The first atomic bomb has been dropped on Japan. It has two thousand times the blast-power of the R.A.F.╒s ten-tonner, which was previously the most powerful bomb in use. Thus British and American scientists have achieved what the Germans were unable to do and have won the ╥greatest scientific gamble in history.╙
The announcement was made yesterday by President Truman, who said: ╥We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city╔ If they do not now accept our terms they may accept a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.╙
The first bomb was dropped on a port serving as one of the Army╒s main supply bases. An impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke covered the town, so that the results could not be observed at the time.
Mr. Stimson, the War Secretary, says that the discoveries will eventually be turned to peace-time advantages (but this will take a considerable time) and still greater discoveries will follow.
╥RAIN OF RUIN╙
THREAT TO JAPAN
WASHINGTON
Japan has been hit with an atomic bomb 2,000 times more powerful than the ten-tonners dropped by the R.A.F. on Germany. President Truman described the bomb as:╤
The 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. We have spent $2,000,000,000 (about ú500,000,000) on the greatest scientific gamble in history, and we have won.
The first of the bombs, which are to cast heavy shadows over Japan, was dropped 16 hours before the President╒s disclosure. It hit Hiroshima, the Japanese Army base west of Kobe. President Truman said that two great plants and many lesser factories in the United States are devoted to the production of atomic power and have been working on it for more than two and a half years. He went on:
╥With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production, and even more powerful forms are in development.╙
EXPERIMENTS IN U.S.
He also disclosed that Mr. Churchill and the late President Roosevelt agreed on the wisdom of carrying on atomic-bomb manufacture in the United States, out of reach of enemy bombing. He went on:
Before 1939 it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was theoretically possible to release atomic energy, but none knew any practical method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew the Germans were working feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to other engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world, but they failed. We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans got V1╒s and V2╒s late and in limited quantities, and even more grateful that they did not get the atomic bomb at all.
The battle of the laboratories 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 other battles. Before Pearl Harbour, scientific knowledge useful in war was pooled between the United States and Britain and many priceless helps to our victories have come from the arrangement. Under that general policy, research on the atomic bomb was begun. With American and British scientists working together, we entered the race of discovery against the Germans.
