Britain's new parliament assembled for the first time to elect a new Speaker of the House of Commons. As Winston Churchill entered the House for the first time as an ex-prime minister, he was greeted by cheers and singing of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", to which the Laborites responded by singing "The Red Flag". When Douglas Clifton Brown was re-elected Speaker he said he was not quite sure whether he was becoming chairman of the House of Commons or director of a musical show.[3]
In the heaviest raid of the war, 800 B-29s dropped more than 6,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Japanese cities and killed 80,000 people.[5]
Paul Tibbets, pilot of the lead plane in the planned atomic bomb run, reported to General Curtis LeMay's Air Force headquarters on Guam and was briefed on the mission over Hiroshima.[6]
The Soviets gifted a plaque to the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow that was secretly bugged with The Thing, one of the earliest covert listening devices ever invented. It would hang in the Spaso House for seven years until its secret was discovered.
Paul Tibbets briefed his crewmates on the bombing mission to Hiroshima, saying the bombs would be immensely powerful and "something new in the history of warfare", but giving no specifics.[8]
The U.S. Twentieth Air Force flew over twelve Japanese cities and dropped 720,000 pamphlets warning their populations to surrender or face devastation.[9]
Paul Tibbets formally named the lead plane in the Hiroshima bombing mission the Enola Gay, after his mother. The B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil.[10]
In a routine press release a little over 1,000 words in length, a statement from U.S. President Harry S. Truman informed the media that an atomic bomb with "more power than 20,000 tons of TNT" had been dropped on Hiroshima. The statement made no mention of radiation effects and the notion of an atomic bomb simply being a bigger version of a regular bomb persisted in the press for days afterward.[11]
Died:Richard Bong, 24, United States Army major and highest-scoring air ace of WWII (killed in the crash of a test flight of an experimental aircraft); Hiram Johnson, 78, U.S. Senator from California
Radio Tokyo reported unspecifically about an attack on Hiroshima. The Americans were unable to immediately assess the results for themselves because of impenetrable cloud over the detonation site. Late in the day, Imperial Japanese headquarters referred to a "new type of bomb" used on Hiroshima, admitting that "only a small number of the new bombs were released, yet they did substantial damage."[5]
Radio Tokyo gave its first full report on the Hiroshima bombing, concluding with the claim that the Americans had used methods which "have surpassed in hideous cruelty those of Genghis Khan."[5]
The Soviet Union declared itself to be in a state of war with Japan as of midnight August 9.[7]
The Japanese government announced that a message had been sent to the Allies accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration provided that it "does not comprise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of the Emperor as sovereign ruler."[7]
Emperor Hirohito recorded a radio message to the Japanese people saying that the war should end and that they must "bear the unbearable." That night the Kyūjō incident occurred, an effort by a group of officers to steal the recording and stop the move to surrender. The attempt would fail and the conspirators would commit suicide.[18]
Emperor Hirohito issued a decree at 4:00 p.m. local time ordering all Japanese forces to cease fire. The Japanese cabinet resigned.[18][better source needed]
U.S. Army photographer Anthony J. Marchione became the last American to die in WWII when the B-32 he was flying in over Tokyo was damaged by enemy fire.[22]
Died: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, 48, Indian nationalist, in what is generally believed to be a plane crash in Formosa although alternative theories persist
Sukarno and Stolen Buick At 18 August 1945 Sudiro and several Youth took the initiative to present a state car for his president. The unique Buick car is a stolen car. Sudiro apparently stole it from a Japanese official Head of Railway Administration. Until finally the driver handed over the key and was given a fare to return to Kebumen so that his employer would not look for him. Sukarno and Stolen Cars
Matsue incident: Approximately 40 Japanese dissidents opposed to surrender attacked facilities in Matsue.
British Prime Minister Clement Attlee told Parliament that Britain was in "a very serious financial position" due to the abrupt ending of Lend-Lease and that "the initial deficit with which we start the task of re-establishing our own economy and of contracting our overseas commitments is immense."[24]
^McGrath, Patrick J. (1993). John Garfield: The Illustrated Career in Films and on Stage. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 73. ISBN978-0-89950-867-2.
