Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090041
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A trial of Nazi war criminals was scheduled to begin Sept. 1 in Nuremberg, for years the site of Nazi congresses. The tribunal would be asked for a blanket conviction of all Germans who had voluntarily been members of the Gestapo or SS.
The United States became the first major nation to ratify and prepare itself for participation in all of the international bodies created since the start of World War II. President Truman, one week after Senate ratification of the United Nations charter, said he had signed the Bretton Woods agreement providing for an international monetary fund and international bank of reconstruction and the charter for an international food and agricultural organization.
The 20th Army Air Force added 12 more Japanese cities to a list now standing at 31 marked for devastation by B-29s. The air force plastered the cities with pamphlets warning the inhabitants to surrender, evacuate or die.
Tokyo radio conceded that an invasion of the homeland would be a success, if large enough, but added that hoarded Japanese air power would smash the invaders and lead to ultimate victory. Japan would not give in, a commentator said, because it does not know the word defeat.
War bond purchases at Virginia Tech had paid for a B-29 operating against the Japanese from Tinian in the Pacific. The crew named the plane the Virginia Tech after finding a war bond sticker inside.
Byron Nelson, who had won 12 of 18 tournaments in the United States in 1945, was the victor in the Canadian Open.
The Hawaii Mars, the world's largest airplane, sank following an emergency landing in the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Md. There were no fatalities when the hull of the big flying boat cracked when she hit the water.
The most terrifying engine of destruction ever devised by man - an atomic bomb carrying the force of more than 20,000 tons of TNT - was turned loose against Japan. "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 Earth," President Truman said.
Gen. Carl Spaatz, air force commander, said the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima equaled a raid of 2,000 B-29s and had wiped out more than half of the city, including five major industrial targets.
A University of Southern California physicist said if the new atomic bomb was what he believed it to be, "We shall have a power revolution that will eliminate coal and oil as a source of power."
Russia declared war on Japan at the request of President Truman. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes said Russia's entry should shorten the war and save lives.
The world's second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on Western Kyushu island. The city, two thirds as large as Hiroshima, had an estimated population of 255,000.
President Truman urged Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately and save themselves from destruction. He added that the Hiroshima attack was only a warning of things to come.
American carrier planes, 1,500 strong, spread fiery ruin across the northern half of Honshu for the second consecutive day.
An official surrender offer from Japan was received in Washington through the Swiss government. B-29s temporarily suspended their flights against Japan. The only apparent stumbling block to accepting the surrender was the Japanese insistence that Emperor Hirohito remain on the Japanese throne.
by CNB