GBP Chapter 670 Yamaguchi Tsutomu's Two Lottery Wins
Chapter 670 Yamaguchi Tsutomu's Two Lottery Wins
Rumble——! ! !
The entire building was shaking and groaning violently.
The remaining glass in the window was instantly shattered into dust, and a gale carrying dust and scorching air rushed into the room. Paper documents flew everywhere like snowflakes, and the lights went out with a crackling sound.
Mamoru Yamada huddled under the table, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest.
He could feel the terrifying tremors coming from the ground and hear the teeth-grinding creaking of the building structure as it reached its limit.
The scorching wind brushed against his skin, bringing a stinging sensation.
At that moment, all the common sense and experience in his mind about 'a bomb cannot destroy a city' was shattered in the face of that earth-shattering power.
He was wrong...
So... so what Yamaguchi Tsutomu said was true!
There really is such a terrifying bomb!
The explosion and shockwave lasted for several seconds, or perhaps longer, after which the world seemed to fall into an eerie, tinnitus-like silence.
Mamoru Yamada trembled as he cautiously peeked out from under the table.
The office was a complete mess.
All the windows, along with their frames, had disappeared; the walls were covered in cracks; and large patches of plaster had fallen from the ceiling.
The once familiar factory area outside has completely changed.
He struggled to his feet, staggered to the window opening that no longer had glass, and looked out.
a mess.
As far as the eye could see, the buildings near the explosion's epicenter, whether brick and wood or weaker concrete structures, had mostly collapsed and twisted, leaving only ruins.
Houses further away were also burning, with thick black smoke billowing into the sky.
Big...so big...
Above the explosion site, a huge mushroom cloud was slowly rising.
Beneath the mushroom cloud, the factory area, which had been orderly just moments before, now looked as if it had been trampled by the foot of a giant.
Heart-wrenching cries and calls for help began to echo through the streets, more despairing than any alarm.
The air was thick with the smell of burning, gunpowder, and a strange, indescribable odor, as if metal and flesh were burning simultaneously.
Pooh…
Yamada Mamoru felt a salty taste in his mouth at that moment.
A gust of hot wind blew by, and he shivered violently.
He could clearly feel that the outside air temperature was rising rapidly.
It felt like we had gone from early autumn to the height of summer noon in an instant, no, it was even hotter than that.
This was an abnormal, deathly heat.
He slowly turned his head and looked at Yamaguchi Tsutomu, who had also crawled out from under the table and was barely standing against the wall.
Their eyes met.
In Yamaguchi Tsutomu's only exposed right eye, which wasn't completely covered by bandages, there was no hint of "See, I told you so," only a bottomless, stagnant numbness and emptiness.
On Yamada Mamoru's face, all the previous doubt, certainty, and superior authority had vanished.
All that remained was extreme shock, fear, and a sense of bewilderment and...shame after one's worldview had been completely overturned.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found his throat so dry that he couldn't make a sound.
Any language seems so pale and ridiculous in the face of this real, re-emerging purgatory.
At this moment, Nagasaki followed in Hiroshima's footsteps.
-----
At Tinian Island Airport, the runway radiates heat under the tropical sun.
The B-29 Superfortress bomber "Boxcar" (flight number 77), accompanied by two other B-29s, landed on the runway in a steady, almost solemn manner.
The tires made a slight scraping sound when they touched the ground, followed by the roar of the engine.
The ground crew and waiting officers erupted in cheers and applause.
They knew this meant the mission was a success—"Fat Man" had been successfully dropped and detonated perfectly over Nagasaki.
The observations and data records were also safely recovered.
Soon, the encrypted radio signal confirming the successful second use of the atomic bomb crossed the Pacific Ocean and was transmitted back to the White House and the Pentagon in DC.
Inside the Oval Office.
The atmosphere here was just as cheerful as on Tinian Island; it was filled with barely suppressed excitement.
President Harry Truman sat behind his desk, surrounded by key figures in the nation's military and strategic decision-making.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Leahy, Army Chief of Staff General Marshall, Army Air Forces Commander General Arnold, and Lieutenant General Groves, Commander of the Manhattan Engineering District, who had just rushed back from New Mexico.
Secretary of State Burns was also among them.
Everyone in the room knew that this was a historic moment.
Truman tapped rhythmically on the smooth tabletop with his fingers, an excited expression on his face.
"Gentlemen," he said, looking around at the crowd, his eyebrows raised high, "Hiroshima...and then Nagasaki. Two, we threw two."
He paused, as if savoring the weight of his words:
"Now, let's talk about the reaction. First, those lunatics in Tokyo, how long are they going to hold out? Do they really want to wait until the third or fourth one lands in the Imperial Palace courtyard?"
Admiral Leahy spoke first. This veteran naval officer had always harbored moral reservations about using such a weapon, but at this moment he was more concerned with practical matters:
"Based on the scattered diplomatic cables we intercepted and the chaotic wording of Tokyo Broadcasting, the Japanese cabinet has fallen into extreme division."
The pro-war faction is still clamoring for "one hundred million to die for the Emperor," but the court group led by figures such as Fumimaro Konoe seems to be seeking ceasefire negotiations through the Soviet Union or other channels.
The atomic bomb...undoubtedly greatly accelerated their collapse.
“Collapse? I’d say utter surrender,” Truman emphasized, then his tone shifted, a hint of resentment on his face. “And what about the others? That red bear hiding in the Kremlin, Comrade Steel?”
Truman hadn't forgotten the Iron Marshal's feigned composure, even a hint of impatience, when he casually mentioned that the White Eagles possessed a superweapon in Potsdam.
"Now that we have proven with our actions that this was not just bluffing, what was his reaction?"
General Marshall pondered for a moment and said:
"Currently, official channels in Russia are remaining silent and have not made any direct comments."
However, our intelligence indicates that Moscow's diplomatic and military circles have been greatly shaken.
The Iron Marshal has likely already ordered that their own 'tube alloy' program (the code name for the Soviet Union's atomic bomb program) be accelerated at all costs.
"Let them chase after us," Admiral Arnold interjected with the characteristic arrogance of an air force pilot. "By the time they get theirs, we'll have something better. The key question is, what about the John and the Gauls?"
Secretary of State Burns picked up the conversation:
“Congratulatory messages arrived from London and Paris, carefully worded but full of amazement.”
Former Prime Minister Mr. Chiu privately referred to it as a 'warning like the Second Coming of Christ'.
But deep down, they, especially the John men, probably had complex emotions.
While relieved by the accelerated end of the war, there is also concern that in future international affairs, we will become more dependent on, or rather, subject to, our nuclear umbrella.