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Welcome to World War Two chronicles a
weekly tribute to Americas fighting men and women

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in commemoration of the Second World War. These programs are narrated by ed Hrlahy

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and are based on the news broadcasts
of the war period from the recorded sound

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collection of the National Archives in Washington, d C. After the Major Allied

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Powers July meeting in Potsdam to dictate
an end to the war, Japan is

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told to surrender or face prompt and
utter destruction. Its response is neither quick

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nor clear enough. President Harry Truman. We are now prepared to destroy more

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rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the
Japanese have in any city. We shall

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destroy their darts, their factories,
and their communications. So let there be

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no mistake. We shall completely destroy
Japan's power to make war. It was

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to spare the Japanese people from utter
destruction that the ultimatum of July the twenty

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sixth was issued at Potsdam. Their
leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they

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do not now accept our terms,
they may expect a reign of ruin from

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the air, the like of which
has never been seen on this earth.

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During a series of meetings in Potsdam, Germany. The final doom of Japan

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is settled by the Big Three and
their advisers, delivering an ultimatum of unconditional

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surrender to the Nippanese war lords.
Prime Minister at Lander suffers the consequences.

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Swarms of B twenty nins and carrier
task forces carry destruction to the Japanese homeland.

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On the morning of August sixth,
nineteen forty five, a solitary B

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twenty nine drops only one parachute bomb
over the Japanese port city of Hiroshima.

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Code named Little Boy, it is
armed with warhead of uranium. The explosion

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creates a huge fireball, leveling the
city for over a mile. At the

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point of impact. More than a
hundred thousand Japanese are dead, some bodies

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burned to ash, some simply vaporized. Still others suffer radiation, poisoning their

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bodies covered with running sores. They
die several days later. The natural power

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of the universe is harnessed in the
new atomic bomb. The mightiest, most

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destructive bombs yet produced, such as
England's terrifying Grand Slam weighing eleven tons,

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are puny midgets compared with the new
atomic wonder after no sign of surrender.

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ABE twenty nine over the port city, Nagasaki drops Fat Man, another atomic

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bomb with a plutonium warhead. In
the US, startling details of the bomb's

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production are made public. Two giant
properties had been created just for the development

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and production, a six hundred thousand
acre complex in Richland, Washington, and

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a manufacturing area in oak Park,
Tennessee. The latter has so many employees

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the city booms into the sixth largest
in the state. I'm in hurlei,

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he join me next time for World
War Two Chronicles. World War Two Chronicles

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was produced by the American Veterans Center
and 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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Center dot org. We need your
help to keep the legacy of our World

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War Two generation alive. Visit American
Veterans Center dot org to make a donation

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to support World War Two Chronicles and
the ongoing work of the American Veterans Center.