"NOTHING WAS THE SAME AFTER AUGUST 6 1945"

FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA 80 YEARS AGO 

Hiroshima, Japan (JFK+50) On August 6, 1945, 80 years ago today, the world entered the Atomic Age as the United States dropped the first Atomic Bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima*. 

The bomb exploded over the city killing "up to 140,000 people" with more to die from "the effects of fallout and radiation."  Jim Beckerman of USA Today writes that "nothing was the same after August 6, 1945," and the day marks "history's greatest dividing line."  

One of Beckerman's sources is the recent book by Susan Southard, "Nagasaki:  Life After Nuclear War."  An interesting fact she brings out is that "of the 74,000 deaths initially counted in Nagasaki (the second atomic bomb dropped 3 days after Hiroshima), only 150 were military personnel." 

Beckerman says that today there are 9600 nuclear warheads "ready for use."

JFK+50 NOTE

Oak Ridge, Tennessee played a vital role in the Manhattan Project "by developing and producing enriched uranium for the 1st atomic bombs."  On the cover of today's Knoxville News-Sentinel is a reprint of an Extra Edition of the newspaper dated August 6, 1945.  The article, cited below, says that "Oak Ridge has over 425 buildings" including K-25 & Y-12.  Oak Ridge did not exist as a city before WWII.  It was selected for the project because of its isolated location, access to electric power (TVA) & proximity to a major city, Knoxville.

*Hiroshima, Japan, located on Honshu Island, was founded in 1589 as a castle town.  Rebuilt after WWII, the city today has a population of 1,199,351.  It is a major industrial city with automobile production, ship building & electronics.  It is the headquarters of MAZDA.

SOURCES

"Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org/

"Atomic Super-Bomb, Made At Oak Ridge, Strikes Japan," by Charles Coleman, United Press Staff Correspondent, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Second Extra Edition, August 6, 1945.

"80 Years ago, A-bomb split history," by Jim Beckerman, USA Today Network--New Jersey, Knoxville News-Sentinel, August 6, 2025, www.knoxnews.com/

Photo of Hiroshima After A-Bomb

National Archives (1945)

NARA Photo-PD

"THE MOST TERRIBLE WEAPON IN HUMAN HISTORY"

TRUMAN BRIEFED ON MANHATTAN PROJECT

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On April 24, 1945, President Harry S Truman was briefed on the Manhattan Project*.  When Mr. Truman assumed the presidency upon the death of FDR on April 12, 1945, he was informed by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson** that work was in progress on a "new, terrible weapon." 

After the briefing on the 24th, President Truman authorized the continuation of the Manhattan Project and agreed to form a committee to advise the POTUS on the use of the atomic bomb.

*Manhattan Project...In 1942, the US government authorized  a concerted attack on the atom to produce an atomic bomb.  The Manhattan Engineer District of the Corps of Engineers, a.k.a. Manhattan Project, was organized to accomplish this goal.

The first experimental explosion of an atomic bomb took place at Alamogordo, NM on July 16 1945 & the 1st atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug 6 1945.

**Henry Lewis Stimson (1867-1950) was born in NYC & educated at Yale & Harvard.  HLS served as Secretary of War under Presidents Taft, Hoover, FDR & Truman.  He called the atomic bomb the "most terrible weapon ever known in human history."

SOURCE

"Atomic Bomb," The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, Chicago, 1967.   

   

 

Henry L. Stimson Arrives at White House

Photo by Abbie Rowe (1945)

NARA/Truman Library Image