La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

The first week in August, 1945, I was downtown in Seattle when it was announced that Japan had surrendered following the dropping of the atom bomb. Seattle’s streets were filled with people going wild with joy. People were jumping on police cars and fire trucks. Those in uniform were especially joyful.

One Seattle man was extremely sad as he reflected on the effects of the bomb. Children in classrooms looked out of the windows at the bright lights from the bomb and, in a few seconds, they were incinerated. People looked for water to deal with the burns and homes were destroyed. This man c...