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Show Double-Barrel Action: " j Russia's Declaration of War j And Atomic Bomb Combine To Stagger Collapsing Japs Coming on top of the American introduction of the earth-shaking earth-shaking atomic-bomb, Russia's declaration of war on Japan raised high hopes for an early finish to the Pacific conflict, raging in bloody island-to-island fighting since recovery of U. S. strength following Pearl Harbor. Having previously disclosed dis-closed the dropping of the mighty new explosive on Japan, President Harry S. Truman also was the first to reveal Russia's entrance in-j in-j to the Pacific war to the U. S., putting him in the position of having made two historic announcements an-nouncements within a few days. In declaring war on Japan, Russian Rus-sian Foreign Commissar Molotov stated that the Reds had decided on hostilities as a means for restoring peace quickly in the Far East after the Nipponese had turned down the U. S., British and Chinese demand for unconditional surrender at Potsdam, Pots-dam, thus ending Moscow's role as an intermediary in the conflict. With the Russians possessing large forces along the Siberian border, and excellent locations for air bases for short-range bombardment of the Japanese homeland, the Reds' decision de-cision to cross swords with the Nipponese Nip-ponese was expected to prove of invaluable in-valuable assistance in shortening the war. Of the 4,000,000 men constituting constitut-ing the Japanese army, 1,250,000 have been reported massed in Manchuria Man-churia opposite Russian territory, with another 900,000 stationed throughout China. Having first come to grips over 40 years ago in the Orient, Far Eastern relations between the two powers have always remained touchy, with border clashes between Russian and Japanese troops in 1939 threatening to explode in major conflict. At that time, Marshal Gregory Zhukov, who was later to lead the Russian smash into Berlin, commanded Red soldiers sol-diers in Siberia. All through the German-Russian war, a Japanese attack on Russia's rear in Siberia was feared, with the Nipponese reportedly prepared to take the jump in 1942 before the Nazi setback at Stalingrad inspired caution. On the face, Japanese-Russian relations were guided by the neutrality pact of 1941 which the Reds signed with the Germans threatening their European front; but with the Nazis licked, Moscow f I ' H , i '1 Leader of Russia in peace and war, Premier Stalin heads nation's drive on Japan. then found itself free to take a stif-fer stif-fer stand in the Far East. With Russia's entrance into the war, the Allied world speculated on the price Premier Stalin would exact ex-act for Red participation in the drive to overthrow the Nipponese and end the conflict quickly. A shrewd bargainer, bar-gainer, interested in material advantages ad-vantages rather than idealistic attainments, at-tainments, the mustached chieftain of the Kremlin reportedly had an eye not only on Inner Mongolia, but on Manchuria and Korea as well. Historians were quick to point out that Russia has always had a rough time in the Far East. Pushed out of her once-important place in Asia after the Russo-Japanese conflict of 1904-05 because of the loss of the Manchurian railway empire em-pire and the southern half of the island of Sakhalin with its rich timber tim-ber and oil resources, Russia has been smarting ever since. Even the Russian revolution which saw the end of the czars did not change this feeling. In fact, under the Soviet. Russia's interest in the Far East suffered even more. Chinese Chi-nese pressure forced her to lose control con-trol of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Rail-way. The Japs pressed for additional addition-al concessions in oriental waters. They got them. Valuable fishing privileges were granted to them by Russia. Tokyo enjoyed these for years. Meanwhile, by 1931, Japan was spreading its power with full strength, and reached out to grab Manchuria. Russian strength in that area was reduced still more. Japan continued to rule Manchuria and parts of China with ever-increasing violence until the outbreak of the war with China. Grabs of power pow-er and land finally led to war with Britain and the United States, the great powers of the west. ATOMIC BOMB: Earth Shaking Best kept secret of the war, the sensational atomic bomb electrified the Allied world with its possibilities possibili-ties for bringing the Japanese soon to their knees and revolutionizing postwar life, while staggering the enemy with its terrible destructive potentialities. Armed with the new weapon, which promises to outmode all existing exist-ing forms of armament on land and sea and air, the U. S. was in a position posi-tion to deliver another unconditional surrender ultimatum to the Japanese, Japa-nese, this time threatening to wreak even greater ruin than that being wrought by the swarms of Flying Forts now bombarding the empire. In a war already noted for the remotely-controlled buzz bomb and rocket developed by the Germans, the atomic bomb remains the outstanding out-standing scientific product, embodying, embody-ing, as it does, the magic substance, fcsif H I In overall charge of atomic bomb production. Major General Graves studies map with Japanese targets. uranium, known as U-235 the 235 representing its weight in atoms, the smallest particles of matter. First isolated in 1789, uranium is a metallic element found along with radium in pitchblende and carnotite ore, and possessing great powers of energy through its explosive atomic contents. With Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves in overall charge of production of the atomic bomb, and with Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer of the University of California responsible for the technical tech-nical development of it, special pains were taken to preserve the secrecy of the explosive, packing a force greater than 20,000 tons of TNT. At Richland, Wash., the huge plant, sprawling over 400,000 acres, was divided into three parts, one for the production of the material; another an-other for its refinement, and the third for storing raw materials. Some idea of the terrific explosive effect of the new atomic bomb on the harassed Japanese cities can be gleaned from the results of the test of the charge in the desert lands of New Mexico. With U-235 giving off heat, light and power, the explosion lit the countryside for miles around with a brightness even greater than day, with the flash seen 520 miles away at Needles, Calif., and a blind girl near Albuquerque, N. M., noting the