Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508030002
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A B-25 bomber rammed into the 78th story of the Empire State Building in New York City, exploding in a flood of flames that turned the world's tallest skyscraper into a pillar of horror and killed at least 13 people.
The president of Japan's powerful totalitarian political party declared today his country would never accept the Allied surrender ultimatum as Japan awaited an address by Premier Suzuki on the war and the coming "battle in the streets." The U.S. government had warned the Japanese to quit the war or be destroyed.
Seven task forces totalling 600 planes rained fire bombs on six Japanese cities. Sixty of the B-29s refueled at Iwo Jima, an innovation that put all of Japan within reach of the big planes for the first time.
A strike at the Crosley Corp. in Cincinnati brought the total number of idled workers to 40,000 over the weekend. Meanwhile, 20,000 workers at a B-29 plant in Chicago were ordered by their union leaders to return to the job.
Maj. James R. Nunn, acting superintendent of the state police, sent 10 state troopers to St. Charles in Lee County to help stop snake handling during religious ceremonies that were scheduled there by members of the Holiness Faith Healers. The troopers rolled up in a car after the ceremony had begun and killed four rattlesnakes that the handlers had hidden beneath their shirts.
Top Air Force generals in the Pacific, Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle, Maj. Gen.Curtis Lemay and Gen. George C. Kenney, warned Japan that she faced total destruction by remaining in the war.
President Truman said he was opposed to sending American soldiers' wives and families overseas, declaring he did not want Americans to settle in Europe and the best way to deal with the situation was to bring the soldiers home.
Byron Nelson left the field far behind in the rich All-American Open tournament when he fired a four-under-par 68 for a 54-hole total of 202, 14 under par and six strokes better than his nearest competitor.
Okinawa-based Army bombers swept the home islands of Japan and sank 36 ships including a large aircraft carrier at the Kure Naval Base.
Pierre Laval of the French Vichy government, which collaborated with the Germans, and his wife were expelled from Spain and were on their way to France to answer for their crimes.
The management of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper company plant at Covington asked the National War Labor Board to order 1,500 strikers to return to work.
Rep. Clifton A. Woodrum of Roanoke announced that he would not seek relection to the House of Representatives and would retire to engage in private business.
Harold Ickes, administrator of the solid fuels administration, urged the release of 30,000 miners from the armed forces to prevent American industry from facing a shortened work week due to fuel shortages in the coming winter.
In the greatest raid yet, 820 B-29 superfortresses unloaded more than 6,600 tons of bombs onto Japanese cities.
American battleships shelled the Japanese home islands.
by CNB