the atomic bombs, 70 years later

EDITOR'S NOTE: On two days in August 1945, U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs — one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, the only times nuclear weapons have been used. Their unprecedented destructive power incinerated buildings and people and left lifelong physical and psychological scars on survivors and on the cities themselves. "Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death," an AP story reported. A few days later, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. World War II was effectively over.

Seventy years later, the AP is making stories about the bombings and surrender available, along with photos.

WASHINGTON, AUG. 6. — An atomic bomb, hailed as the most terrible destructive force in history and as the greatest achievement of organized science, has been loosed upon Japan.

President (Harry) Truman disclosed in a White House statement at 11 a.m. Eastern War Time, today that the first use of the bomb — containing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and producing more than 2,000 times the blast of the most powerful bomb ever dropped before — was made 16 hours earlier on Hiroshima, a Japanese army base.

The atomic bomb is the answer, President Truman said, to Japan's refusal to surrender. Secretary of War (Henry) Stimson predicted the bomb will prove a tremendous aid in shortening the Japanese war. Mr. Truman grimly warned that "even more powerful forms (of the bomb) are in development."

"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 this earth," he said.

The War Department reported that "an impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke" cloaked Hiroshima after the bomb exploded. It was impossible to make an immediate assessment of the damage.

...

GUAM, AUG. 9 — The world's second atomic bomb, most destructive explosive invented by man, was dropped on strategically important Nagasaki on western Kyushu Island at noon today.

Crew members radioed that results were good, but Gen. Carl A. Spaatz said additional details would not be disclosed until the mission returns.

Gen. Spaatz's communique reporting the bombing did not say whether only one or more than one "mighty atom" was dropped.

The first atomic bomb destroyed more than 60 percent — 4.1 square miles — of Hiroshima, city of 343,000 population, Monday, and radio Tokyo reported "practically every living thing" there was annihilated.

Japanese perished by uncounted thousands from the searing, crushing atomic blast that smashed Hiroshima, photographic and other evidence indicated today.

The Tokyo radio, which said that "practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death," reported that authorities were still unable to check the total casualties.

Following is the complete text of the Tokyo English-language broadcast as recorded by the Federal Communications Commission:

"With the gradual restoration of order following the disastrous ruin that struck the city of Hiroshima in the wake of the enemy's new-type bomb on Monday morning, the authorities are still unable to obtain a definite check-up on the extent of the casualties sustained by the civilian population.

"Medical relief agencies that were rushed from the neighboring districts were unable to distinguish, much less identify, the dead from the injured.

"The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things, human and animals, were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure engendered by the blast. All of the dead and injured were burned beyond recognition.

"With houses and buildings crushed, including the emergency medical facilities, the authorities are having their hands full in giving every available relief possible under the circumstances.


"The effect of the bomb was widespread. Those outdoors burned to death, while those indoors were killed by the indescribable pressure and heat."

...

WASHINGTON, AUG. 14 — The second world war, history's greatest flood of death and destruction, ended tonight with Japan's unconditional surrender.

Formalities still remained — the official signing of surrender terms and a proclamation of V-J Day.
But from the moment President Truman announced at 7 p.m. (EWT) that the enemy of the Pacific had agreed to Allied terms, the world put aside for a time woeful thoughts of the cost in dead and dollars and celebrated in wild frenzy. Formalities meant nothing to people freed at last of war.

To reporters crammed into his office, shoving now-useless war maps against a marble mantle, the president disclosed that:

Japan, without ever being invaded, had accepted completely and without reservation an Allied declaration of Potsdam, dictating unconditional surrender.

...

As the great news became known, hundreds of Washingtonians raced to the White House to join hundreds already massed around the grounds.

Mr. Truman, accompanied by his wife, walked out on the porch and stepped up to a hastily erected microphone. He waved and smiled. Then he spoke:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the great day. This is the day we have been looking for since Dec. 7, 1941.

"This is the day when fascism and police government ceases in the world.

"This is the day for the democracies.

"This is the day when we can start up our real task of implementation of free government in the world.

"We are faced with the greatest task we ever have been faced with. The emergency is as great as it was on Dec. 7, 1941.

"It is going to take the help of all of us to do it. I know we are going to do it."

For millions of Americans, for hundreds of millions of Allied people, his surrender announcement signified victory, peace and the eventual return of loved ones from war. To millions who sleep beneath stark white crosses, it meant their sacrifices had not been vain.