First Into Nagasaki - Newspaper Prints of Weller's Stories

Newspaper Prints of Weller's Stories

The Los Angeles Times on September 16, 1945 published a front page article "By George Weller Chicago Daily News Foreign Service Nagasaki. (Delayed) U.S. Prisoner Sees A-Bomb Rip Nagasaki." Substantial portions of this Los Angeles Times September 16, 1945 published article are contained in two dispatches in First into Nagasaki: 1. First Dispatch September 6, 1945 2300 pages 25–7; 2. Fifth Dispatch September 8, 1945 0300 pages 35–6. Both these dispatches are part of a group of eight dispatches (pages 25–45) which are described in First into Nagasaki as never published. The Los Angeles Times page one article of September 16, 1945 with its sub-headline "Witnesses Describe Parachutes Falling and Searing Blast" includes Weller's interviews with Captain Farley, POWs Bridgman and King, and Dutch doctor Vink (all in Dispatch #5) and Weller's interview with the Japanese lieutenant, aide to the district's commander (Dispatch #1). The Los Angeles Times article has the following introductory paragraph: "The following story, delayed by censorship, is an eyewitness account by an American observer of the results of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and includes the stories of men on the ground who saw the bomb fall."

The Boston Evening Globe on September 15, 1945 published a page one article "By George Weller NAGASAKI" with bold all caps headline "American Saw Atom Bomb Hit Nagasaki" using content described as "unpublished" and at the end of the article "Continued on Page 2" is the following: "(Copyright, 1945, by the Boston Globe and Chicago Daily News.)". Text from Dispatch #6 and Dispatch #1 is used (example: "Walk in Nagasaki's streets today and you walk in ruins." This is the first line of Dispatch #1). Weller's interview with the Japanese lieutenant (Dispatch #1) is used in the Boston Evening Globe article as is Weller's interview with Captain Farley (Dispatch #5), and Weller's interview with Dr. Nakashima (Dispatch #8). Quoted statements by ex-POWs Bridgman and King (Dispatch #5) are in this Boston Evening Globe article, which covers both Japanese and Allied observors' eyewitness accounts of the bomb as well as Dr. Nakashima's description of the bomb's medical symptoms. The Boston article reads: "However, about 70 percent of deaths have been from plain burns." (Dispatch #6). The New York Post on September 15, 1945 published an article by George Weller headlined "U.S. Prisoners Held at Nagasaki Describe Terrors of Atom Blast" using the same line of text as the Boston article (Dispatch #1), death statistics (Dispatch #3) and re-located position of POW camp (Dispatch #4). The New York article includes Weller's interviews with Captain Farley, Dr. Vink, Harold Bridgman, and Fred King (Dispatch #5). The article concludes with the bomb's "peculiar 'disease'" (Dispatch #8).

The Miami Herald on September 18, 1945 published an article "By George Weller Miami Herald-Chicago Daily News Wire" headlined: "American Tells of Being Atomic Bombed" with quote above: "'I Hit the Ground...Building Began To Quiver'". In this article are quotations and statistical data from Dispatch #3 "The known dead number 20,000, Jap police tell me, and they estimate about 4,000 bodies remain to be found" along with "The wounded are estimated to be about twice the number of dead." "Walk in Nagasaki's streets today and you walk in ruins." (Dispatch #1) Also, Captain Farley's eyewitness account (Dispatch #5) is quoted. The interviews with Bridgman and King (Dispatch #5) are included as well as information from Dr. Nakashima (Dispatch #8) and the interview with the Japanese lieutenant, aide to the district commander (Dispatch #1).

George Weller's own response "In hours of walking through these areas I experienced no burns or signs of debilitation." is from Dispatch #3 (First into Nagasaki page 30) which mentions Weller's "nausea" not reported in the Miami Herald article of 1945.

The Miami Herald article incorrectly states atomic POW casualties "Forty-eight were killed instantly and four others died later." while Dispatch #5 states "Forty-eight were wounded, four instantly killed, and four, including Aalders, died." The incorrect POW casualty figures also appear in Weller's Los Angeles Times article of September 16, 1945 and his New York Post article of September 15, 1945, and his article in the Akron Beacon Journal headlined "Yank Saw Atom Bomb Wipe Out Nagasaki" and above that "It Was 'Terrific, White Flash'" September 15, 1945 (this article includes interviews supra from Dispatch#1, Dispatch#5, and Dispatch#8). The Associated Press' Vernon Haugland quotes Dr. Vink "only four of our 200 prisoners were killed" in article published widely, including in the New York Times and on September 10, 1945 in the Miami Herald. Thus papers in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Akron all print Weller's incorrect casualty statistics, whilst Dispatch#5 gives correct data, as does the Associated Press in 1945.

Eight Dispatches (pages 25–45) are described in First into Nagasaki as written in Nagasaki September 6–9 with Weller "sending them off to MacArthur's military censors in Tokyo, hopeful that they were being cabled onward to his editors at the Chicago Daily News and thence to a vast American readership via syndication. These dispatches have remained unpublished for sixty years; it appears that the U.S. government destroyed the originals." The fact of publication by the Los Angeles Times, Boston Evening Globe, New York Post, Miami Herald, and Akron Beacon Journal is irreconcilable to George Weller's assertion that: "...I sent 25,000 words by the hands of the obliging kempeitai, the secret police, directly to MacArthur. ... All my dispatches were suppressed. Every one of my 25,000 words was killed by MacArthur's censorship, which went on afterward, month after month."

Censorship of correspondents reporting from Japan for newspapers outside Japan ended October 6, 1945, continuing only for the Japanese media.

In The Weller Dispatches by Anthony Weller is statement that "...the editors cut Weller's cynical closing phrase...." The Chicago Daily News text last line is: "That's how Jap wardens cured decadent Americans, but lost the war." The Miami Herald text last line is: "That's how Japanese wardens cured decadent Americans but lost the war--so it says here in fine print."

On September 18, 1945 the Miami Herald published article by George Weller "Japan Holds Prisoners In Secret" on Chinese prisoners on Kyushu, based on information source Lt. Edward Little (later court-martialled for crimes while a POW. This article has close to identical text with the article included in Weller's War pages 618-9 and there described as: "This dispatch was censored by MacArthur and never published."

The Los Angeles Times on September 29, 1945 printed another article "By George Weller Chicago Daily News Foreign Service Nagasaki September 28 Californians Worked to Death on Dam by Japs." Most of this article printed in the Los Angeles Times is contained in the dispatch dated September 24, 1945 published in First into Nagasaki pages 139-143.

For sixty years Weller's own carbon of these dispatches were presumed lost, until they were discovered by Weller's son, Anthony, six months after George Weller's death.