Posted on 08/06/2006 6:59:07 AM PDT by AirBorn
1945: US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
The first atomic bomb has been dropped by a United States aircraft on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. President Harry S Truman, announcing the news from the cruiser, Augusta, in the mid-Atlantic, said the device contained the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT and was more than 2,000 times more powerful than the largest bomb used to date.
An accurate assessment of the damage caused has so far been impossible due to a huge cloud of impenetrable dust covering the target. Hiroshima is one of the chief supply depots for the Japanese army.
The bomb was dropped from an American B-29 Superfortress, known as Enola Gay, at 0815 local time. The plane's crew say they saw a column of smoke rising and intense fires springing up.
We found the Japanese in our locality were not eager to befriend us - after all, they had not long ago had the most fearful weapon of all time dropped on their doorstep
People's War memories »
The President said the atomic bomb heralded the "harnessing of the basic power of the universe". It also marked a victory over the Germans in the race to be first to develop a weapon using atomic energy.
President Truman went on to warn the Japanese the Allies would completely destroy their capacity to make war.
The Potsdam declaration issued 10 days ago, which called for the unconditional surrender of Japan, was a last chance for the country to avoid utter destruction, the President said.
"If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on Earth. Behind this air attack will follow by sea and land forces in such number and power as they have not yet seen, but with fighting skill of which they are already aware."
The British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who has replaced Winston Churchill at Number 10, read out a statement prepared by his predecessor to MPs in the Commons.
It said the atomic project had such great potential the government felt it was right to pursue the research and to pool information with atomic scientists in the US.
As Britain was considered within easy reach of Germany and its bombers, the decision was made to set up the bomb-making plants in the US.
The statement continued: "By God's mercy, Britain and American science outpaced all German efforts. These were on a considerable scale, but far behind. The possession of these powers by the Germans at any time might have altered the result of the war."
Mr Churchill's statement said considerable efforts had been made to disrupt German progress - including attacks on plants making constituent parts of the bomb.
He ended: "We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce peace among the nations and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe they become a perennial fountain of world prosperity."
The image can be viewed on its Wikipedia page.
Thank you President Truman, you saved the lives of 2 of my uncles along with hundreds of thousands of other brave men.
Not exactly true. We had four of them. One was Trinity, one was Little Boy, one was Fat Man and the fourth was unused.
After that we had no more sitting in storage but making more was quite possible.
The "Euro-Weenies"(etcetera,ad nauseum)of today would characterize this as a"Disprortionate Response"!In their eyes,we should have waited for Germany and Japan to acquire nukes so they could hit us back????
The man who was to become my father had(finally)been drafted in March,1945.His designation was I.R(infantry replacement).He was(because of the atom bombs)able to marry the young woman who would become my mother at Camp Croft,Spartanburg,S.C.on Oct. 10th,1945!
Would he be on his way to(or from)Potsdam?
Another good one is"At War's End"by Major General Charles W.Sweeney(USAF,retired).He flew"chase"that day and then flew"Bock's Car"(Nagasaki).That plane can be seen at Wright-Patterson AFB.
That's a VERY interesting assessment!I always felt it was the bombs!!You are undoubtedly CORRECT!!!
I think you are making reference to that"Disproportionate Respone"BullSh*T?
There was one more bomb and Col. Tibbets had sent three B-29’s back the United States to bring it out to Tinian. However, General Groves (The head of the Manhattan Engineer District) had ordered all shipments of atomic weapons to the Pacific halted for several days to see if Japan would surrender.
At the same time, the scientists at Los Alamos were working to construct new bombs are rapidly as possible. They would have had anywhere from 4 to 10 completed by the end of 1945.
Let us not forget that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate military targets. They were both shipbuilding and industrial cities which were a direct part of the Japanese war machine and would have been attacked by conventional means anyway, if there had been an invasion.
There's a reason we talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and not Tokyo and Osaka.
No problem, I missed the fact that Chode had already caught it.
That fits with what I was taught.
As the invasion of Japan was scheduled for November of 1945 there was time to have atomized at least 4 more Japanese cities before the invasion was even possible.
Even if the coup had succeeded I don't think it would have been able to hold on to power with the destruction of four more cities.
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