After the bombing of Hiroshima a few days earlier, a B-29 took off from Tinian carrying a bomb called the Fat Man and headed for its target – Kokura, Japan. But when it got to Kokura there was a lot of haze. After hanging around for a while and running low on fuel (the plane was unable to return to Tinian and barely made it to Okinawa), the pilot decided to move on to the alternative target, Nagasaki.
Sweeney and his crew were under orders to only bomb visually. When they got to Kokura they found the haze and smoke obscuring the city as well as the large ammunition arsenal that was the reason for targeting the city. They made three unsuccessful passes, wasting more fuel, while anti-aircraft fire zeroed in on them and Japanese fighter planes began to climb toward them. The B-29s broke off and headed for Nagasaki. The phrase Kokura's Luck was coined in Japan to describe escaping a terrible occurrence without being aware of the danger.
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