Hiroshima

This is the story of the first ever use of a weapon of mass destruction.

The weapon we are about to deliver was successfully tested in the States.

We've received orders to drop it on the enemy.

It is the most destructive weapon ever produced.

The target was an empire with its own secret weapon -

the suicide bomber.

I trained myself that I could die at any time.

On the 6th August 1945,

a bomb unlike any other fell from the skies above Hiroshima.

The bomb was designed by some of the world's finest scientists.

Using it was one of the most momentous political decisions ever made.

Soldiers and sailors are the target, not women and children.

This is the story of the aircrew who flew the mission, and dropped the bomb.

I'm not thinking about the people who got killed or hurt, but of those that did not get killed or hurt.

And it's the story of the people of Hiroshima

who were the first ever victims of a nuclear attack.

When something as devastating as a nuclear weapon is used,

people are powerless, just like ants, or insects.

The entire city of Hiroshima was annihilated in just a few seconds.

The bomb helped bring the Second World War to an end,

and it marked the beginning of a new chapter in human history.

July 14th 1945.

At the top-secret research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico,

a heavily armed convoy was loaded with parts for a new kind of bomb.

This was the start of a journey that would end in Hiroshima.

This bomb was the product of three years' research, and had cost $2bn to develop.

But at this stage, the technology was still completely untested.

Two days later, there was a chance to find out.

In the desert of New Mexico, the scientists and soldiers

of the Manhattan Project gathered for the first ever test explosion of an atomic bomb.

A hundred to one, we crack the Earth's crust, and destroy the whole world.

Fifty to one we ignite the atmosphere, and only destroy New Mexico.

Someone shut Thirmy up, he's frightening the MPs.

Ten to one it fizzles out.

If that weapon fizzles out, each of you can look forward to a lifetime

testifying in front of Congressional Investigation Committees!

'Six, five, four, three,

'two, one, zero.'

The explosion vaporised the stainless steel tower holding the bomb.

The intense heat melted the desert sand, leaving an area of glass.

The force of the explosion was estimated to be the equivalent

of 67 million sticks of dynamite.

THEY APPLAUD AND CHEER

The bomb had originally been intended for use against Nazi Germany,

but its backers now had another target in mind.

I'm very proud of you! Thank you.

Well, done. The war's over, General.

Yep! As soon as we've dropped a few of these things on Japan!

Good work.

For Scientific Director Robert Oppenheimer it was a moment of terrible truth.

'Now I am become Death,

'the destroyer of worlds.'

By July 1945, the war in Europe was over.

Nazi Germany was defeated.

But in the Pacific, the war against Japan was raging on.

After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, American forces had fought their way back across the Pacific,

island by island, with savage hand to hand fighting.

But Japan's main armies were still intact, and undefeated.

The Americans had tried firebombing the Japanese into submission.

City after city was reduced to rubble, but still the Japanese refused to surrender.

So the Allies now faced the prospect of a full-scale invasion,

with some estimates putting their losses as high as a million casualties, and many more Japanese.

In Japan, at the time, the Emperor was Head of State, and also a living god,

but day-to-day power rested with the Special War Direction Council.

Prime Minister Suzuki and Foreign Minister Togo were considering a negotiated settlement.

But Army Minister General Koretchika Anami was determined to fight on.

Anami's plan was for an all-out, final battle.

In Hiroshima, as in the rest of Japan,

soldiers and civilians were being prepared for the coming invasion.

The Japanese military were relying on a powerful weapon -

people's willingness to die for the Emperor.

Ordinary soldiers learned how to strap bombs to their bodies and throw themselves under tanks.

Dr Shintaro Hida was working at the Army Hospital in Hiroshima.

One of his duties was to train medical orderlies as suicide bombers.

The soldiers were trained to strap bombs to their bodies,

and throw themselves against the tanks. At the military hospital we had to teach this.

The officers, in particular, were resigned to the fact

that once we had gone to the Front, we would not return - we would die.

I trained myself that I could die, at any time.

The whole population was to be part of the battle against the invaders.

Even schoolgirls were trained to attack American soldiers with sharpened bamboo spears.

A bloodbath seemed inevitable.

The man who would have to authorise the invasion was American President Harry Truman.

On 16th July he had just arrived in Berlin for the Potsdam Conference,

where he was meeting his fellow Allied leaders.

That very night came news of the successful New Mexico bomb test.

Listen to this.

Operated on this morning, the results seem satisfactory.

The test has already exceeded expectations.

They did it!

Now the boys may be spared an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. I'll drink to that.

But before going ahead with the new bomb, Truman gave the Japanese

one last chance to surrender.

The Americans had broken the secret Japanese codes, and could decipher

military and diplomatic cables.

So, they knew their demands for total,

unconditional surrender had been seen as a threat to the Emperor.

