Relief gave way to a celebration.Įntering Nagasaki as occupational troops, none understood the devastation awaiting them. But just as that fear set in, a loudspeaker announced to those gathered in Saipan that the United States had “split the atom.” Rubenstein was unsure what it meant, but the invasion was called off. For the first time since enlisting, he worried he might not survive. In August, before the bomb, they’d begun practicing amphibious landings for an invasion of Japan – a mission many, Rubenstein included, expected to be a bloodbath.

Six weeks later, Paul Rubenstein and his Marine infantry battalion stepped off a transportation ship in Nagasaki.