Welcome to World War Two chronicles a weekly 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 broadcasts of the war period from the recorded sound collection of the National Archives in Washington, d C. After the Major Allied Powers July meeting in Potsdam to dictate an end to the war, Japan is told to surrender or face prompt and utter 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 the Japanese have in any city. We shall destroy their darts, their factories, and their communications. So let there be no mistake. We shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war. It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July the twenty
sixth was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a reign of ruin from the air, the like of which has 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 and their advisers, delivering an ultimatum of unconditional surrender to the Nippanese war lords. Prime Minister at Lander suffers the consequences.
Swarms of B twenty nins and carrier task 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 bomb over the Japanese port city of Hiroshima. Code named Little Boy, it is armed with warhead of uranium. The explosion creates a huge fireball, leveling the city for over a mile. At the point of impact. More than a hundred thousand Japanese are dead, some bodies
burned to ash, some simply vaporized. Still others suffer radiation, poisoning their bodies covered with running sores. They die several days later. The natural power of the universe is harnessed in the new atomic bomb. The mightiest, most destructive bombs yet produced, such as England's terrifying Grand Slam weighing eleven tons, are puny midgets compared with the new atomic wonder after no sign of surrender. ABE twenty nine over the port city, Nagasaki drops Fat Man, another atomic
bomb with a plutonium warhead. In the US, startling details of the bomb's production are made public. Two giant properties had been created just for the development and production, a six hundred thousand acre complex in Richland, Washington, and a manufacturing area in oak Park, Tennessee. The latter has so many employees the city booms into the sixth largest in the state. I'm in hurlei,
he join me next time for World War Two Chronicles. World War Two Chronicles was produced by the American Veterans Center and Radio America in cooperation with the National Archives. To listen to more episodes, subscribe on iTunes or visit American Veterans Center dot org. We need your help to keep the legacy of our World War Two generation alive. Visit American Veterans Center dot org to make a donation to support World War Two Chronicles and the ongoing work of the American Veterans Center.