President Harry Truman dines with sailors aboard the USS Augusta on his way to the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.” It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. Later he read a statement for a film crew in his stateroom: “It is an atomic bomb. He read the dispatch to a mess deck crowded with sailors, who erupted into cheering. “The greatest thing in history,” he exclaimed to his staff. Congratulated and feted, they drank an extra ration of cold beer, danced in a jitterbug contest, and watched thea technicolor movie, “It’s a Pleasure.” President Harry Truman, returning by sea from Europe on the cruiser Augusta, received the news by radio dispatch. Landing on Tinian eight hours later, the crew was greeted by an ebullient crowd of servicemen, journalists, and photographers. I think the foremost thing in all our minds was that the thing was going to bring an end to the war, and we tried to look at it that way.”

My God, what have we done?” Radar operator Joe Stiborik was “dumbfounded.” He judged that the crew was in a “state of shock. Co-pilot Robert Lewis wrote in his mission log, “Just how many Japs did we kill?.

The Enola Gay’s 12-man aircrew fell silent as they returned to base. The devastated landscape of Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945.