Now they decided to alter the terms, and give the Japanese a way out.

On Truman's staff was a young naval lieutenant, George Elsey -

the last surviving witness to these events.

The Potsdam Declaration called upon unconditional surrender.

It was modified in the light of this, what we were learning from

the intercepts,

to read, "unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Japan."

"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender

"of all Japanese armed forces."

That left the door open for a retention of the Emperor.

The modified ultimatum was broadcast to Japan.

But ironically, the softening of the surrender terms seems to have backfired.

Prime Minister Suzuki announced that his government would ignore the Potsdam Declaration.

He used the word "mokusatsu",

meaning "to kill with silent contempt".

From that moment, the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima was inevitable.

The bomb left San Francisco on board the USS Indianapolis,

two hours after the successful Trinity test in New Mexico.

It travelled across the Pacific on a ten-day voyage to the island

of Tinian, just six hours flying time from Japan.

The island was the biggest air base in the world, with four large runways,

and it was home to more than 500 B-29 Super Fortresses.

In charge was Commanding Officer Colonel Paul Tibbets, a veteran

of the bombing campaign against the Germans.

At 29 years of age, I was so shocked to ask what the confidence

of anything I couldn't do.

The two key members of his crew were bombardier Tom Ferraby,

and navigator, Dutch Van Kirk.

You never heard the word "atomic", "nuclear", or anything of that type

around the group. We referred to the weapon as, the "gimmick", "weapon",

that sort of thing.

And, if you did figure it out, you'd better be smart enough not to talk about it.

All right, gentlemen, cities have been signed off.

Kyoto is out, Stimpson likes the temples too much,

but we've got Nyagada, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima.

They're the only major cities left we haven't roasted. And the primary?

The primary is Hiroshima.

All right.

Have you worked out an aiming point?

The T-shaped bridge.

Here.

That's the most perfect AP I've seen in this whole damn war.

Angle of approach - bomb drop like this.

Prevailing winds from the north.

You may want to come in this way, then you'll be flying with the wind, and you'll clear the target sooner.

Too risky. We'll fly into the wind. That way we're slower and more accurate.

You may get caught in the blast.

Once I make the dive turn, I'll have a tail wind, we'll be out quicker.

Anyway, we'll take that risk. We want to be as accurate as possible, don't we?

Hiroshima was an important military base, the Headquarters of the Second General Army,

with a key role in the defence against the expected invasion.

Akiko Takakura, who was 19 and working as a bank clerk in the city centre,

remembers the atmosphere at the time.

People called it an army city.

Everywhere you looked you saw the army...

..and there were always a lot of ships transporting soldiers from the port.

All the major cities of Japan had already been the targets of bombing raids, so everybody

living in Hiroshima expected that Hiroshima would be targeted soon.

What no-one could realise was that the city had been preserved for a reason -

the Americans had deliberately avoided firebombing Hiroshima

so they could measure the precise effects of the atom bomb.

On the evening of the 4th August, Paul Tibbets called his men together.

The bombing mission was set for the following night, when the clouds over Japan were due to clear.

The moment has arrived.

This is what we've all been working towards.

Very recently the weapon we're about to deliver was successfully tested in the States.

We have received orders to drop it on the enemy.

There will be three possible targets.

In order of priority, they are Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki.

The bomb you are going to drop is something new in the history of warfare.

It is the most destructive weapon ever produced.

We think it's going to knock out everything within a three-mile area.

Roll film. Kill the lights.

Weapons specialist Deke Parsons had brought film of the New Mexico explosion.

But the projector jammed.

The film you are now not about to see

was made of the only test we have performed.

I was in a B-29, looking down on the target, in the darkness,

and I can say that it is the brightest and the hottest thing on this Earth since creation.

This is what happened.

The flash of the explosion was seen for ten miles.

A soldier 10,000 feet away was knocked off his feet.

Another soldier, more than five miles away, was temporarily blinded.

Those of us who were there

knew it was the beginning of a new age.

No-one knows exactly what will happen when

the bomb is dropped from the air - that has never been done before.

We expect a cloud, this shape,

rise to at least 30,000 feet, maybe 60,000 feet,

preceded by a flash of light much brighter than the sun.

A combat version of the bomb

has now been assembled and ready.

All we are waiting for is an end to the rainstorms over Japan, so we can see our target. Colonel Tibbets.

Right, men, I know some of you have seen a lot

of action already, and I picked you because you're the best available,

but let me tell you all, beside this mission, whatever you've done before in this war is small potatoes.

I am personally honoured, and I'm sure all of you are,

to have been chosen to take part in this raid, which will shorten the war by at least six months.

You're now the hottest crews in the Air Force.

There will be no talking about this to anyone.

No talking, even among yourselves.

No letters, no writing home.

No mentioning of the slightest possibility of a mission.