Today, August 6th, is the 81st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. I wondered what the Colorado Transcript had to say about that momentous event. It was probably hard to know what to say: the Manhattan Project was conducted in such secrecy that Americans hadn’t even known we were making such a weapon.
The Transcript decided to interview Melville Coolbaugh, who was then-President of the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Coolbaugh was “convinced that these atomic bombs will not only bring a speedy termination to World War II but that these forces will prove of inestimable value to the whole human race.”
The article included a photo of Coors Porcelain Plant, which they said had been involved in the project, as well as a picture of “H. W. Ryland – Scientist, Engineer, and Manager of the Coors Porcelain Plant at Golden, manufacturing porcelain ware for scientific and commercial uses.”
The article states that “The complete story will not be released until Japan has folded up, a reign of peace has been established, and these forces shall have been converted to peaceful pursuits.”
Much of the rest of the paper focused on the upcoming “Golden Days” festival. Many of the display ads indicated wartime concerns, such as a tin can drive, a wastepaper drive, and the lack of new cars.
The tone was less tentative in the next issue of the Transcript. President Truman had dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki, the Japanese had surrendered, and the War was over. People still didn’t know much about the bomb or its long-term implications, but they knew that our troops would be coming home and that was the most important thing for the time being.
