Episode 193: The Final Doom of Japan

By the beginning of August The Big Three had settled on what would happen to Japan if they did not head President Trumans warning and surrender. After the Japanese did not stand down, two atomic bombs were dropped killing a devastating number of Japanese people.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to World War Two chronicles aweekly tribute to Americas fighting men and women
in commemoration of the Second World War. These programs are narrated by ed Hrlahy
and are based on the news broadcastsof the war period from the recorded sound
collection of the National Archives in Washington, d C. After the Major Allied

(00:27):
Powers July meeting in Potsdam to dictatean end to the war, Japan is
told to surrender or face prompt andutter destruction. Its response is neither quick
nor clear enough. President Harry Truman. We are now prepared to destroy more
rapidly and completely every productive enterprise theJapanese have in any city. We shall

(00:53):
destroy their darts, their factories,and their communications. So let there be
no mistake. We shall completely destroyJapan's power to make war. It was
to spare the Japanese people from utterdestruction that the ultimatum of July the twenty
sixth was issued at Potsdam. Theirleaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they

(01:19):
do not now accept our terms,they may expect a reign of ruin from
the air, the like of whichhas never been seen on this earth.
During a series of meetings in Potsdam, Germany. The final doom of Japan
is settled by the Big Three andtheir advisers, delivering an ultimatum of unconditional
surrender to the Nippanese war lords.Prime Minister at Lander suffers the consequences.

(01:41):
Swarms of B twenty nins and carriertask forces carry destruction to the Japanese homeland.
On the morning of August sixth,nineteen forty five, a solitary B
twenty nine drops only one parachute bombover the Japanese port city of Hiroshima.
Code named Little Boy, it isarmed with warhead of uranium. The explosion

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creates a huge fireball, leveling thecity for over a mile. At the
point of impact. More than ahundred thousand Japanese are dead, some bodies
burned to ash, some simply vaporized. Still others suffer radiation, poisoning their

(02:23):
bodies covered with running sores. Theydie several days later. The natural power
of the universe is harnessed in thenew atomic bomb. The mightiest, most
destructive bombs yet produced, such asEngland's terrifying Grand Slam weighing eleven tons,
are puny midgets compared with the newatomic wonder after no sign of surrender.

(02:44):
ABE twenty nine over the port city, Nagasaki drops Fat Man, another atomic
bomb with a plutonium warhead. Inthe US, startling details of the bomb's
production are made public. Two giantproperties had been created just for the development
and production, a six hundred thousandacre complex in Richland, Washington, and

(03:07):
a manufacturing area in oak Park,Tennessee. The latter has so many employees
the city booms into the sixth largestin the state. I'm in hurlei,
he join me next time for WorldWar Two Chronicles. World War Two Chronicles
was produced by the American Veterans Centerand Radio America in cooperation with the National

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Archives. To listen to more episodes, subscribe on iTunes or visit American Veterans
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