AN ANNIVERSARY – OVERNIGHT:  This is the 76th anniversary of Trinity, the testing of the first nuclear bomb.  The test occurred in the US Army Air Force Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in New Mexico.  Only three weeks later, an operational version of the bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which contained a number of critical military targets.  Three days later, a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.  Several days after that, Japan surrendered, ending the Second World War.   Here is the report of the bombing of Hiroshima, as printed in The New York Times, when it was still a real newspaper: 

Washington, Aug. 6 -- The White House and War Department announced today that an atomic bomb, possessing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, a destructive force equal to the load of 2,000 B-29's and more than 2,000 times the blast power of what previously was the world's most devastating bomb, had been dropped on Japan.

The announcement, first given to the world in utmost solemnity by President Truman, made it plain that one of the scientific landmarks of the century had been passed, and that the "age of atomic energy," which can be a tremendous force for the advancement of civilization as well as for destruction, was at hand.

At 10:45 o'clock this morning, a statement by the President was issued at the White House that sixteen hours earlier- about the time that citizens on the Eastern seaboard were sitting down to their Sunday suppers - an American plane had dropped the single atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, an important army center.

Japanese Solemnly Warned

What happened at Hiroshima is not yet known. The War Department said it "as yet was unable to make an accurate report" because "an impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke" masked the target area from reconnaissance planes. The Secretary of War will release the story "as soon as accurate details of the results of the bombing become available."

But in a statement vividly describing the results of the first test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico, the War-Department told how an immense steel tower had been "vaporized" by the tremendous explosion, how a 40,000-foot cloud rushed into the sky, and two observers were knocked down at a point 10,000 yards away. And President Truman solemnly warned:

"It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26, was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this Earth."

Most Closely Guarded Secret

The President referred to the joint statement issued by the heads of the American, British and Chinese Governments in which terms of surrender were outlined to the Japanese and warning given that rejection would mean complete destruction of Japan's power to make war.

COMMENT:  A very different type of journalism from the opinion junkpiles we see today.  And a very different Democratic Party president. 

And now, these 76 years later, a limp American administration is negotiating an agreement with Iran, the world's most important sponsor of terror, that will make it easier for Iran to get the kind of weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.  And too few people seem to care.

July 16, 2021