack planes.
Top leaders of the Imperial military ordered not to make full efforts to intercept B29 bombers and other American carrier-based attack planes that were flying to Japan for air raids almost everyday. Imperial generals intended to use 5,000 military planes at hand for planned large-scale kamikaze attacks onto coming US fleets and troops for landing on main Japanese islands.
For this reason, though the Imperial military had fighter planes that could reach 10,000 meters (30,000 feet) above the ground and intercept mighty B29 bombers, those planes were not fully used for air defense. In other word, Imperial military leaders saved those fighter planes for the coming kamikaze missions against US fleets and troops to land on Japan. So, they sacrificed Japanese civilians and citizens to be defenselessly attacked by B29 bombers and other US attack planes.
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However, as the Imperial military surrendered to the US forces on August 15, 1945, the total of 5,000 fully-equipped military planes were left unused in military bases in Japan proper.
But, if the Empire had used fully these war planes to defend Japanese cities from US bombers, they could have probably shot down the B29s carrying atomic bombs to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9.
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In addition, the radio interception division of the Chief Administration for Intelligence of the Empire of Japan succeeded in decoding radio messages B29 bombers sent to their bases and the US while flying to Japan for air raids.
Those B29 bombers used mostly call signs of V400, V500, and V700 for their radio communications. But Japanese radio soldiers found that some B29s started to use a new call sign of V600. And while each of the call signs V400, V500, and V700 was assigned to almost 100 B29s, the call sign V600 was assigned to only a dozen B29s. Accordingly, staff members of the radio interception division started to think that B29s using the V600 code were operated for a special mission.
And on the early morning of August 6, 1945, the Japanese radio staff found that a B29 using the V600 call sign was passing the sky over Hiroshima. This B29 was a reconnaissance plane preceding the B29 carrying the atomic bomb. Staff of the radio interception division thought this B29 was engaged in a special mission. But this information was not relayed to the top level of the air defense headquarters in Hiroshima.
Accordingly, no Japanese fighters such as a Shiden-Kai were not scrambled to shoot down the B29s in the sky over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
Actually, in the morning of the day, one Shiden-Kai was flying through Hiroshima from Hyogo Prefecture (near Osaka) to Nagasaki. The Japanese pilot actually witnessed the historic atomic bomb attack by a B29 on Hiroshima. He observed, from the sky, a big blast and a big mushroom-cloud in Hiroshima. He saw the big lively city Hiroshima he had observed a moment before suddenly being blown off. The city in fire and smokes became flattened with just rubble in a very short period of time.
And, it is also said that three days later on August 9 the Imperial military also detected the similar pattern of an air raid by a B29 on Nagasaki several hours before the actual bombing. So, if the commander of the air defense had ordered Shiden-Kais and other fighter planes to intercept the B29, the Nagasaki atomic bomb attack might have been prevented.
So, there was at least a small chance that the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be prevented unless the Imperial Army and Navy did not plan to fight final battles on mainland Japan against US troops and fleets rushing to the mainland. The Imperial Army and Navy should have full efforts to shoot down B29s as many as possible with available fighter planes even while waiting for the landing on mainland Japan by US forces.
Finally, after the atomic (nuclear) bomb attack on Hiroshima, there was a strange rumor prevailing in some shelters where hundreds and more victims injured by the nuclear blast were carried in. "The Imperial military had attacked New York with a Japanese atomic bomb in retaliation for the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack." Indeed, Hiroshima survivors got information so quickly that they were attacked by a horrible new type of bomb called an "Atomic bomb." And they believed that the Imperial military must have staged a counterattack to America for them.
When the US troops landed on Japan after WWII, they destroyed all the remaining Japanese military planes left in military bases. The number of those planes was said to be 13,000, including those without fuel and necessary equipment.
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Luk 8:8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.