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From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

In the late morning of August 9, 1945, United States Air Force Major Charles Sweeney flew a B-29 bomber into the overcast sky above southern Japan.

He climbed to an altitude of 28,900 feet,

and during a break in the cloud cover, released his payload,

a 10,000-pound atomic bomb, codenamed Fat Man,

which fell for more than a minute before exploding over the port city of Nagasaki.

Tens of thousands of civilian

Japanese died immediately.

The atomic bombs which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be made a signal, not for the

old process of falling apart, but for a new era, an era of ever closer unity and ever closer

friendship among peaceful nations. President Truman spoke at the Navy Day celebration in New York City

in October, 1945. By that time, many thousands more Japanese were dying of a mysterious disease,

but journalists were barred from the affected areas, so few accounts of the suffering would reach

readers here at home. In fact, the very first reporter on the scene, George Weller, wrote a series

...