presence of a flash shortly before the detonation. The explosion itself set off a heavy , pressure wave, . which knocked down two men at a control center 10,000 yards away, and completely vaporized the steel tower upon which the atomic bomb rested. A huge multi-colored cloud surged upward to over 40,000 feet, commanding the sky. In dropping a single 400-pound charge on the rail and industrial center of Hiroshima, one B-29 wiped out 60 per cent of the once thriving Honshu municipality, army air force reconnaissance reported. re-ported. Fires swept extensively over the stricken area and only a few concrete con-crete structures remained standing in the heart of the city, with the interior of these even scorched. In the welter of excitement over the atomic bomb, the tremendous possibilities of harnessing U-235 to peacetime uses commanded popular attention. Any hopes that the material mate-rial might be immediately available, avail-able, however, were spiked by war department reports that much additional addi-tional research was needed for designing de-signing machinery for producing peacetime energy. Realization of the terrific destructive de-structive potentialities of the atomic bomb sobered jubilation over President Presi-dent Truman's announcement of its usage to bring the enemy to his knees. Comment ranged from the statement of Senator Capper (Rep., Kans.) that "I hope we can control it" to the declaration of Representative Representa-tive Lea (Dem., Calif.) "This emphasizes em-phasizes the necessity of the nations providing some method of settling disputes without recourse to war. Otherwise, it might mean the end of civilization." 'MANPOWER: Charge Army Hoarding In the face of severe congressional criticism over maintenance of 7,000.000 men in uniform for a one-front one-front war following Germany's defeat, de-feat, the army revealed that it would not revise its point system for discharge dis-charge as previously planned for July. With about m million troops scheduled for release by next June, the war department stated that consultations con-sultations with General MacArthur and his commanders resulted in the decision that the present discharge rate is the maximum that can be afforded to permit efficient operations opera-tions in the Pacific and prevent unnecessary un-necessary losses of men through inexperienced in-experienced combat leadership. Despite the army's stand. Senator Sena-tor Johnson (Dem., Colo.) repeated 1 his demand that the nation's military mili-tary forces be further pared, asserting as-serting that shipping facilities will permit utilization of only 3,000,000 men in the Pacific before January, 1947, and the hoarding of manpower will cause unnecessary unemployment unemploy-ment in the postwar period. In the midst of the argument, the army revealed that replaceable Pacific vets with 85 or more points are being discharged as rapidly as shipping permits. Specialists with 85 or more points who cannot be immediately imme-diately replaced, however, are being retained. PACIFIC: Realign Commands In line with the joint chiefs of staff assignments of April 5 putting put-ting him in charge of all army forces and resources in the Pacific theater, Gen. Douglas MacArthur revealed extension of his command to the Ryukyu islands, stepping-stones to his announced goal of Tokyo. At the same time, it was disclosed, dis-closed, Adm. Chester Nimitz, who had been given the leadership leader-ship of all naval forces and resources re-sources in the Pacific theater by the chiefs of staff April 5, retained re-tained his control over the fleet in the Ryukyu area. Gen. Carl Spaatz' army strategic air forces also will remain independent inde-pendent of the MacArthur command. com-mand. With the announcement of the realignments, it was revealed re-vealed that a mighty invasion force was being forged under General MacArthur, with the Ryukyu and Philippine islands serving as a semi-circular base. POULTRY: " U. S. Procurement Moving to ease the burden of supply sup-ply on eight eastern, southern and midwestern states, and obtain sufficient suf-ficient stocks for military canning, Secretary of Agriculture Anderson announced that the government would extend poultry purchases to 12 other principal producing states. At the same time, it w&- revealed, the government has been purchasing purchas-ing all turkeys marketed in 23 producing pro-ducing states for storage for popular, popu-lar, morale building Thanksgiving and Christmas day service dinners. ' Despite the heavy U. S. procurement, procure-ment, the bumper 1945 turkey crop of from 575,000,000 to 600,000,0000 pounds will assure each civilian of 3.55 pounds. Under the government's new poultry poul-try purchase programs, the U. S. and civilians will share equally in output of processing plants with over 20,000 pound capacity weekly in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Minne-sota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Mis-souri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The government govern-ment is now taking 70 per cent of broiler production in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Missouri. REPARATIONS: Russ Share As a result of the Potsdam agreements, agree-ments, Russia will receive the lion's share of surplus movable German industry as reparations payments, studies revealed. Russia's advantage partly stems from the fact that about 45 per cent of German industry was located lo-cated in the eastern part of the country now under Red occupation, and the U. S. and Britain with great, productive plants of their own have little use for enemy facilities. Under the Potsdam agreements, the Allied powers are to take surplus movable German industry as reparations repara-tions for Nazi war damage after the economy of the defeated nation has been readjusted to permit only manufacture essential to an agricultural agricul-tural state. In addition to having a free hand in the eastern zone, where 45 per cent of German industry was situated, the Russians also will obtain ob-tain 10 per cent of the equipment in the U. S. and British zones, plus another 15 per cent paid for with food and coal. WAR SHIPPING: In the five years and eight months of the European war, 75,000 merchant mer-chant slips were escorted across the Atlantic by the British, Dominion Domin-ion and European navies, the British Brit-ish admiralty revealed. Despite the large number of ships escorted involving some 2,200 convoys, the largest made up of 167 ships only 574 ships were lost in all, or the equivalent of 1 in every 131 which sailed, the admiralty further fur-ther disclosed. |