San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
RAIN OF RUIN FACED BY JAPANESE AS SUPER ATOMIC BOMB LOOSED
‘EXPLOSION EQUALS 20,000 TONS OF TNT’—TRUMAN
BULLETIN
LONDON, Aug. 6 (A.p.)—germany possessed some atomic power secrets, said Winston Churchill tonight, but “by god’s mercy British and American science outpaced all German efforts.”
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (A.P.)—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 Truman disclosed in a White House statement today that the first use of the bomb—containing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and producing more than 2000 times the blast of the most powerful bomb ever dropped before— was made 16 hours earlier on Hiroshima, Japanese army base. The atomic bomb is the answer, said Truman, to Japan’s refusal to surrender. Secy. of War Stimson, predicted
the bomb will “prove a tremendous aid” in shortening the Japanese war.
Truman grimly warned that “even more powerful forms (of the bomb) are in development.” He said.
“If they do not now accept our terms, they many expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.
HIROSHIMA ‘CLOUD OF DUST’ The war department reported that “an impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke” cloaked Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb crashed down. It was impossible to make an immediate assessment of the damage.
President Truman said he would recommend that congress consider establishing a commission to control production of atomic powers within the United States, adding:
“I shall make recommendations to congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.
GREATEST GAMBLE WON Both Mr. Truman and Secty. Stimson, while emphasizing the peace-time potentiality of the new force, made clear that much research must be undertaken to effect full peacetime application of its principles.
This product of $2,000,000,000 spent in research and production--”the greatest scientific gamble in history,” Truman said--the atomic bomb has one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill gave the signal to start work on harnessing the forces of the atom. Truman said the Germans worked feverishly, but failed to solve the problem.
BASIC POWER HARNESSED Truman added: “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.”