July 29, 1945; Allied Surrender Ultimatum Refused

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 29, 1945:

Kingsport, Tenn., Sunday, July 29, 1945

 5 5O To 600 Planes

Slash Six Cities;
Jap Navy Hard Hit

 Guam, Sunday—(AP)—Massive Superfortress task forces lashed six Japanese cities with 3,500 tons of explosive flame today—little more than 24 hours after their inhabitants had been bluntly warned by the B-29 command to flee for their lives.

Part of the vast aerial fleet of 550 to 600 planes came for the first time—from Iwo Jima, 750 miles nearer Japan than the Marianas flying fields, thus placing all Japan within range of the Superfortresses.

Gen. MacArthur simultaneously reported Okinawa-based planes had raided the Inland Sea area, and disclosed that the new B-32 super-bomber has been operating for two months against the enemy in Luzon and Formosa. . .

The sky-filling swarms of B-29s split into seven task forces. One struck an oil refinery near Shimotsu, 45 miles south of Osaka. The others splashed their .huge load of incendiaries on six of the 11 cities on which 20th Air Force headquarters had dropped warning leaflets yesterday: Tsu, Aomori, Ichinomiya, Ujiyamada and Ogachi on Honshu and Uwajima on Shikoku.

They struck a little more than 24 hours after Maj.- Gen. Curtis Le May sent word to the enemy from his 30th Air Force Headquarters here by bomber sacattered pamphlets which named the targets.

 

Minami Says Japs

Not To Accept Terms

San Francisco—JP—The president of Japan's powerful totalitarian political party declared Saturday his country would never accept the Allied surrender ultimatum, as Nippon awaited an address by Premier Suzuki on the war and the coming "battle of the streets."

While the Japanese government officially remained silent on the edict from Potsdam, and Tokyo's newspapers reached a common refrain  of rejection, Gen. Jiro Minami, president of the Political Association of Great Japan, gave the first reaction to the ultimatum by an acknowledged public figure.

Radio Tokyo quoted Minami as saying Japan would never quit and the "entire Japanese nation will remain absolutely unaffected In their resalute determination to save their -Country from national extermination."

 

13 Die When

Plane Hits
Skyscraper

New York —AP— A fog-blinded Army bomber crashed into the Empire State Building at the 79^th story Saturday and exploded inside with an earth-shaking roar, killing three fliers and at least ten office workers and turning the world's tallest building into a smoking, flaming torch in the sky.

The bizarre disaster injured 24 persons, six seriously, and while rescue workers searched the twisted, blackened wreckage of 78th and 79th floor offices, police said the death toll may exceed 15. Army and F i r e Department investigations were under way.

The eight-ton, twin-engined B-25 "Billy Mitchell" plane, groping through a thick fog toward the Newark Airport, rammed the 102- story skyscraper at 9:49 a.m., sending blazing gasoline cascading through offices and down elevatorshafts, jarring the area like an earthquake, and showering broken glass and debris into crowded business streets for five blocks around. Police said no pedestrians were injured.

Panic Spreads '"'

Panic spread among some of the 1,500 persons in the building, but police said virtually all were evacuated in orderly fashion within 30 minutes. The area was blocked off from a quickly gathering crowd of many thousands.

 

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