# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
(Originally published by the Daily News on August 7, 1945. This story was written by Jack Doherty.)

WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 6 - The most terrible weapon in history - an atomic bomb with more explosive power than 20,000 tons of TNT - was dropped on Japan last night, it was disclosed today as President Truman hurled a new ultimatum at the [Japanese], warning them to surrender or be wiped out.

In revealing the most closely guarded secret of World War II, the President announced in a dramatic statement issued through the White House:

"Sixteen hours ago (7 P.M. Sunday, New York time) an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese army base. The bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. It had more power than 2,000 times the blast power of British 'Grand Slam,' which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare... it is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East."

The extent of damage from superbomb No. 1 was not immediately learned. A War Department statement said that "reconnaissance planes state that an impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke covered the target area."

"As soon as accurate details of the result of the bombing become available, they will be released by the Secretary of War," it added.

(The Associated Press pointed out that the one atomic bomb dropped on Japan carried a wallop more violent than 2,000 B-29 superfortress normally could hand a city, using the old type TNT bombs. One B-29 ordinarily can deliver about 10 tons of TNT bombs to a target.)

Last night's bomb hit Hiroshima, on the Inland Sea, on the southeast coast of the main [Japanese] home island of Honshu. Truman warned that others would strike if the [Japanese] did not surrender immediately.

"It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction," the President said, "that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. 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. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces in which numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already aware."

War Secretary Stimson revealed that even deadlier atomic bombs will soon be made. "Improvements," he said, "will be forthcoming shortly which will increase by several fold the present effectiveness" of the terror weapon.

Stimson flatly declared that "we are convinced that Japan will not be in a position to use an atomic bomb in this war," and added that "it is abundantly clear that the possession of this weapon by the U.S. even in its present form, should prove tremendous aid in the shortening of the war against Japan."

The use in combat of the single atomic bomb was the culmination of three years of effort by science, industry, and the Army. So closely guarded was the secret of the new weapon that 125,000 workers at three hush-hush plants in Richland, Wash.; Oak Ridge, near Knoxville, Tenn., and near Santa Fe., N.M., never knew what they were producing, in more than two and one-half years.

On the super weapon, which works on an entirely new theory, the U.S., in cooperation with the British, gambled $2,000,000,000 that scientists could smash the atom, thus releasing the deadliest source of power ever discovered. Truman said that "we have spent $2,000,000,000 on the greatest scientific gamble in history and - won."

The atomic bomb uses uranium as the essential ore in its production. War Secretary Stimson said that "steps have been taken and will continue to be taken to insure adequate supplies of this mineral."

President Truman's statement revealed that the bomb, despite its imagination-staggering deadliness, has an "exceedingly small" physical size, which confounded workers at the three atomic bomb plants. "They see great quantities of material going in and they see nothing coming out of these plants," he said, "for the physical size of the explosive charge is exceedingly small."

The history of the atomic bomb is also the history of feverish race among Germany's scientific minds, and the combined scientific minds of the U.S. and Great Britain. The Battle of the Laboratories," as President Truman called it, "held fateful risks for us as well as the battles of the air, land and sea, and we have now won the battle of the laboratories as we have won the other battles."

Prior to 1939, it was an accepted scientific belief that, theoretically, the atom could be smashed to release atomic energy. No one, however, knew any practical method of doing it. By 1942, the Germans, President Truman said, were working 24 hours a day to find a way "to add atomic energy to the other engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world. But they failed."

"Beginning in 1940, before Pearl Harbor, scientific knowledge useful in war was pooled between the U.S. and Great Britain, and many priceless helps to our victories have come from that arrangement," he continued. "Under that general policy the research on the atomic bomb was begun. With American and British scientists working together, we entered the race of discovery against the Germans."

The late President Roosevelt and former Prime Minister Churchill, Truman said, agreed that experiments should be conducted in this country, free from bombing attack and threat of invasion.

Highly praising the resultant success of the combined Anglo-American efforts, the President commented: "What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. It was done under high pressure and without failure."

With use of the shattering new weapon, he added, "we are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war."

Truman said he would recommend to Congress establishment of a commission to control production and use of atomic power in the U.S., and that he would "give further consideration and make further recommendations" to Congress as to how atomic power can become a "powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace."

Stimson announced that the man who directed the Army's $2,000,000,000 job of discovering and perfecting atom-smashing was Major Gen. Leslie R. Groves, formerly of Pasadena, Calif., who now lives here. Groves, for the past three years, has held the title of commanding officer of the "Manhattan Engineering District," the phony name given the hush-hush project to fool spies.

A partial list of industrial firms which contributed "so signally" to the atomic bomb, as given out by Stimson, included:

Du Pont de Nemours & Co., which designed and constructed the mammoth Hanford installations in the State of Washington; a special subsidiary of the M.W. Kellogg Co., of N.Y., which designed one of the plants at Clinton, Tenn.; The J.A. Jones Co., which built the Clinton plant, and the Union Carbide and Carbon Co., which operates it. Other firms listed were the Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Allis-Chalmers, Westinghouse, Chrysler, General Electric and Tennessee Eastman Corp.

Stimson also named a policy committee, with Truman's approval, to formulate recommendations for postwar organization of atomic power development.

On the committee are Stimson, as chairman; and State Secretary Byrnes; former Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard; Assistant Secretary of State Will Clayton Harvard President Dr. James Conant; M.I.T. President Dr. Karl T. Compton; and George L. Harrison, president of the New York Life Insurance Co., who is now a special consultant to Stimson. He was named alternate chairman of the committee.

Stimson also revealed that a combined policy committee, set up in August, 1943, to expedite production, was staffed by Stimson, Bush and Conant for the U.S.; Field Marshal Sir John Dill and Col. J.J. Llewellin for the United Kingdom; and C.D. Howe, for Canada.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(Originally published by the Daily News on August 7, 1945. This story was written by Jack Doherty.) WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 6 - The most terrible weapon in history - an atomic bomb with more explosive power than 20,000 tons of TNT - was dropped on Japan last night, it was disclosed today as President Truman hurled a new ultimatum at the [Japanese], warning them to surrender or be wiped out.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the rail road tracks when and how you entered the camp