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Wilmington-area residents contributed to victory over Japan

This year marks the 75th anniversary since World War II ended.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the StarNews in August 2015. We’re republishing it in recognition of the 75th anniversary since the end of World War II.

As years have passed, I’d wager few Wilmingtonians remembered their activities at 7:15 p.m. on Aug. 5, 1945, an 81-degree, lazy wartime summer day here.

Sixteen time zones ahead, it was Aug. 6 in Japan when an atomic bomb with a devastating intensity unknown to the world dropped on Hiroshima. The nuclear age dawned, and World War II ended nine days later. Everyone remembered that one.

Recollections of Aug. 5 likely endured for two Wilmingtonians assigned to the highly classified Manhattan Project, which developed this weapon.

Army Warrant Officer Frederick Hobbs was an administrative courier at the Project’s Oak Ridge, Tennessee, site, which produced its U-235 uranium.

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