 |
| The bomb has caused widespread
devastation at Hiroshima |
| 1945: US drops atomic bomb on
Hiroshima |
England have The SScreen 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 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.
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."
